The Flipside of Liberty

"He can manage everyone but himself." That's how baseball legend Casey Stengel once described Billy Martin, the flamboyant late manager of the New York Yankees.

Is some area of your life hard to manage? You can flip through TV channels with a remote control, drive your car with cruise control, and microwave your food with temperature control. But it still takes self-control to decide what you'll watch on TV, whether you'll obey traffic laws, and how much you'll eat. Like the apostle Paul, you may find yourself fighting an inner battle, tempted to do what you shouldn't do or neglect what you should do (Romans 7:14—8:1).

A person without self-control is like a ship without a rudder or a car without brakes. Scripture says, "Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control" (Proverbs 25:28)—for such a person has no proper boundaries, no moral defenses. Cain's lack of self-control resulted in Abel's murder. Esau's impatient quest for immediate gratification cost him his birthright. When David yielded to his lust for Bathsheba, he displeased the Lord, disrupted his family, and dishonored his nation.

In her book Passion and Purity, Elisabeth Elliot asks, "Is there anything today . . . for which we are willing to pay the price of self-sacrifice? Any ideal left, any clear-cut goal, any control of passion?" Self-control, she suggests, arises from a profound sense of honor—"fidelity to a system of fixed values and relations." With God's help we can control our impulses if we have high regard for others in the home (Ephesians 4:2; 1 Peter 3:7), church (Romans 12:10), and nation (1 Peter 2:17).

Dr. Larry Crabb has warned that we must not confuse self-control with self-discipline or "stiff regularity," which is simply "sinful man's way of organizing his life according to his own strength." "You can be organized," Dr. Crabb says, "and not be 'Spirit-filled.'" After all, he argues, "pagans can use Day-Timers as well as Christians."

Godly self-control, however, demonstrates the healthy freedom we have in Christ—a life dominated not by "should" but by "want to"—not a rigid system of do's and don'ts, but a positive response to God's grace which "teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives" (Titus 2:11, 12).

When Joseph said "no" to the sexual advances of Potiphar's wife, he affirmed God's plan for his life. When Daniel said "no" to the king's soft lifestyle and rich food, God blessed him with a healthy body, a clear mind, and a positive reputation.

Wasn't a deep sense of honor—a loving commitment to do the Heavenly Father's will—why Jesus exercised self-control? Wasn't that why he resisted the temptation to turn rocks into bread or call legions of angels to rescue him from the cross? The deeper our honor for God and others, the stronger our self-control.

We enjoy remarkable freedoms in this country. But Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was right: the Statue of Liberty on our nation's east coast should be matched by a Statue of Responsibility on the west. The brave Americans who signed the Declaration of Independence understood liberty's flipside. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their "sacred honor."

America the Beautiful, what do you need? More sacred honor, so that the God who "shed his grace on thee" will also "confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law."