Don’t Be a Slave

Supplement . . . knowledge with self-control. —2 Peter 1:5–6

The word self-control as it’s used in 2 Peter has to do with having power over yourself. It means that you control your passions and desires rather than being controlled by them. If you don’t make your passions your slave, then you will become the slave of your passions.

However, the opposite of self-control is self- indulgence or a lack of self-restraint. It’s when we just give into pleasure and do whatever we feel like doing. And isn’t that our default, especially as it relates to our bodies? We don’t feel like getting up. We don’t feel like exercising. We feel like eating.

Our bodies and our emotions crave to be pampered. They long to be indulged. And when we give in to those passions excessively and don’t control those appetites of our flesh, we will end up enslaved to them. But when we practice self-control and voluntarily place limits on our longings and hunger, we will find true freedom.