Jesus lived to serve and to glorify His Father. He resisted all temptations, living a holy and sinless life. His self-control was the strongest of all humans because of His desire to please and glorify His Father rather than Himself.
The best example of His control over His flesh, is in the story of His adventure to the wilderness. He had been in the wilderness for 40 days, when the devil went to visit Him.
Knowing Jesus was starving after 40 days of fasting, the devil tempted Him, saying, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made of bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’”
The devil brought Him to the pinnacle of the temple in the city and tempted Him again, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, ‘He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
Jesus answered, “It is written again, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’”
Then the devil brought Jesus to the top of a mountain and showed Him all the Kingdoms of the world. He said, “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”
But Jesus answered, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.’”
The devil finally left Jesus alone, and angels went to care for Him. (These temptings are all recorded in Matthew 4:1-11.)
1. Jesus teaches us that self-control is knowing the word of God so that we may use it against the temptations of this world and the evil one.
Jesus knew the word of God so well, He was able to fight the enemy with it and He was able to rebuke all who stood in the way of God’s plans. We must know the word of God as closely as Jesus knew it, so we may be able to do the same.
In Ephesians, Paul even refers to the word of God as the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17): meaning it is our armour to fight the Spiritual battle that is happening every day of our lives. The enemy is always attacking. If we don’t have weapons and shields to protect ourselves, we will die. And it won’t be pleasant.
We must hide the word of God in our hearts so that we might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). We must follow in Jesus’s example, having the self-control to learn the word of God, so that we also may be able to fight the one who lurks in the dark, trying to capture our soul.
2. Jesus teaches us that self-control is love of the Lord.
Jesus said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.”
When we love somebody we show our love to them by respecting whatever boundaries they may have; we follow their ‘rules’ so to say. This could be said of a husband and wife, parent and child, within a friendship or between siblings. Everyone has boundaries and rules that they share with others. How we react to those boundaries is how we show our love. If we disrespect a boundary or rule, we aren’t showing love to that person at all. The same is true with us and God. When we don’t follow His commands for us, we are showing that we do not love Him. But when we practice self-control, we show Him just how much we love Him. We prove to Him that He has provided us with a Spirit of power, love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7).
3. Jesus teaches us that self-control is obedience to the Lord.
When the devil wanted Jesus to worship him, Jesus replied with the command of God, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew 4:10). This command not only served as an effective way of getting rid of the devil, but also serves as a reminder to us, His disciples. Jesus reminds us that within the devil’s temptings, we must not bow down to him. Jesus tells us to only worship and serve our Creator. And yes, even giving into our own fleshly desires is a form of worship: of ourselves. Thus, we must be careful as to not put our own satisfaction above the satisfaction of our Lord. His satisfaction is this: that we obey His commands. How we obey is by practicing self-control of our desires by putting His desires above our own.
4. Jesus teaches us that self-control is humility.
Self-control is the strength to know that God’s will is more important than our desires. Self-control is knowing that we are nothing, but Christ is everything; thus, we must become less so that He may become more; we must be invisible, so His light may shine through us. Our desires must mean nothing to us, if we claim Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. We must control our selfish ways, laying our lives down for the Lord, so His will may be done in our lives and anyone else’s lives that He intends to work on through us… We are His stewards; He uses us to do His works, so that we may increase His Kingdom.
Do you think Jesus really wanted to go through all the agony of being crucified? He prayed, asking God on numerous occasions to change the plan (Luke 22:42). He didn’t want to have to be delivered into the hands of men, but He did it anyway, because He knew that He was sent down from Heaven to do the will of the Father (John 6:38). And so, He laid down His life, accepting death, so that God’s will may shine through. Jesus was self-controlled and selfless — not allowing His desire to live, to get in the way of the Father’s plans. We must be self-controlled, selfless servants of God’s will in the same way.
5. Jesus teaches us that to have self-control, we must live a prayerful life.
Jesus was always going away to pray in secret places; He was always establishing a relationship with His Father. And in living a prayerful life with God, He was able to live faithfully, having a stronghold on His self-control.
There was one moment when Jesus went up a mountain with His disciples to pray. When He came back from His intimate prayer time with the Father, He found the disciples sleeping. He woke them up, telling them to pray so they won’t fall into temptation (Luke 22:46). For the closer we walk with God, the farther we walk from Satan. The deeper the relationship we have with God, the more we respect and love Him, and the less we fall for Satan’s tricks. The more we listen to God in prayer, the more we know of His will for our lives, and the less likely we are to follow in our flesh and ruin His plans. The more we pray, the more self-control we will have, because the more respect, love, and appreciation we will have for our Lord.
JESUS CHRIST: THE SAVIOUR
Jesus Christ was a perfect human. He didn’t sin, not even once, and that is why He was the sin offering for the world. He was the flesh sin offering to God, to cancel out ALL sin that is performed within the flesh. He is our Saviour, for He has saved us from eternity away from our Father.
Jesus gives us the opportunity to turn from our sin, turn from our desires of the flesh, and to feast our eyes, minds, hearts, and souls, on our Father in Heaven. Jesus gives us the opportunity to be born again in Him, and be blessed with the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives us the opportunity to change and be better; His grace gives us a second chance (Romans 3:23-24).
The Lord’s grace blesses us with the wisdom to turn away from ungodliness and worldly passions. He blesses us with ways to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives (Titus 2:11-12). The least we can do is accept His grace and blessings, and live for His glory to thank Him for His sacrifice.
If you enjoyed the information here, you can read more in my book that this is extracted from:
