Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Self-Control

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

We all have a problem with self-control. You can’t be circumspect without coming to the end of a day and looking back and saying, “Why did I say that? Why did I follow that impulse?”  The Greek word used here for self-control translates to self-command. It’s a synonym for being free, because if you’re not self-controlled, then you’re out of control. If you’re out of control, then you’re a slave to some other forces.  Paul knew a lot about self-discipline and self-control, and here’s what he tells us: 1) what it is, 2) how it’s born in you, and 3) how it can grow. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 30, 2010. Series: The Real Signs of the Spirit. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 9:23-10:13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. The Bible says there's a world of difference between a willpower-driven heart and a supernaturally changed one. Today, Tim Keller is unpacking one of the fruit of the spirit, helping us see what it means to move from trying to be good to truly changing from the inside out. Tonight's scripture, reading is found on page 8 in your bulletin and it comes from first corinthians chapters nine and ten i do all this for the sake of the gospel that i may share in its blessings do you not know

that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize run in such a way as to get the prize everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training they do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

These things happen to them as examples, and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. The word of the Lord.

In Galatians 5, verse 22 and 23, Paul lists nine traits of a supernaturally changed heart. They're also called the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, and so on. And what we've been doing is each week taking one of them and looking at one so that we can see these traits appear in our own lives. and tonight we come to the last one in the list in Galatians 522-23 it's called self-control and that same Greek word occurs here it's a little bit hidden by our translation because the translation says in verse 25 everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training and literally, that's just a way the translators paraphrased or rendered a phrase that literally says everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.

That's what Paul said. And the word for self-control is the same word he uses in Galatians 5. It's the word egocratia, which means ego, ego, self, cratia command. Self-control is self-command, and actually it's a synonym for being free, because if you're not self-controlled, then you're out of control. If you're out of control, then you're a slave to some other forces. And so to be free and to be self-controlled is the same thing. And Paul is using this illustration of the athlete preparing for a game, you know, to compete

in the game, to get across the biblical understanding of self-control. Now, we need this because we are not in control. We have trouble controlling our tongues. We have trouble controlling our thoughts. We have trouble controlling our feelings, our impulses, let alone all the millions of addictions that we can also develop, like addictions that have to do with drink or drugs or sex or spending or gambling or eating disorders or rage. And you can't be circumspect without coming to the end of a day and looking back and saying,

why did I say that? Why did I follow that impulse? We all have a problem with self-control. And Paul gives us his secret. And he was one of the five or six most influential people who ever lived. He knew a lot about self-discipline self-control and self-control. And here's what he tells us, what it is. Secondly, how it's born in you. And then thirdly, how it can grow. What it is, how it's born, how it grows. First of all, what it is. there's a master illustration here. He says, if you compete in the games, and he's thinking about the pan-Helenic games like the Olympic Games,

and you're going after a prize, a crown. And by the way, you notice where he says, the crown does not last because you didn't get medals back then in the Olympic Games. You got a literal crown, and it was made out of a, it was a wreath. It was a garland, you know, you've seen pictures of it. And it did, of course, fade. You know, you couldn't put your crown aside. and 10 years later look at it, you know, it literally went to, you know, turn to dust.

But Paul is talking about the self-control that an athlete has. Because if you want that prize and if you want that crown, then everything else in your life is under control. You might want to eat, but you can only eat certain things. You might want to sleep in, but you have to get up to exercise. You might want to stay out late, but you've got to get to bed early. Every single thing in your life is under control, so you can get the prize.

Now, that's the illustration it uses to talk about spiritual self-control, and it's telling, because let me give you two alternate approaches to virtue. There's an ancient approach, it was the Greek idea, but it's still with us, that the body is bad and the spirit is good, and because the body, the Greeks thought, was the source of emotions, and the mind was the source of your body, logic and your rationality. Therefore, virtue was considered, self-control was considered the mind over the emotions. Do the logical thing, do the rational thing, and control and suppress your

emotions, because your emotions are your lower nature. The alternate approach to virtue, which we have today, I mean, the older approach is still with us, but we have another approach that doesn't see your emotions as the problem. It doesn't see suppressing emotions as your cure. It sees suppressing of emotions as the problem. See, the modern idea says, don't do self-control, do self-discovery. Get in touch with your feelings. Find your feelings. And then express them. Don't let somebody tell you what's right or wrong for you. You find what you feel is right and wrong, what you feel you want to do. And you do it. So get in touch with your feelings. you know, express your feelings, that's the virtuous ideal.

