1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian SELF CONTROL | Page 7

Prayer Thought: Won’t you take some time today to put a name to this baggage that you
could be carrying, because all we have in the portion I’ve written above is a philosophical
concept. You now have to make it real by naming these things and then telling God, in
prayer, what you plan to do with them. Remember always that He is willing to take them
from you and free you up to run your race so much better.

THURSDAY
1 John 2 v 15 – 17
Today I would like to try and answer a question that I really believe needs to be
asked:WHAT ASPECTS OF SELF NEED TO BE CONTROLLED?
According to the passage in our Bible reading today we are faced with a “trinity of evil”.
John, in his writings, talks about:
Enemy number 1: The lust of the eyes
Enemy number 2: The lust of the flesh
Enemy number 3: The pride of life.
The word “lust” is an interesting word; in its truest definition it simply means: “I want it
and I want it now!” It is this desire that finds its root in impatience, which needs to be
controlled. Many of the desires that we have are not, in and of themselves, necessarily
sinful or illegitimate, it is just the fact that we want them and we want them now that
corrupts these desires. Let’s look at them individually:
1. The Lust of the Eyes – Back in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3, we have a great
description of the power of the lust of the eyes. When the serpent came to test Eve we
read that he showed her the beauty of the forbidden fruit. We read, in verse 6, that the
fruit was “pleasing to the eye”. Jesus tells us to be careful of things that look pleasing to
the eye. In fact in a very radical statement it speaks of the aggressive nature of selfcontrol; Jesus says, in Matthew 5 v 29,that if your right eye makes you stumble tear it out
and throw it from you; He is fully aware of the power of the eyes.
2. The Lust of the Flesh – Again, in the story of Adam and Eve, we see the power of the
flesh at work. Also, in Genesis 3, we read that not only did the fruit look good, but it
tasted good as well. We all understand the power of fleshly desires; it is these desires
that we declare war upon and we seek, at best, to put them to death. The discipline of
the flesh is described graphically for us in Paul’s writings, when he speaks of disciplining
the flesh and beating his body into submission to what he knows is the will of God.