Dear Friends,
John Newton used to say, “I have read of many wicked Popes, but the worst pope I ever met with is Pope Self.” It’s a wise Christian who realises that, and who realises the desire of that old Pontiff to set himself up on a papal chair in our hearts.
There is hardly another subject more pin-pointed in the Word of God than the issue of self, and it lies right at the outset of the Christian life for any who would enter into that life. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” That word of our Saviour is, most assuredly, a call to the sacrificial Christian life of cross-bearing; but it is also a directive as to how we bear any cross in the Christian life. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself” – that is the first step; then comes the taking up of the cross and following Christ. There are many self issues that need to be dealt with by God’s grace in the initial work of conversion – the greatest of these probably being self-righteousness as opposed to Christ-righteousness. But, for ever thereafter, we enter into a life that revolves around the denial of self in its many and varied forms. You can take the prefix of self and attach it to numerous motions or emotions of the human heart, and when you do you’ve got a problem to contend with in your Christian life. Self-righteousness (which never really leaves a Christian, if we understand self-righteousness aright, self-will; self-seeking; self-reliance; self- aggrandisement. Fill out the list for yourself; it is probably endless.
It is very much the issue of self that Paul has in mind when, by the Holy Spirit of God, he lists “temperance” as part of the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians chapter five; “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance …” Temperance simply means self-control, and is very much an all- embracive virtue in the Christian life. When we are in danger of manifesting hatred instead of “love,” badness instead of “goodness,” pride instead of “meekness,” it is “temperance” – self-control – that can come into operation and help us to be productive of those other parts of the fruit of the Spirit. Self-control acts like a “sprinkler valve” and helps to douse an over-heated heart or mind before it bursts into flames. Self-control is like a “modulator” to the ear that tells me that what I am hearing if off-key and will only result in damage to my ability to hear aright those things that are honest and of good report. Self-control acts like a “brake” on the tongue, or a “fuse” in the mind, or a “burglar alarm” to the soul. The devil knows that self is a blind-spot with us all, and how he labours to exploit that blind spot. Self blinkers us to the existence of others, and gives us a tunnel vision with regard tour own acts or actions. Doesn’t Paul, again, give us the example of the physical runner for anyone who would rightly run the Christian race and finish it? “And every man that striveth for the mastery,” he tells us, “is temperate in all things.” The athlete exercises self-control, that’s what he’s saying. We all ought to know this well enough: let a runner indulge his “self” in what he eats and what he drinks, and let him fail to train and fail to build his muscles, and he will soon know about it when he drops out of the prize-list and out of the running. Well, says Paul, shall we not learn from that? “They do it to obtain (only) a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” If they exercise temperance in their sphere – self-control – how much more we? (1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24ff.)
There is another very telling word from the apostle Paul, in his second epistle to the Corinthians – 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9. He is speaking about the time when he and some of his fellow-workers were engaged in the spread of the gospel in Asia. “We would not have you to be ignorant of our trouble,” he tells them, “… that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.” We were like a pint jug, says Paul, into which the Lord in His will and purpose seemed (to us) to be pouring two pints! “Pressed out of measure.” “But” he says, “we had this sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves …” It is tacit confession that Paul is making in those words to the Corinthians, that there, in the Asian missionary journey, there was a time when he and the others had begun to give ear to old Mr Self-trust in the affairs of their life. So, says he, God poured in trouble after trouble – bringing us to the very pronouncement of death itself in our lives. For what reason? “That we might not trust in ourselves.” That we might learn to put old Mr Self-trust on the gallows. “But we had this sentence of death in ourselves, that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead.” It is the death of self-trust and the life of God-trust that Paul is speaking about there, and of course, the agent he would employ in the execution of self-trust would be Mr Self-control – Mr Temperance. We should be quite convinced in our minds, if Mr Self-control doesn’t gain the upper hand with Self-trust, Self-righteousness, Self-will, Self-reliance, or whatever, then Self will have the upper hand and eventually bring us down. It is like Ahithophel in the history of David. There was no counsellor quite like him in Israel, but when his counsel was rejected, he couldn’t bear it, and he went out and hanged himself. There is often too much Ahithophel in all of us; we resent the rejection of our counsel, or our assessment, or our advice etc.. And it is that spirit that old Mr Self-trust exploits as he drives us on to a form of “spiritual suicide,” and then rejoices over our calamity.
Mr Spurgeon, in his usual telling way, has a word very much akin to what is involved in the issues of Self in the Christian life. “The old proverb has it,” he says, “Here’s talk of the Turk and the Pope, but ‘tis my next-door neighbour that does me the most harm.” So he says, “It is neither popery nor infidelity that we have half so much cause to dread as our own besetting sins.” And then, a lovely appeal that ought to find a place in all our hearts and minds on account of the lovely ironic force of its wording:
“We want more Protestants against sin, more Dissenters from carnal maxims, and more Nonconformists to the world.”
And then the final application: - “Our own besetting sins require far mor of our watchfulness than State blunders or Ecclesiastical abuses.”
“Here’s talk of the Turk and of the Pope, but ‘tis my next neighbour that does me most harm.” “I have read of many wicked Popes, but the worst pope I ever met with is Pope Self.” May we all be aware of that old fellow within our breasts and, by the grace of God, be able to call on the aid and the strength of the grace of God, be able to call on the aid and the strength of one who is of another character altogether – Mr Self-control; Mr Temperance.