And by the way, if you want an example of these two alternate competing approaches, just go watch Star Trek on TV. Because if you take the older Star Trek with Spock, you have the traditional approach because he was always trying to suppress his emotions. But if you go into the next TV series with data, he was always trying to express his emotions, right? because there you have the older and the ancient, traditional, and the modern, postmodern approach to emotions and what you're supposed to do with them. But the Bible says neither. And here's the reason why. First of all, think of the athlete. Where is the self-control coming from?

Well, he has desires or she has desires to eat, to sleep, to do these various things. But they're all under control. Why? Because the athletes want the prize. They want the crown. But let me ask you a question. Is that mind over emotion? No. You know why? Because why do you want athletic excellence? Why do you want athletic glory? The desire for athletic glory and athletic excellence is a desire. It's not the conclusion of the logic. It's a passion of the heart. And what Paul is saying here in using this illustration is that it's not like here's the mind and here's the emotions, all these passions are under control because there is one passion that controls all the rest, that masters and orders all the rest. Because you want the prize,

all the other things are under control. And see, this goes along with biblical psychology. The Bible does not divide human beings into head and heart, into faculties like mind and emotions. In fact, if you read the Bible carefully, you'll often be confused because there's many places where it talks about thinking from the heart. And that's because when the Bible uses the word heart, it does not mean what we mean in the English language by heart. The heart was the center of the personality, according to the Bible. And it was the place where your fundamental commitments existed.

It's the metaphor for your fundamental trust and commitments. And see, what you think and what you feel and what you decide all flow from the the heart. Because whatever you most trust, whatever you most love, whatever your heart is most passionately trusting and loving in, sets the course for everything else. And if your heart's divided, if your heart is divided, and you actually don't have one single overmastering passion, then your life is going to be out of control. There's going to be all kinds of problems you have. So see, Paul's illustration here, on the one hand, critiques the ancient idea of mind over emotions because you see the desire for the prize is not mind versus you know eating as an emotion

oh no actually all of our passions are combinations of thinking and feeling and freedom and self-control is rightly ordering your loves rightly ordering your passions which is also a critique of the modern approach now here's what i mean by that the modern approach says find your feeling and express them. Get in touch with your deepest feelings and follow them and express them. Well, that doesn't work. And I'll tell you the reason it doesn't work. If you actually follow your deepest feelings, you'll find that they're also contradictory, that you'll just split up. So let me give you an example. I want to eat chocolate ice cream, not low fat, no sugar. I want chocolate ice cream and I also would like to be thinner and they are both very strong emotions very

strong emotions and so okay modern man modern woman get in touch with your deep emotions and follow them I want to eat chocolate ice cream I want to be thin follow them you just split because they're at loggerheads may give you one that's maybe not as comical you want a career you want a family So you want success, but you also want relationships, want community. And the fact is, if you want to totally be committed to your career and totally be committed to success and glory, that actually gets in the way of even nurturing a prospective marriage partner in a relationship, certainly gets in the way of nurturing an actual marriage and nurturing your family.

And the fact is, you can never be as successful as you would be if you just forgot about relationships, and you can never be as strong in your relationships. If you just go whole hog on your career, these things are a loggerheads, and you're going to have to choose. Often you're going to have to choose. Now, St. Augustine years ago, obviously since he's been dead a long time, St. Augustine once said that sin is disordered love. It's, that is, that's a brilliant understanding of what the Bible teaches.

Sin is disordered love. It's loving things out of order. So what he says, for example, is, if you choose individual glory over friendships or even over your family, you're actually going against the way in which God created the world because relationships is very, very important. If you put your own individual glory first, instead of serving other people and nurturing community, you're going against the fabric of the world. and what that means is there will be breakdown because you're loving secondary things

as if they were primary, and you're loving primary things as they're secondary. You're loving things out of order. And if you have disordered love, it leads to breakdown. And so the modern idea that you just get in touch with your feelings and you just, you know, discover them and you get in touch with them and you express them makes no sense because we have all these contradictory feelings. You have to decide which are the liberating ones. see it's more liberating to use the desire to have good health and to lose weight

to master the need to eat every time you see something because in the long run you know if you live you know twice as long you'll eat a lot more chocolate ice cream in the end in other words which of those two desires should be given the priority which one should you choose which one should you let engage your heart more so you can control the other one You have to find the right one. You have to find the one that fits in with your design. In that case, the design of your body. And so Augustine says, if you rightly order your loves,

you will become increasingly a self-controlled free person. Or put it this way, unlike what the ancients say, unlike what the modern say. Self-control is not a matter of mind over emotions. It's not a matter of just being in touch with your feelings. It's loving, supreme thing supremely. it's finding those supreme things and letting them engage your heart wholly undividedly and that brings self-control because you can see it you know paul's using an illustration of an athlete and he knows

