Self-Control is Better Than Power
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city (Proverbs 16:32)
I want to invite you to think with me about Proverbs 16:32. It teaches the principle that self-control is better than power.
Specifically, let’s think about why this is so, how we can cultivate self-control and what the benefits are.
Crossett’s diagram showing the pendulum of vengence vs. overcoming evil with good
Let me begin with a story. I was due to graduate from college in 1970, but the graduation ceremony was never held. Something happened that caused classes to be cancelled: the Kent State Shootings. National Guard troops fired on and killed 4 students who were protesting the Viet Nam War in May of that year.
Instead of attending regular classes, students were supposed to discuss the issues of war and peace instead.
For my classics class, I had a brilliant professor named John Crossett. He held a PhD from Harvard, and was famous for never lecturing. Instead, he sat at the front of the class and used the Socratic method of asking questions, often demolishing the foolish beliefs of the students.
Crossett also happened to be a Christian, and I’ll never forget the simple diagram he made on the blackboard, illustrating the Christian solution to the problem of war. I couldn’t fully appreciate it at the time because I was not yet a Christian.
WHY THIS IS SO
First let’s look at the text. It is typical Hebrew poetry; it uses parallelism to repeat the same truth in a slightly different form.
The one who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And the one who rules his own spirit is better than the one who takes a city.
Being slow to anger is equated with self-control and being mighty with being able to take a city.
The verse draws a sharp contrast between the one who is self-possessed and who can manage his own heart and the one who can use military power to conquer and dominate others. The principle is clear: self-control is better than the ability to take control of others.
Let’s think about why that is true. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit; it comes from God. It is a desirable moral quality. It’s a virtue, it’s godly. The Bible says God himself is “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” It is not a quality the ungodly possess.
Why is having the one who possesses self-control better than the one who “takes a city”? One who “takes a city” means one who conquers militarily. We could also take this to mean one who dominates politically. As military theorist Clausewitz famously said, “war is the continuation of politics by other means.”
For one thing, many of those who instigate wars do so precisely because they lack self-control. Let’s face it, how many wars are ever initiated according to Christian just war standards, which require wars to be necessary, defensive, proportionate and protective of innocent civilians?
HOW WE CULTIVATE SELF-CONTROL
As I mentioned, self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, as listed in Galatians 5:22-23.
It’s given so we can maintain our hearts for the Lord. Puritan pastor John Flavel wrote a book about this called Keeping the Heart, which is an exposition of Proverbs 4:23:
“Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
Flavel calls this business of keeping the heart the “main business of the Christian life.” He says “Without it, all our professions, gifts and duties signify nothing.”
The Apostle Paul was a good example of one who enjoyed having self-control. As a result, he could be content in any and every circumstance.
I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:11-13)
So exactly how did Jesus Christ enable him to be joyful in spite of difficult circumstances and trials?
THE BENEFITS OF SELF-CONTROL
Paul had a sense of the incomparable excellence of knowing Christ:
I count everything as loss compared to the all-surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Philippians 3:8)
Since knowing Christ is better than anything else in this world, it is of little consequence if we are deprived of comforts or other temporal blessings as long as we have him.
So this is the first great benefit of self-control: we can be content regardless of our circumstances. The Christian knows that to have the Lord is to have everything and to have everything without the Lord is to have nothing.
The Christian’s highest value is knowing, enjoying and honoring God since God alone is infinitely greater and better than all else combined.
A second benefit of self-control is being able to overcome bad habits and temptations. For many years I worked with people who struggled with addictions.
I saw the best way of overcoming addictions was through faith. Just trying harder will almost never overcome an addiction. The best way was to use the principles of the 12 step program: I can’t do it; God can; I will trust him.
In general, the ones who got free were able to replace their addiction with something better rather than simply trying harder. This replacement principle is what Scottish theologian Thomas Chalmers called “the expulsive power of a new affection.”
He said:
The root power of sin is severed by the power of a superior pleasure — a more compelling joy.
So self-control is better than power because it enables us to resist sinful impulses and forsake sin for the greater good of knowing Christ. We cultivate this grace as we pursue Christ. John Piper daily seeks to see Christ’s supreme goodness from the scriptures so he can be free from the pull of the lesser things. He prays:
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days (Ps. 90:14)
As we cultivate this fruit of the Spirit, we will be able to be content in any circumstance and overcome the pull of the lesser things that clamor for our hearts.
For those of us who sometimes struggle with self-control, the Savior invites us to simply come to him:
Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of hear tand you will find rest for your soul (Matthew 11:28-29).
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:17).
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infantsYou have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger (Ps. 8:2, Matt 21:12-17)
I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children (Matt. 11:25)
The Washington Post reported renently that eminent child psychiatrist Robert Coles passed away on June 4. I want to take a moment to honor his life and work. I also want to call attention to the work of Norman Rockwell, who masterfully used painting to tell stories. Rockwell was a master at telling compelling stories in one frame.
Many readers will be too young to remember Coles’ writing about 6-year-old Ruby Bridges who had to be escorted by U.S. Marshalls past a raging mob of White parents as she integrated a school in Mississippi. Coles, a northerner who had never witnessed such brutal racial animosity, interviewed the child to find out how she managed to cope with such threats. A teacher reported that Ruby said something to the people who spat at her and shook their fists at her.
When Coles asked the first-grader about this, she replied she wasn’t talking to the people in question. She was talking to God. She said she was praying for these people. When he asked her why, she replied “Don’t you think they need praying for?”
