Self Control

We may think of the ancients as very different from us, but they really were not.
The apostle must have actually held classes on these matters in Thessalonica.." you learned these things from us" beginning with how to handle their sex drive. These people who lived in the bustling seaport city of Thessalonica felt the same kind of pressures and drives that we do and Paul taught them how they "ought to live and to please God." Sexual purity pleases God so He requires it and therefore it is possible.

If you don't want to please God you’re probably not saved. If men come to me and say they are struggling with sin and temptation it means at least they are alive to Gods law and conviction. If believing men can sin and not even feel bad about it, something is wrong. Notice these instructions in the Bible are given "through the Lord Jesus." This is not just Paul's advice as a religious leader.

Secondly, the Bible says that "the will of God is your sanctification." Actually, the word sanctification is really almost the same as the word that is translated holiness in this passage. It comes from the same root.

I find that many are confused about holiness. Many people think of holiness as grimness. They frown on anything that was fun or pleasurable. But holiness is like the English word wholeness, which also derives from the same root. Everybody wants to be a whole person. People that are admirable, trustworthy, strong, loving, compassionate people -- having all the qualities which make for inner beauty. That is what God calls wholeness, and that is his will for you.

This necessarily means moral purity. "... Abstain from immorality," says the apostle in the very next sentence. Moral purity is part of wholeness.

Immorality destroys the wholeness that both you and God want. There is nothing more beautiful than a young person who has his or her life in order.

The Bible says to learn to control your own body. Self-control! Now there’s a thought; how old fashioned. Of course, people have learned to do this for 4000 years. People that don’t learn this, end up in prison. But learning how to handle our bodies properly is not always easy. People say that sex is a natural function, right but what they are not saying, and what the Scriptures reveal, is that all-natural functions need certain degrees of control. Take hunger, for instance. You do not eat anytime you feel like eating. You learn to restrict your eating for certain reasons. If you do not want to put on too much weight, or if you want to enjoy your meals better, you do not eat between meals. Certain aspects and habits of control must be learned to handle the hunger function. The same rules apply to sleep. You do not go to sleep whenever you feel like it like at work or driving.

God made our bodies with a capacity to produce certain hormones that makes sex pleasurable but all of the body’s appetites must be controlled and control actually increases the enjoyment of each function. Self-control may be sometimes difficult, but difficult, doesn’t mean impossible

Friend, Paul says that we are to learn how to control our bodies in holiness; wholeness and honour. Control contributes to that sense of wholeness. You are in charge of your own body. You are not controlled by it: you are not a slave to it. You possess it, so do not let it possess you.