Page 91 - Discipleship Ministries Student E-Book

Unfaithful people concentrate on themselves and their own pleasures. They are number one, so their
daily activity is to please self. Faithful believers are willing to sacrifice themselves for others.
Faithfulness implies a willingness to suffer persecution and even death for Christ’s sake. Faithfulness
means service.

7 – 8. Gentleness/Meekness - Gentleness is defined as strength under control. For instance, in Paul’s
second letter to Timothy, he wrote that the “Lord’s servant” will “correct his opponents with
gentleness” (2 Timothy 2:25). And in Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, he wrote that those who have
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been caught in sin should be restored in a “spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1).

When we give a defense of our faith in Christ, God commands us to answer with kindness and
gentleness.

I Peter 3:15 ESVbut in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a
defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness
and respect,

Meekness does not mean weakness. Jesus was a meek man. It means behaving with goodness and
kindness and self-control. It is linked with the idea of humility. When the Bible speaks of meekness, it
refers to someone who lives a life of submission to the Lord. A meek person sets aside self to follow
God’s direction rather than trusting in themselves. Numbers 12:3 says Moses was the meekest man on
earth because of his great humility.

9. Self-Control - it is the ability to control oneself, in particular one’s emotions and desires; it is a
willingness to submit control of our desires to the Spirit of God. It means remaining master of your
person, not only during good times, but in times of trials and temptation. It involves both the external
actions and inward emotions. The lack of it goes to the deepest part of us - the heart. In Scripture it is
often paired with “sober-mindedness” (I Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:8, Titus 2:2, and I Peter 4:7) and is applied
to our minds.

So how do we go about pursuing it as a Christian? True self-control is a gif from above, produced in and
through us by the Holy Spirit. It is received from outside ourselves, rather than whipped up from within.
Self-control is a gift from God that we receive actively. We seek it. Receiving the grace of self-control
means taking it all the way in and then out into the actual exercise of the grace. “As the Hebrews were
promised the land, but had to take it by force, one town at a time,” says Ed Welch, “so we are promised
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the gift of self-control, yet we also must take it by force”.

Ultimately, our controlling ourselves is about being controlled by Christ. When “the love of Christ
controls us” (2 Corinthians 5:14), when we embrace the truth that he is our sovereign, and God has “left
nothing outside his control” (Hebrews 2:8), we can bask in the freedom that we need not muster our
own strength to exercise self-control, but we can find strength in the strength of another. In the person
of Jesus, “the grace of God has appeared . . . training us” — not just “to renounce ungodliness and
worldly passions,” but “to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11–

31 Ibid.
32 Ed Welch, “Self-Control: The Battle Against ‘One More’

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