Why the Gospel is So Amazing
The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me (John 17:22-23)
Looking at these two verses taken from Jesus’ high priestly prayer, I can only marvel: perhaps never has so much consequential truth been revealed in so few words.
First, Jesus reveals how the gospel of his glory will come to all nations. He asks that the Church be made one so that the world will come to know the gospel. The biblical theology of missions in this passage has been expounded in So the World Will Know by J. Christopher Evans, so I won’t repeat that here.
What I want to draw your attention to here is one of the most wonderful expressions of the greatest truth in the world, the gospel. Here Jesus reveals:
What the gospel is
How it is given
Why it is given
WHAT THE GOSPEL IS
To paraphrase John Stott, “The gospel is not good advice; it is good news.” God doesn’t tell us what we must do to save ourselves. Given our fallen condition, that’s impossible. In fact, God delivers us from the vain quest of religion, i.e. trying to gain favor with the holy God through our own efforts.
The vain quest originated in the Garden of Eden when Satan implanted the idea that we can be “as God” through our own efforts while not believing what God said and disobeying what he commanded. This is deeply embed in our old nature and it doesn’t die quickly or easily. The good news is that God saves us not only from our sins but also from our “good works.” As John Gerstner said, “The main thing between you and God is not so much your sins; it’s your damnable good works.”
Rather than telling us what we need to do to be saved, God tells us what he has done to save us. The good news is that Jesus Christ has given us his glory. That’s right, Jesus actually gives us his glory. Here he is not speaking of his divine glory; that glory is not shared (Isaiah 42:8). He is speaking of his glory as the new Adam, the head of a new humanity untainted by sin and free to live a life of love, as Jesus did (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
The good news is that God has given us eternal life as a gift apart from any merit on our part. Grace is unmerited favor, but God’s grace goes a step further. It is unmerited favor in spite of actual demerit. “He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
HOW IT IS GIVEN
Jesus Christ didn’t just show up in the world. The Father sent him into the world to accomplish a specific mission. HIs mission was to save us. He was sent to become the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
Jesus Christ willingly took upon himself the sins of the world that we might be forgiven and reconciled to God. God could only grant a principled forgiveness, so the sins of the world had to be accounted and paid for. Since man sinned, a representative man had to die. The just penalty for sin is death. But one man, even a perfect man, could only pay the penalty for one sinner. And only God himself could pay the price of this staggering magnitude for the multitude of sins committed by billions of sinners. Therefore the Word who was God had to become flesh in order to redeem us from our sins.
The Father loves us the same way he loves his Son (17:23).
Let that sink in for a moment. Here is the heart of the gospel. It’s so astounding that it’s hard to take in. But when we do, it is transformative. As Tim Keller suggested, at some level we often don’t really realize this in our hearts though we might know it in our heads. If we did really grasp it in our hearts, we would be a lot happier, a lot more secure and a lot more free from the trinkets of this world, Keller suggests.
How does the Father love the Son? Freely, fully and forever. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit live eternally in perfect, joyful, mutual love. The holy triune God is the fountainhead of holy love. Through the gospel, the Son extends that love to his people.
This love was given as a gift before we did anything good or bad. In fact God granted it to us even before he created the universe:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ…(Ephesians 1:3-5).
God’s love for you originated before time began and it will never end: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).
So here is the heart of the gospel: The Father chose to love us just as he loves his Son before he created the universe. And we are destined to enjoy that love in this world and throughout eternity: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).
Jesus’ Radical Countercultural Teaching About War
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,[h] let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. . .You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:38-48)
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church reportedly promised Russian soldiers that if they died in the war against Ukraine, “this sacrifice washes away all their sins.” If such reports are correct, this incident illustrates how perilous it is for the church to come under the influence of worldly politics.
This incident and similar developments made me reflect on what constitutes a just war. Over time, Christian thinkers such as Augustine and Ambrose have made significant contributions to what has come to be known as “just war theory.” More recently, the Conference of Catholic Bishops have made helpful contributions to the conversation.
Some of the principles by which a war can be assessed are listed below. A just war should be:
Defensive Is the war aggressive or defensive in nature?
Necessary Have all other means of conflict resolution, such as negotiations, been exhausted?
Preportional Is the response proportional to the original offense?
Legitimate Is the war lawfully declared by the legitimate authority?
Just Cause Is the purpose to correct a public evil or unjust gain?
Reasonable Hope of Success Does the action have a realistic hope of achieving its intended good outcome?
Good End Are the motives righteous and is the ultimate end in view good?
Jesus said “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet” (Matt. 24:6). In a ruined world, wars are inevitable.
It’s interesting that Jesus never offered just war principles. Such principles are the best efforts of theologians and philosophers to regulate a very ugly business. Given that wars will happen, honorable people ought to do their best to conduct them in an ethical manner to the extent possible. But in the real world it is extremely difficult to conduct such a grim business in an ethical manner. The Allies’ defensive war against the Nazis would qualify World War II as a necessary, defensive war.
But Jesus calls us to something much more radical. You could almost imagine his saying “You have heard it said “Conduct your wars justly” but I tell you “Love your enemies.”
Why would Jesus command his followers to do something that seems to defy common sense and is seemingly impossible?
It defies common sense only if we assume that we are here to serve our own interests. But we who belong to him are here to bear witness of the living God, who loved us and sent his Son to die for us even when we were his enemies (Rom. 5:10). And even though it is impossible for us to do these things in our own power, Christ living in us and working through us brings them about.