22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
But there is a brand of faithfulness which loses all its attractiveness by being dogged in the wrong way, and stubborn and obstinate, and this God will not own. Meekness is needed in our faithfulness, that mellowing quality which makes a faithful man 'easy to be entreated'. Not that meekness is weakness; on the contrary, it is obstinacy that is the sign of weakness. Moses was 'terrible in his meekness', and all the more so because he was under the strictest discipline and self-control (which is what 'temperance' means). The life of Moses is indeed a good illustration here: look at him at the Red Sea, smiting the waters with the rod of God, or coming down the mount of God to confront the Israelites with their sin in making the golden calf, anger blazing in his eyes. No, meekness is not weakness! Finally, self-control. This grace is designed to deal with the pressures from within, the fifth column seeking to nullify the effects of all our striving for God. It means 'getting the mastery inside oneself'. Sin has disrupted the unity and harmony of body, soul and spirit in the image of God in which we were created, bringing about a state of 'civil war' within, in which the lower orders have mutinied and usurped authority over the higher, with the physical dominating the emotional, the emotional the mental, and all three dominating the spiritual. The Spirit comes, in the gospel, to restore order, to subdue the usurping parts and put them in their proper place. This grace of 'self-control' comes last in the list, because it is the crown of the Spirit's work in a renewed heart. The disorder wrought by sin in men's lives does not disappear in a day, and not without tears and a cross can control be regained.