The Mastery of Freedom: Self-Control in Election Season
“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”
Every candidate for office will tell you that elections are about freedom. But they’re really about control. Control of the presidency, control of Congress, control of a city or county, and control of the soil conservation board — whatever that is. The clamor for control is seemingly everywhere, but too often there’s a glaring absence of control in one place: ourselves.
In fact, it’s sometimes easier to control others (or at least attempt to control them) than it is ourselves. Self-control suffers in our hands because we’re both the subject and the initiator of the control. The Apostle Paul tells Christians in Galatians 5:16-24 what it means to walk by the Spirit, listing nine fruits produced by the Holy Spirit that begin with love and end with self-control. But the friction caused by bringing our wayward actions, ideas, and feelings under control is often too much for us to bear. We spiral out of control, and it’s never without consequence. As Proverbs 25:58 reminds us, “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”
And a city that’s left undefended is a city that loses its freedom. It’s somewhat ironic that lack of self-control will cause us loss of freedom, but it’s true. German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw this all too well. In the section of his poem “Stations on the Way to Freedom” entitled “Self-discipline,” he paints self-control as an avenue to freedom:
“If you set out to seek freedom, you must learn before all things
Mastery over sense and soul, lest your wayward desirings,
Lest your undisciplined members lead you now this way, now that way.
Chaste be your mind and your body, and subject to you and obedient,
Serving solely to seek their appointed goal and objective.
None learns the secret of freedom save only by way of control.”
Absent self-control, we expose ourselves to being controlled by other entities, thus abdicating our freedom. Self-control gives us the freedom to move. If I discipline myself to train for a marathon, I have a shot at completing it. If I lounge on my rear for six months, I’m only going to make it a couple of miles. My lack of self-control constrains me. Paul had much to say about athletes and self-control:
“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:25–27, ESV)
In an election season there are many ways we can deep-six our self-control. This could look like publicly lashing out at an opponent on social media. It could look like not doing due diligence and spreading misinformation online. It could also look like failing to be discerning and getting all your information from the legacy mainstream media. During a contentious election, we cannot abandon our foundational principles. Without self-control, our anxieties will run rampant over us, and instead of being the kind of people shaped by Christ and his gospel, we will instead become people shaped by the turbulence of the world.
Self-control is difficult, and if we’re honest, most of us aren’t naturally cut out for it. Self-indulgence comes much more easily. Eating the fourth cookie isn’t that hard after you’ve already eaten the third. Thankfully, God in his mercy works in us when we walk by the Spirit to produce the kind of self-control we need. It is not outside our reach when we are walking by the Spirit. Paul writes in 2 Timothy that “…God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
Rooted in the self-control produced by the Holy Spirit, we can approach election season in a spirit of freedom. We can exercise our votes for freedom, because we are now free from being controlled by the world and its fruit. No matter who gains control of the presidency, Congress — or even the soil conservation board, with Spirit-fueled self-control, we’ll remain free.
[Editor’s note: This is the final installment of the “Fruits in Season” series, exploring the impact of the biblical “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16–24) on Christians during election season. Read the complete series here.]
Jared Bridges is editor-in-chief of The Washington Stand.
