Control part 2
According to Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." And in the New Living Translation "temperance" is rendered as "self control." So, while self control IS a fruit of the Spirit... THE (singular) fruit of the Spirit is love. Self control is an aspect of love. Just as joy, peace, longsuffering and all the rest of the list are aspects of love. So even when we think we're in control... we're really not. Christ's love controls us. It's kind of like the difference between self righteousness and the righteousness of God in Christ. One is as filthy rags. One was so valuable that Jesus became sin so that we could be made it. Here's what I'm trying to say: Self control means giving up control. Surrendering to that thing deep inside that compels us to love one another. That thing deep inside that is God's love for us! In the Old Covenant the principle was, "Forgive and you will be forgiven." Everything we contigent on us doing something in order to earn something. But in the New Covenant we give BECAUSE we are forgiven. On the cross Jesus gave us all things that pertain to life and godliness. He did it all so we could get it all. And He did it so that we would have something to give. Because you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. If all you have is bitterness, and hurt, and pain, then that's all you can give. But if you've been forgiven... then you KNOW forgiveness and you can forgive others. And it's not this crazy, "I'll forgive but I'll never forget" kind nonsense either. Forgiveness wipes the slate clean. Being justified is not "just as if I'd never sinned." It's, "I'm a new man and I HAVE never sinned!" The old man, the sinner, died on the cross. And the New Man, the saint, Jesus, rose again to walk in newness of life. But what we seem to think this means is that now that we've been forgiven we better mind our p's and q's and stay on God's good side. Guys... God only has one side! He doesn't have a bad side! He is light and there is no darkness in Him at all! He is the same yesterday, today, and forever! Forgiven is forgiven. Saved is saved. Loved is loved. It's our struggle with control that gets us so mixed up and messed up. We always try to finish in the flesh what was started in the Spirit. We think all of those aspects of love are things we have to do in order to love. When really they are aspects of how we ARE loved. And when we understand that... then we can simply receive it and release it. We can see how longsuffering God is towards us and then we can be that same longsuffering towards each other. We can let what's already inside us flow out as we fill ourselves (to overflowing) with the fulness of God's love. We don't have to control it... because it (love) controls us. We don't have to get anything, because we already have everything. And now we can just experience it by sharing it. Instead of trying to be in control, we can go with the flow of the river of life!