Self Control, the most difficult virtue

Self control is last in the list of the fruits of the indwelling presence of the Spirit in Galatians 5; as a result it is given much less emphasis by many in comparison to love, joy, peace, and the rest. I've been accused in the past of having too much self-control, as if control over my feelings and reactions were somehow a bad thing, but I think it is the most important of the seven, principally because none of the other virtues are even possible without a developed capacity for self-control.

Love, in its supreme self-sacrificing meaning, doesn't come naturally to the soul. We live in a world of sinners and those sinners are going to offend us often. A person without self-control is going to react to this, both by passive withdrawal and most especially active tit-for-tat. The desire for retribution must be controlled or love will disappear.

Joy isn't possible in this world when one considers the overwhelming amount of evil, both without and within one's own soul. Looking to Christ and His power to affect good and restrain evil in our lives takes effort and a determined looking away from one's circumstances and looking to Him.

Peace and Patience in the face of adversity requires a firm grip on the sovereignty of God, knowing that He has His purposes in situations that aren't going as we would have them go. A natural reaction of frustration, anger, and the acting out of these is completely natural, when you've put yourself in the driver's seat of what's "good" for your life. It takes a self-controlled mind to surrender and admit you haven't the foresight.

Gentleness & Goodness in the face of the overwhelming amount of need in the world isn't something that comes naturally; it's far easier just to sit on your butt and leave it to all the activists. It doesn't take much self-control to sit around; it takes an enormous amount to have the "well, I don't really feeeel like it, but I'm do it anyways."

Self-control is the most difficult aspect of living in a sin-cursed world, with an inborn bent to sin that persists so long as we are in this world. Thank God we aren't judged on how well we've lived or how much self-control we've shown, because we would all at our best fall hopelessly short. The perfect Example of self-control has lived for us the life we should have lived.