Guard Your Whole Life With This Fruit

Even if you have all the other fruit of the spirit in operation, without the fruit of self-control to help you rein in your natural desires, you’ll be vulnerable to the devil’s persistent attempts to get you off course. And when he gets you off course, a whole lot of things can and will go wrong in your life.

Perhaps the Apostle Paul put self-control or temperance last when he listed the nine fruit of the spirit because it affects all the other forces of the spirit. It helps us control our natural, physical tendencies, so love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and meekness can flow in our lives unhindered. 

When you were born again, your spirit was re-created—but your flesh was not. It stayed the same, and it still wants to go the wrong way at times. Self-control is what keeps your flesh in check and you in line for all the promotions and victories God has for you.

Your flesh wants to pull you back into sin. Galatians 5 tells us that the flesh wants to get involved with things like “immorality, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger (ill temper), selfishness, divisions…envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like” (verses 19-21, Amplified Bible, Classic Edition).

Those things are deadly! They wreak havoc in people’s lives, but the spiritual force of self-control can handle every one of them. It can dominate even the strongest physical cravings and desires, and make your body behave when it’s tempted to get out of line.

When you focus on exercising self-control in your life, you’ll guard every area of your life—finances, health, relationships, career—everything. That’s a fruit worth investing in!