it's a limited illustration i do know certain athletes that have really pretty much in their physical life because they want the prize they want the gold medal or whatever they actually have their physical life in enormous you know order you can't pinch it in inch. They're perfect about what they eat. They're perfect about how they sleep. They're perfect about exercise perfect. And yet, of course, because they have this, as Paul says, their goal is a crown that will not last. They also only, because they have a limited crown, a limited prize, they only have limited self-control because they might have physical self-control, but very often, and no offense to those of you who have been athletes or are athletes, you know, you can have your

body under incredible control and your soul be utterly a wreck. know, destructive perfectionism and fears, anger, everything, Paul's saying, if you love the supreme thing supremely, if you seek the crown that will last forever, then everything in your life, if you're able to get your heart fully and supremely rested in that, everything else in your life will start to come together. Well, so that leads us to this question. What is that crown that will last forever? What is it? See, you know, Lord's, how does this self-control really happen in our lives? And the answer is, it's not as simple as you think. Because when you read that and you say, ah, you know, they run for a crown that will not last,

but we run for a crown that will last forever. We say, oh, I know what that means. It's a heavenly crown. Paul's talking about his salvation, that someday he's going to stand before God and God's going to say, well done, good and faithful servant. That's what I'm care. I want to please God. I want to do his will. I want to be accepted by him. I want his salvation. Now, you think that's what Paul's saying? That that's the prize? That that's the crown that will last forever? Uh-uh. Because, I mean, if that's what he was saying, that he's working so hard to be a good Christian, he's working so hard to be a good Christian leader, so someday he knows God will bless him and accept him and save him. If he's saying that, he's contradicting everything else he's said anywhere else in the Bible.

because everywhere Paul is always saying, I am saved. In Christ, I am accepted. Salvation is a gift. It's not something I run for. It's not something I work for. So I don't want to be disqualified from the prize. You see verse 27? Is he saying that if I don't really live a very good life, I might find in the end that I'm not saved? No, he couldn't be saying that. Well, then what is it? With Christmas just around the corner, we are inviting people to sign up for our Advent Devotional series, which you can receive daily from November 30th to December 24th. The daily meditations will help you take time to think about the meaning and joy that comes from Christ's birth. Each day of Advent, you'll receive a devotional with a meditation on a Bible passage that focuses on why Jesus came into the world, to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father. We believe that during this short season, this is a great tool to help you focus.

on the hope, joy, peace, and love we have through Christ's birth. You can sign up by visiting gospelonlife.com slash advent. Again, to sign up, go to gospelonlife.com slash advent. In addition to the daily emails, you'll also receive a video message each Sunday. The weekly video message starts each week of Advent with a meditation from Tim Keller, followed by a brief discussion with Tim and Kathy talking about something they noticed in the meditation. It's our prayer that through this Advent series, you experience the hope and joy that comes from Christ's birth, and that it is a source of encouragement to you this Advent season. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching.

See, the goal that will give you self-control, by the way, I've been very convicted by this over the years. This is not what you might think. The goal that brings self-control that Paul's talking about, this crown, is not just pleasing God. of course you're going to please God. It's not that general. It's not that abstract. It's in verse 23. He says, I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings. Now again, the English, you know, on the surface, even that looks like he's saying this. I am striving with all my might that someday I might experience the blessings of salvation in my life. That's not what he's saying. Here's the reason why. First of all, the word share.

there's two aspects of this very complex verb that can't be gotten across with a simple English translation. First of all, the word share means share with others, something you already have. So the first thing he's saying is, the great passion of my life is not to get salvation, I've already got it, but to share the blessings that I'm having. What Paul is saying is I'm experiencing some kind of bliss, some kind of joy, some kind of beauty, something in the gospel, and I don't want to enjoy it alone. I more than anything else want to make sure that other people are enjoying it too. But that's not all he's talking about.

