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CLIP: Cultivating self-control in this evil age

Jim Butler · 2024-02-19 · Ephesians 6:5–9 · 274 words · 2 min

Sermons on Ephesians

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Summary

Expository

All external forms of government — civil, familial, and ecclesiastical — are only as sound as the self-control of the individuals who comprise them.

Self-control is the foundation beneath all rightly ordered relationships — between spouses, parents and children, and masters and servants. Drawing from Ephesians 6:5–9 and the wisdom literature of Solomon, this clip argues that every level of human government — federal, provincial, familial, and ecclesiastical — rises or falls on the quality of self-government in individuals. The church must recover a robust biblical ethic of self-discipline as the antidote to social and moral disorder.

Key quotes

Federal government, provincial government, familial government, and ecclesiastical government is only as good as self-government.
If the people are a mess as individuals, guess what else is gonna be a mess? Church, family, society.
We need to get back to this idea where we're not dependent upon the nanny state, but we're dependent on our own hard work.

Applications

  1. Cultivate personal self-control as the first and most basic form of government — do not outsource moral order to the state, the church, or any institution.
  2. Push through the muck and mire of this present evil age through disciplined effort rather than dependence on external systems or political solutions.

Questions this sermon answers

What does the Bible say about self-control and social order?

The speaker argues from Solomon's wisdom that self-control in individuals is the precondition for order in every institution — family, church, and civil government alike.

Why is self-control so important for Christians?

According to this clip, self-control undergirds all the household relationships Paul addresses in Ephesians 6, because no form of external government can compensate for the disorder of undisciplined individuals.

And then finally,

Cultivation of Self-Control

the cultivation of self-control. I think this is undergirding all of these relationships between the husband and the wife, between the parent and the child, and between the slave and the master. Self-control. I listen to a podcaster.

He's a political guy, and he sometimes makes the observation He professes faith in Christ, I have no reason to doubt that, but this observation, I'm not sure if he ever has specified it's from the Bible or it's my biblical worldview, but when he sort of surveys the political landscape in the US, he says, we have a people problem. Oh, if we just get a new president, we just get a new vice president, we get a new prime minister, okay, we still got a people problem. We have put up with abortion, we have put up with maid, we have put up with drug abuse on our streets, we have put up with an open border, we have a people problem. And that speaks specifically to another emphasis that you find throughout Solomon, self-control.

Federal government, provincial government, familial government, and ecclesiastical government is only as good as self-government. In other words, if the people are a mess as individuals, guess what else is gonna be a mess? Church, family, society. See, we need to get back to this idea where we're not dependent upon the nanny state, but we're dependent on our own hard work.

We're dependent on our own efforts. We're dependent upon our own sort of pushing through the muck and mire of this present evil age and seeking to do the best that we possibly can.

Study notes

Theological terms

  • Self-Government×2