Self-Control
Andrew on Monday July 31, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Titus 2:2-6
2Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
“Self-controlled”
What does it mean to you? For me for so long it meant, “Keep your eyes forward, don’t be distracted, react if you have to.” “Self-control” was a position of weakness, fighting the arrows of the enemy with hope in my own strength. It was braving the valley of the shadow of death with no help.
English is a pitiful language sometimes. The word that Paul uses that the ESV translates as “self-control” is “egkrates”. Don’t ask me how to pronounce it, I call it “egg crates”. More proper is something like “EE-KRAH’-TAYS”, but that’s probably not it so I don’t even try. It’s “egg crates”.
Egkrates in the greek means:
- strong, robust
- having power over, possessed of (a thing)
- mastering, controlling, curbing, restraining
- controlling one’s self, temperate, continent
That’s a lot more than just holding your ground. This “self control” that Paul wrote of comes from a position of strength. It’s not a reaction to the world, it is a pre-determined influence on this world. Self-control is our confidence in Jesus Christ.