Because this word that can be translated share can also be translated, participate. And what he's saying is, I want to participate in the gospel in such a way that all kinds of other people experience the blessings I'm having in it. What does that mean? And all the commentators are actually in agreement about it. Paul is trying to say, not simply that he wants to evangelize people, not simply that he's just trying to proclaim the gospel

so you can see a lot of people get converted. That's not what he's saying, only. What he's actually saying is, I want to so embody the gospel, I want to so participate in the gospel, I want to so reflect the gospel, I want to so display the gospel in my life, that anybody, anybody at all, who looks into my heart, into my life, will see how the gospel

operates, will see the beauty that I see at it. And this is an absolutely comprehensive life goal. See, if I really thought of this mainly that his great goal is just simply to see a lot of other people become Christians like he is, if I adopted that as a goal, it wouldn't be enough to give me self-control. You know why? If my goal was to see a lot of people become Christians, I would work strictly on my rhetorical skills. I would make sure that I totally disciplined the parts of my life I needed to discipline in order to stand up here and do what I'm doing right now really well. But there's all kinds of other things that I would be free to do. You know, Eleoris, there's all, by the way, I happen to tell you this,

you can definitely be a great performer. And some of you know this. You can be an incredible performer. You can even be a great Christian teacher, a great Christian preacher, a great Christian evangelist, while other parts of your life are falling apart. Because if the goal, if this overarching goal is strictly just that, it's only to, you know, see people become Christians. That's not the only goal. The goal is to say, I want anybody who looks deep into my heart to see that the gospel completely dominates me, that if you want to understand how the gospel work, if you want to understand how God's salvation works, I'll embody it for you, I'll display it for you, I'll represent it, I'll reflect it. And if that is, Paul's telling us, if that is the

overmastering, unified passion of your life, it is the supreme passion of your life. It's not just one good thing that you'd like to get done among others. If it's a supreme passion of your life, you're going to find it brings everything else into self-control, under control. You say, well, how do we even get started with that? Here's how you get started with that. When Paul says in verse 26 and 27, I'm like a runner, see, I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I beat my body and make it my slave. By the way, don't be thrown by verse 27. I beat my body. That's not Paul saying the body is bad. He's not an ascetic here, like the ancient ascetics that really thought the body was bad, the spirit is good. So they just hurt their body just to become more spiritual.

He's not talking like that. He's working through the metaphor of the athlete. He is saying that just as an athlete runs until your heart feels like it's going to give out. Runs even though you're in agony, runs and runs. He says, I am like a runner, spiritually speaking, not physically. Why? Because of this incredible goal. So when he says that life, and I love that, the idea of life being a race, it's not a saunter, it's not a walk through the woods, life is a race, because life is hard, life is challenging. Your heart constantly feels like it's a breaking. That's another good thing. but I can tell you, the only time I've ever really run very long distance is I feel like my heart is just going to explode. And frankly, that's life. Your heart's always breaking. It's hard.

So life is like a race, Paul says, and I'm in the race, but I'm trying to race in such a way that I get my crown. Well, you know what? Paul's not the only person that talks about life for us being a race. In the book of Hebrews, it also says life is like a race. But the book of Hebrews gives us the secret for how you can run in such a way that you're not disqualified. Because in Hebrews chapter 12, we read this. Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with endurance, the race that is marked out for us. How? Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorned its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

See what the book of Hebrews is saying, if you want to run, well, look to Jesus because he ran well. Jesus was a runner. Jesus left heaven and came to earth and became a human being, and he ran the race of being a human being. And he ran all the way to the cross, and he endured, and he never gave up, even though not only did he feel like his heart was breaking, but Jesus' heart actually did break, because when they spirit him, out came blood and water. Well, why did he run? For the prize, what was the prize? The joy that set before him. What was that? What joy did Jesus Christ have to come to earth to win that he didn't already have in heaven?

Did he come to earth and he ran for the glory of the Father? Yeah, but he already was living for the glory of the Father. I mean, he already had that. Was he trying to love Father? Yes, of course, when he was on Earth, he loved the Father. But he already had that. What prize did he not have that he could only win if he came to Earth and ran the race and went to the cross? What's the answer?

You and me? You are Jesus' crown. You are Jesus' glory. you are the most precious thing and when he ran that race you realize that he was the only human being that ever ran the race who deserved the crown of life see Jesus Christ

love God with all his heart, soul strength, and mind and he loved his neighbors himself just like you and I are supposed to be living but you see none of us love God like we should none of us love each other other people as we should we're all disqualified none of us should get the crown And Jesus is the only human being who ever ran the race that deserved the crown of life, right? But when he ran that race perfectly and he got the end of his life, what did he get? Oh, he got a crown.

What was it? It was the crown of thorns. He got a wreath on his head, too. But he took the crown of thorns that you and I deserve for the way in which we've run. See, we were disqualified. But he took the crown of thorns so that when you believe in him, we get the crown of life that his running of the race earned. You don't consider that beautiful?

