I don’t know how many of you pay any attention to the celebrity gossip magazines at the grocery check-out stand (or worse, you happen to catch the latest news on TV’s “Entertainment Tonight”). But the latest bit of celeb absurdity is that “Two and a Half Men” star Charlie Sheen (notorious drug and sex addict and alcoholic) is advising Actress Lindsay Lohan (a fellow abuser) to work on her impulse control. (The pinnacle of the absurd: one addict chastising another.) You can tell Charlie has been in therapy by his use of the term impulse control.
Impulse control is the 21st century term for the more time-honored, universal word “self-control.” Mankind has been dealing with ‘impulse control/self-control’ issues from the time he stepped out of Eden. Confucianism taught that self-control would help produce the "superior" man. Hinduism taught that self-control would produce the "realized" man; Buddhism, the "detached" man; New Age, the "happy" man.
Therefore, it is most significant that one of the treasures of our salvation is the gift of self-control. The last of the nine fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5; love being the first: as though Paul were saying self-control is the end-result of love. When you begin with love, you end up with self-control. Someone has said "Love Christ and do what you like; for when you do, then you will like what He likes.” Paul says we should "try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord" (Eph. 5:10). Being in love with Him makes that a lot easier! One final thought: we do not gain Christ through self-control; we gain self-control through Christ.
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