This article is part of the Key Bible Verses series.All commentary notes adapted from the ESV Study Bible.
1. Proverbs 25:28
A man without self-control
is like a city broken into and left without walls. Read More
Self-control relates to the passions (such as anger or love), the appetites (for food, sex, etc.), and the will (as illustrated by impulsive decisions). The lack of self-control is a mark of a fool. He is like a city . . . left without walls, that is, with no means of defense against enemies.
2. Galatians 5:22–24
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The Spirit fights against sin not merely in defense but also in attack by producing in Christians the positive attributes of godly character, all of which are evident in Jesus in the Gospels.
Self-control is the discipline given by the Holy Spirit that allows Christians to resist the power of the flesh (cf. Gal. 5:17). Against such things there is no law, and therefore those who manifest them are fulfilling the law—more than those who insist on Jewish ceremonies, and likewise more than those who follow the works of the flesh surveyed in Gal.5:19–21.
Again, Christ and the Spirit (Gal. 5:25) come together as the source of the believer’s life. Christians have crucified the flesh, or died with Christ to sin (see Gal. 6:14; Rom. 6:4–6). Now that the old order of things has passed away for believers, their old sinful selves that belonged to that order have crumbled as well—so they should pay no attention to them. “Flesh” here should not be understood to mean physical bodies but rather fallen, sinful human nature with all its desires.