You don't find that astounding? Whenever you see something of incredible beauty, you want other people to see it and share in its blessings, don't you? When you hear great music, don't you grab your friend and say, you know, stick your iPod in their her ears. Listen to this, because you want the person to go, wow. Why? Well, you love your friend, but also your friend's joy in the same beauty completes your joy in it. The more he or she enjoys what you found beautiful, the more you enjoy it too. It's just natural. It's just an impulse. And what Paul was saying is, when I see what Jesus did for me, how he ran the race and he took the

crown of thorns and I might have the crown of life, when I realize that I am his crown, you are his crown when I realize he loves us like that that what that's beautiful and that captures my imagination and that captures my heart there's a place in the book of psalms where the psalmist says unite my heart to fear thy name see our hearts are divided that's why we don't have self-control unite my heart and this will do it looking at the gospel looking into the beauty and the love of the gospel and the grace of the gospel until it just becomes the overmastering passion of your life that unites your life, unites your heart, and then you've got something that will bring every part of your life into control. I think I need to, you know, I know that if you stop here without any kind of

practical guidelines, some people say, this is inspiring, but I'm not sure how to get my hands on it around it. At the very, the last three verses there, which I actually called out of chapter 10, which is a little further down in the text, there's actually three very practical things there that will help you, I think, see this kind of self-control grow. And here's what those three things are. The Bible, community, and trouble. The Bible, community, and trouble. Those three things will press you to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And the more you look at him, and the more you love him, and the more you see him, the more your life will come under control. What are those three things? First of all, look at

verse 11. This is very fast. These things happen to them as examples and were written down. Now, he's looking, actually, he's referring to what he just talked about in the book of Exodus. He was quoting the book of Exodus and about the wilderness wanderings of Israel. And he was using this earlier in the chapter to apply to them. And here's what I conclude. When you see Jesus Christ being tempted, and what's the temptation? A temptation is a test of your self-control. Whenever Jesus is attacked by Satan, whenever Jesus is attacked by the religious leaders, even when Jesus is attacked by his executioners and crucified.

How did he handle every temptation? Scripture, he quoted Scripture. He knew the Scripture. He was so saturated in the Scripture that whatever happened, it came to mind. and that's the first practical thing I can tell you for self-control, no matter what your problem with self-control is, if when you're being tested the scripture just comes right to mind, it's an amazing help.

Because it automatically turns your heart to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. You need to so know scripture, so memorize scripture, so be saturated in it, that when the test comes to mind. And that's the first, very, very practical way to have this self-control grows. Secondly, community, because verse 12 says, so if you think you are standing firm, be careful you don't fall. That's an exhortation.

He's telling the Corinthians, you are overconfident. You're overconfident and you're setting yourself up for a fall. What is he doing? He's rebuking them. He's exhorting them. And I can tell you this. You will never experience growth in self-control if you don't open your heart to a few other Christians who can hold you accountable, who can see.

speak into your life, as it were. Hebrews 313, exhort one another daily lest you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You've got to have people who can come and talk to you or you will not grow in self-control. So Bible, community accountability. But lastly, look at the last verse, which I already started to read, no temptation has seized you. Huh? The test, they come upon you. Difficalities, difficulties. They test yourself control. No temptation has seized you, except which is common to other people. God is faithful, and he won't let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you're tempted, he will provide a way out so you can stand up under it.

And all this, boy, you can have a whole sermon on this, but I can point this out to you. No one grows in self-control unless tests seize you, difficulty sees you, and you just have to cling to God in his faithfulness to get you through it. nobody ever really knew where you have problems with self-control unless tests come into your life that show you you don't have the self-control you thought and therefore unless you have difficulties difficulties that drive you into the arms of God and difficulties that drive you into the arms of your community your friends and drive you into the into the scripture you're not going to grow in self-control but every time these things happen these tests and trials you just go to

God and say, Lord Jesus, make thyself to me a living bright reality. Be more real to me than you've ever been before, and he will be, and more and more you will grow in self-control. Let's pray. Our Father, we all struggle with self-control. And actually, our struggles in very many cases are rather secret. Not all of them. Plenty of us. Plenty of us. have struggles with self-control that all of our friends can see. But there's an awful lot of our struggles that we keep pretty secret. And I pray that you would take the searchlight of your word and with the power of your spirit,

take these words of the scripture into our hearts where we maybe keep things rather dark. We don't want to admit our problems. We don't know what to do with them. And I pray that the words of this text of the Word of God will illuminate our hearts so we know what we should be doing. We pray that you would help us be more accountable to each other. We would cling more to you,

that we would deal with these problems because they're hurting us, and they're hurting especially our ability to help other people share in the blessings of the gospel. Oh, Lord, help us. Please help us to grow in grace in the knowledge of your son, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.

Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel on Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelonlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelonlife.com slash partner. Today's sermon was recorded in 2010. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between

1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Thank you.