The Path of Self-Control

"He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city...broken down" (Proverbs 25:28)


"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city" (Prov. 16:32).

The Christian experience of salvation does not destroy personality or shrink personal responsibility. The Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). But he did not mean that he, himself, was to act less and less like a man and more and more like a thing without a mind or a will. He was talking about the limelight. When Christ comes into the life, the truly converted want Him to be seen. That is what it means for Him to increase. He will increase in visibility in our lives as we more and more learn to be full men. The least gift that Christ can give is salvation. He wants to give us much, much more than a new birth, even a new life.

All human beings should practice self-control. But Christians must do it or pay a terrible price in blessings missed. Self-discipline is essential to godly living. There are probably more failures in God's service for this reason than for any other.

The intelligent self-control possible to the believer is synonymous with a Christ-regulated life or a Spirit-filled life. None of these terms contradicts or rules out the others.

There is no victory possible to us that is as great as victory over our tendency toward undisciplined living.

"Self-government is indeed, the noblest rule on earth; the object of a loftier ambition than the possession of crowns or scepters. The truest conquest is when the soul is bringing every thought into captivity to Christ. The monarch of his own mind is the only real potentate."---Caird

Out of myself into Him I adore,

There to abide in His love evermore;

Through endless ages His glory to see,

My Jesus has lifted me!

---Avis B. Christiansen

(Rev. Roger J. Andrus)

A Prayer to Be Used by God

Lord, help us to love you; teach us to serve you. Give us your strength that we may overcome our corrupt nature. Grant this day that we may have power from on high to resist every temptation; to confess Christ before men and women; to labor steadfastly with a single eye to your glory; to live in the spirit of prayer, in faith, humility, self-denial, and love; and to walk before you in that narrow way that leads to eternal life. Fill us with love for others. Teach us to do good to all people, to visit and relieve the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. Lord, for your name's sake, hear us. Amen.

--Edward Bickersteth (1786-1850)

The Path of Anger

"A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment" (Proverbs 19:19)


The man of habitual temper is both sick and sinful. He has developed a pattern of behavior and in a sense he has done it deliberately. Good psychology and good theology both hold him responsible. No one angers us. We respond to people and situations by taking a position or attitude of anger.

Along with fear, frustration, and guilt, anger (or temper, as it should be called) is one of the prominent causes of emotional and mental illness. Seldom is any neurosis simple. Usually it is somewhat complex. And nearly always anger is part of the complex cause. It is always foolish to court sickness, and temper is no exception. "Anger resteth in the bosom of fools" (Eccl. 7:9). That means that a wise man will seek help from God to control his feelings, he will never deliberately promote a "habit of temper."

The man of temper is in line for both trouble and punishment. "A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife" (Prov. 15:18).

The last half of our text warns us that "if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again." He gets into trouble and if you come along and get him out of it, you haven't really helped because he will just get angry again in a few minutes and get into more trouble. His real trouble is not the trouble that comes to him because he has shown anger promiscuously. His real trouble is his anger itself. He needs deliverance from his temper. In other words, he needs salvation and a new nature with a new set of attitudes and new emotional patterns.

"The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression" (Prov. 19:11).

"Put off...anger" (Col. 3:8).

(Rev. Roger J. Andrus)

The Path of Understanding

"Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding" (Prov. 9:6)


The Path of Understanding

Wisdom calls and folly calls.
Both call to the "simple" (Prov. 9:4,16).
Wisdom says, "Come, eat of my bread" (9:5).
Folly says, "Turn in hither...bread eaten in secret is pleasant" (9:16,17).


Understanding begins where wisdom begins. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding" (9:10). We enter the path of understanding when we receive the Word of God to be the Word of God, with all that that implies. Some knowledge is delightful, some is useful, but knowledge of things holy is essential to true understanding of ourselves and our environment.

This is the age of psychology with its emphasis on insights. This path of understanding of which our text speaks is a path of truest insights. It leads to genuine self-understanding. The instructed believer is not a simpleton nor a fool going blindly he knows not where. He knows his origin as a creature of God who was taken into sin by his first father. He knows his position as a redeemed child of God including the privileges of His household. And, he also knows his eternal future with its unlimited opportunities of personal growth and development. Maturation has begun.

Understanding is also social, that is, the believer grows into an understanding of others. In learning the things of God, and understanding himself in great measure, his strengths and his weaknesses, he is prepared for a realistic relationship to others. He knows them not as completely "other" but as bone of his bone. He understands them because they are so much like himself. And knowing and understanding he cares.

The path of understanding brings glory to God and good to man. "For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased" (Prov. 9:11).

(Rev. Roger J. Andrus)

The Path of Life

"Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, [the tempter's] ways are moveable" (Prov. 5:6)

The Path of Life

The path of life is a Bible-centered life. "He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction" (Prov. 10:17). It stands written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4).

Feeding on the Word of God we avoid the path of the tempter.  In this fifth chapter, as in the Proverbs generally, the tempter is a temptress, a "strange woman." "Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house" (5:8). We will not needlessly expose ourselves to any temptation or device of Satan. "Shun evil companions."

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8).

The path of life is also a path of obedience to God. "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings" (Prov. 5:21).

Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth (Prov. 5:7).

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet

Or we'll walk by His side in the way;

What He says we will do, where He sends we will go,

Never fear, only trust and obey.

--J. H. Sammis

Further, the path of life is one of satisfaction. It is the richest life possible. "Drink waters our of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well" (Prov. 5:15).

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life" (Deut. 30:19).

(by Rev. Roger J. Andrus)