FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – SELF-CONTROL
“Confirm Your Call” – II Peter 1:1-15
August 9, 2026
This is our last Sunday in our summer worship series on Fruit of the Spirit.
I am hopeful that the ideal of the fruit of the Spirit will abide among our congregation
over the coming months and years.
That ideal of living daily together with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self control is certainly a worthy goal for all of us.
I invite you to memorize the list of the fruit, if you have not already done so.
Take a look at the front of your bulletin and repeat them with me, if you will:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
Both in our staff meeting and in one of the youth gatherings, these questions were asked:
Which of these fruit comes most naturally for you?
Which is most difficult for you to sustain over time?
Questions worth pondering…
Today, we focus upon the last fruit in the list, self control.
As we have stated before, none of the fruit can be manufactured on our own.
Any faithful exhibition of the fruit on our part is dependent upon the grace of God,
dependent upon the gift of God’s Spirit.
Self control is not some “pull yourselves up by your bootstraps and live rightly!” admonition.
The ability to be self controlled is a gift received as we turn again with open hearts,
open minds, and open hands to receive from the One who saves us from ourselves.
Our text regarding self control comes from the second letter of Peter to the churches.
Peter, or whomever wrote this letter on Peter’s behalf, addressed his words to believers,
to those “who have received a faith as precious as ours.”
Hear the Word of God from II Peter 1:1-15
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith
as equally honorable as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.
Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises,
so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world
because of lust and may become participants of the divine nature.
For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness,
and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control,
and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness,
and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love.
For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you
from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For anyone who lacks these things is blind, suffering from eye disease,
forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brothers and sisters,
be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this,
you will never stumble. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.
Therefore I intend to keep on reminding you of these things,
though you know them already and are established in the truth that has come to you.
I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to refresh your memory, since I know
that my death will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able
at any time to recall these things.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Consider this: Which of the following is more difficult for you?
-managing your bank account or managing your calendar?
-avoiding a return to the refrigerator or going easier on the gas pedal?
-refusing the next alcoholic beverage or not pulling a cigarette out of the pack?
-limiting your scrolling on social media apps or turning off the television?
-bridling your tongue to not speak harm or holding back your hands from harming another?
Statistics reveal our lack of self control…In the United States of America,
60% of adults live from paycheck to paycheck, with very little if any savings.
Nearly half of adults suffer from financial strain.
74% of parents with children under 18 years of age
claim that they are too busy to enjoy their lives. (Pew Research Center)
42% of adults are classified as “obese” when they go to their doctor appointment. (cdc.gov)
One in four drivers have received at least one speeding ticket or other moving violation.
(advisement.com)
30% of adults drink more than one alcoholic beverage per day. (americasheathranking.org)
Astonishingly, one in ten people in our country still smokes cigarettes.
Get this one – the average amount of time spent scrolling through social media
is two hours and 21 minutes per day! 141 minutes! Per day!! Incredible.
And that’s just the average. (worldmetrics.org)
70% of individuals report that they wish they could take back something they have said.
(psychologytoday.com)
And here’s a sobering statistic that many of you have heard before:
One out of four women and men report that they have experienced physical abuse
from an intimate partner. (breakthecycle.org)
And 45% of women and 17% of men report that they have experienced some form
of contact sexual violence in their lifetime. (vawnet.org)
Clearly, we, as a people, have trouble with self control.
And if none of these problems apply particularly to you, here is another statistic to consider:
29% of Americans report that they have felt judged by their neighbors.
(anytimeestimate.com) Have you ever felt judged by your neighbors?
Or have you neighbors ever felt judged by you?
The Apostle Peter’s ancient words are relevant for the Church today.
Peter claims that we have been given everything needed for a good life, for godliness,
through the knowledge of the One who has called us.
Through God’s precious and great promises that we have come to know in Jesus Christ,
we have the opportunity to escape being fully corrupted by this world
and even to participate in God’s divine nature.
With this goal in mind, the goal of godliness and escaping corruption,
Peter calls us to support our faith, to layer up our faith, with seven key layers of faithfulness.
We have been exploring Paul’s list of nine fruit of the Spirit.
Today, we examine Peter’s list of the seven layers of faith:
goodness, knowledge, self control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection, and love.
One of my favorite desserts that my mom would prepare when I was a child
was called “seven layer pudding dessert”.
The dessert begins with a graham cracker crust –
graham crackers mixed with butter and sugar.
Then you add a layer of vanilla pudding, a layer of sliced bananas,
a layer of whipped topping, another layer of bananas, and then chocolate pudding.
On top comes a final layer of whipped topping which is sprinkled with mini chocolate chips
and chopped walnuts.
Oh boy – it was wonderful! Divine even! A delicious, melt-in-your-mouth dessert!
All those layers, enjoyed together, were so much better, so much richer,
so much more satisfying, than some simple serving of pudding.
On a different but related note, one of my high school friends helped manage
a road construction crew for several years.
He worked for CW Matthews Company, which constructed many
of Atlanta’s interstate highways and most of the Hartsfield-Jackson airport runways.
I remember asking my friend about the layers of materials that go into an airport runway,
layers that must be able to sustain fully loaded Boeing 747’s
landing every minute or so at the Atlanta airport.
First comes the natural subgrade soil, he said,
which must be carefully and fully compacted before proceeding.
Picture large road building vehicles driving back and forth, many times over,
compacting and flattening that base layer.
Then comes a layer of compacted subbase.
I think this second layer is some sort of treated gravel, mixed with sand and cement.
Then a heavy aggregate base is added, crushed stone.
Again, picture heavy vehicles moving back and forth, back and forth, many times over,
aiming to get the consistency and the levelling just right.
Next, a framing of large steel dowel baskets is laid.
The baskets frame the top layer of concrete slabs, which are poured as much as 3 feet thick.
Layer upon layer, carefully constructed, these runways are incredibly durable and effective.
Properly maintained, the concrete runways at the airport can be in service for over thirty years.
Again, on a somewhat related vein, over the summer, much ado was made
about the age of some of the players in the World Cup.
Specifically, the media could not stop talking about Lionel Messi at age 39
and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal at 41 years old.
Both have become known as “soccer gods”.
Both were granted a certain well-grounded belief in themselves and in their abilities.
But faith alone is not enough.
Their faith in themselves contains many layers that have led to their “god-like” status in futbol.
First, both Messi and Ronaldo are good.
They have been able to play really good, quality soccer since they were teenagers.
Second, they add to their goodness the knowledge of how to play the game strategically.
Third, they add self control. They train harder than the younger players.
They eat better; they focus on getting more than adequate sleep.
They discipline themselves in every aspect of their lives.
Fourth, endurance. They exhibit self control not just during a long season,
from the fall to the spring, but these guys have been exhibiting disciplined self control,
year in, year out, for more than 25 years. Now that’s endurance.
Fifth, godliness. When you play as well as they do for more than two decades,
you begin to take on a “god-like” quality, as least in the eyes of the fans and of other players.
Sixth, mutual affection. Both Messi and Ronaldo are appreciated by their team mates.
They are both judged not only by how many goals they score, but how many assists
they make for their teammates. They are appreciated by their managers in the locker room
and seen as examples on the field as captains.
Finally, the seventh and final layer, the layer of love.
Lionel Messi and Crisitiano Ronaldo would not have made it this far
or been as successful as they have been without loving the game
and loving the camaraderie that goes along with it.
For the love of the game and all that goes with it, Lionel Messi and Ronaldo
have given their lives to the sport and achieved “god-like” qualities, at least on the pitch.
The Apostle Peter describes the layers of faithfulness that can lead ordinary saints
of the church toward an effective and fruitful life of discipleship, even towards godliness.
In order to grow in faith, Peter claims, we begin with goodness.
We begin by discerning what inclinations are from God and what is not from God.
In the Christian life, the enemy of the good is often not what is evil.
Evil is merely the opposite of good.
The true enemy of the good is mediocrity.
It may not be so difficult for us to turn away from that which is truly evil.
It may be far more difficult to incline ourselves away from that which exhibits only average
or mediocre commitment to God.
Another translation of the Greek word translated here as “goodness” is “excellence.”
We are to seek what is good, what is excellent, not only what is not evil or simply convenient.
Second, the apostle layers to that desire for goodness knowledge,
specifically knowledge of Christ and him crucified.
We come to know the good, the excellent, when we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ.
We grow in this knowledge through prayer and devotion,
and through studying Holy Scripture.
In order to know the will of God for our lives, we look to the example of Jesus.
Third, the apostle encourages us to layer upon that knowledge of Jesus
the self-control to choose his paths.
It is one thing to know what we should do; it is quite another to actually do it.
We know that it is better to turn the other cheek than to return violence for violence.
We know that it is better to love our enemies than to oppress them.
We know that it is better to first to look inward at our own behavior
before we look outward in judgement of neighbor.
We know that it is better to live by the Spirit of the Law than the letter of the Law only.
But knowing what should be done and doing it are not the same thing!
Knowledge of what is good only becomes fruitful when self-control is added.
Self-control is a necessary, core ingredient in the layered life of faith.
Without learning to discipline our thoughts and actions,
the corruption from the world creeps in and slowly takes over.
Quite naturally, the next layer of faith the apostle introduces after self-control is endurance.
We seek to control our words and actions, not just some of the time, but all of the time.
We seek goodness and self control on Sunday mornings at church,
and on Monday mornings at work or school,
and on Tuesday nights at home with our families, and on Saturday nights with our friends.
Day after day, year after year, the goal is to run the race before us with endurance,
trusting that in the Lord our labors will not be in vain.
After endurance comes godliness. One commentator wrote that:
“Godliness is no optional spiritual luxury for a few quaint Christians of a bygone era
or for some group of supersaints of today. It is both the privilege and duty of every Christian
to pursue godliness, to train himself (or herself) to be godly,
to study diligently the practice of godliness.
We don’t need any special talent or equipment (to do so).
God has given to each one of us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3)…
Godliness can be defined as devotion to God which results in a life that is pleasing to Christ.
(from The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges)
The penultimate layer of a multi-layered faith is mutual affection.
There is no such thing as a solitary Christian.
A Christian, by nature, is someone who lives and serves and thrives in community.
No matter how good someone may be,
if they keep to themselves they are not much good for the kingdom of heaven.
A disciple of Jesus Christ does not operate as an island, independent of other people.
A Christian is by nature integrally connected to others.
Ours is a mutual faith, meant to be shared.
Finally, the ultimate layer, the one that completes the layers of goodness, knowledge,
self control, endurance, godliness, and mutual affection,
is the only quality of faith that could top such a list – the still, more excellent way,
the primary gift of God, the crown above all, the gift of love.
Love is our aim. Love is our goal.
Love is the pinnacle of the Christian journey of faith.
As Paul wrote, even “if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and if I have enough faith to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.” (I Cor. 13:2) I gain nothing.
We have been called to confirm the faith given to us, day by day, year after year,
making a decision to follow Jesus Christ,
by choosing goodness over mediocrity,
knowledge of the Lord over ignorance of God’s will,
self-control over corruption by the world,
endurance over inconsistency,
godliness over self-pride,
mutual affection over selfishness,
and love above all else.
So let us confirm our calling with a multi-layered faith, with self control at the core.
That seven layer dessert, because of the combination of those layers, was delicious!
Those airport runways, because of the carefully constructed layers,
have proven themselves to be effective over many years.
Messi and Ronaldo, those “soccer gods”, have reached untold heights
because of their multi-layered lives of faithfulness to their sport over many years.
Likewise, may our little lives of faith, within our homes and communities,
become delicious, effective, and long-lasting,
so much so that we too, like Peter and Paul, and so many who came after them,
may escape the corruption of the world
and participate in some manner in God’s divine nature.
To God be the glory as we do so. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
