faithful Bible characters have shown. In particular, when it comes to pleasures, to the things we enjoy of themselves, such as food and drink, sex and recreation, do we need self-control if we would do the wise, the loving and the right thing.

“Supply to Your . . . Knowledge Self-Control”

“For this very reason, by your contributing in response all earnest effort, supply to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, to your knowledge self-control.”—2 Pet. 1:5, 6.

1, 2. (a) Why is Peter’s admonition to supply to our knowledge self-control so fitting? (b) Why does exercising self-control not come easy?

GOD’S Word places great stress on our acquiring the knowledge it contains. Such knowledge is indispensable to our gaining everlasting life, even as Jesus said: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” (John 17:3) But as we have just seen, knowledge without self-control will not gain us life, and therefore most fittingly the apostle Peter counsels us: “For this very reason, by your contributing in response all earnest effort, supply to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, to your knowledge self-control.”—2 Pet. 1:5, 6.

² Great as are the value and the need for exercising self-control, so great might be said to be the effort required to do so. Why? Why must even mature Christians be ever on guard to “go on walking worthily of God,” although admittedly it takes a greater effort on the part of some than on the part of others? (1 Thess. 2:12) Because, under present conditions, adhering to the course of rectitude is the very opposite of following the lines of least resistance, which, in turn, is due to the three foes that we as Christians have pitted against us, the flesh, the world and the Devil.

3. What foe within us makes self-control difficult, as seen by what Scriptural testimony?

³ First of all there are the inherited fallen tendencies of the flesh. Yes, just as we have inherited various physical infirmities from our forebears so we have also inherited moral weaknesses or flaws in personality. We cannot escape it, “The fathers were the ones that ate the unripe grape, but it was the teeth of the sons that got set on edge.” As Jehovah himself said about humankind right after the Flood: “The inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up.” And it seems that the more gifted or forceful the personality is, the more difficulty its owner has in exercising self-control; a fact borne out innumerable times not only by secular history but also by Scriptural examples. In particular is the problem that all servants of Jehovah have in exercising self-control well stated by the apostle Paul: “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good; for ability to wish is present with me, but ability to work out what is fine is not present. For the good that I wish I do not do, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice.” No question about it, Paul recognized he had a fight on his hands to exercise self-control. But it is clear from both his own words and his record that he never gave up warring against the weaknesses of the flesh and that they did not gain mastery over him, or he could never have written: “In no way are we giving any cause for stumbling, that our ministry might not be found fault with.” He browbeat his body, keeping it under control. It might be said that by keeping up our warfare against selfishness, against a lack of self-control in little things, we will not so likely cause stumbling by yielding to gross sins.—Jer. 31:29; Gen. 8:21; Rom. 7:18, 19; 2 Cor. 6:3; 1 Cor. 9:27; Ps. 51:5; Mark 14:72.

4, 5. (a) What visible foes do we have to face in our efforts at self-control? (b) What invisible foes?

⁴ And secondly, we have lined up against our efforts to exercise self-control this wicked system of things composed of Godless, selfish men. They endeavor to exploit us by appealing to our weaknesses for their personal gain. (1 John 2:15, 16) It is to their interest that we give way to our passions, overindulge in food and drink, engage in loose unclean conduct, read lascivious literature, attend immoral movies, become fanatics in sports, or needlessly burden ourselves down with debts because of buying things we could ill afford. And then there is the example of those about us who yield to such temptations.

⁵ Thirdly, we have also to contend with the ones exercising invisible control of this present wicked system of things, Satan its god, together with his demons. (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 6:12) He succeeded in causing Eve to act without self-control and tried his worst to cause Jesus to act in a similar manner. (Matt. 4:1-10) We may never forget that we have not only visible foes to deal with but, most of all, invisible ones, the chief of which “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone.”—1 Pet. 5:8.

GOD’S SPIRIT AND WORD OUR HELPERS

6. (a) What poweful force has Jehovah provided to aid us in acquiring self-control? (b) How in particular can that force be obtained?

⁶ But even as we have powerful forces working against our exercising self-control, we have still more powerful aids to help us to exercise it, chief of which are God’s holy spirit and his Word. As we read: “Not by a military force, nor by power, but by my spirit,” Jehovah says. (Zech. 4:6) What a great help God’s holy spirit is in exercising self-control Paul makes clear: “Keep walking by spirit and you will carry out no fleshly desire at all.” That IS self-control! More than in any other way, that holy spirit can be acquired by regularly and earnestly feeding on God’s spirit-filled Word. From Genesis to Revelation it is filled with direct and indirect admonition to exercise self-control. As we have seen, it gives us many warning examples of the harm that results from a lack of self-control and many fine examples showing the wisdom of exercising self-control and the rewards for it.—Gal. 5:16.

7-9. (a) What counsel does God’s Word give us as to controlling our thoughts? (b) Our spirit or emotions? (c) Our affections, longings or desires?

⁷ Among the things that God’s Word directly counsels us is to control our thoughts. Due to inherited weaknesses and the imperfect and wicked conditions all about us, it is very easy to think wrong thoughts, proud, bitter, resentful, impure and self-pitying thoughts. Because of this we are counseled to ‘make our minds over’ and to train them to ‘keep considering the things that are true, righteous, chaste, lovable, virtuous and praiseworthy.’ The goal we are to strive for in our thinking is to bring “every thought into captivity to make it obedient to the