Posted to SA blog, new book , 7-13-2015

Actually, the Bible is more clear than you might suspect on this sensitive issue. Do you remember Galatians 5? The whole answer is contained in this passage:

16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

I could stop here. Those who walk in the Spirit will not let their bodies control them. They will not obey their bodies. Their bodies will obey them.

One thing we have often missed in this conversation is the fact that control, when you are manifesting the fruit of the Spirit, comes from self, not directly from God. We are hoping for those moments when God Himself will overwhelm us and cause us not to eat so much. That’s not the promise. The product of the Holy Spirit is an ability within you, within your desire system, your will, your strength, to say no to that cookie and that cake and that junk drink and that 3^rd helping. Self-control. God controls my heart, and gives me the ability to control my self, my fleshly urges, including all those things that are related to my physical body. I am in charge. Because God is in charge. Not a contradiction in terms, this, but a profound truth!

Perhaps it is helpful to go behind Paul to Jesus, in his famous vine and branches message of John 15 to see this more clearly:

4“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

So we pray. Always. Longer periods of time as the years go by. More and more of our life consumed by Jesus. He in us. We in Him. Slowly we are formed into His image. We receive His desires. We pray for those desires to come to pass, including self-control. He imparts to us this desire because it is His desire, too.

Do you see a fat Jesus as you imagine Him in His body when He was here? Have any of the great artists through the years ever depicted Jesus in this way? Do you see Him sheepishly grabbing at junk foods and saying the silly things we say about them? “I just can’t help myself when I’m around this kind of cookie.” “Oh man! I’ve just got to have _____ , fill in the blank.” Do you see Him gorging Himself at a feast, then joking, “I guess I’ll start my diet tomorrow…” It is true He hung around people like that, people like us, but do you truly believe He had no self-control when the table was piled with food? Don’t you believe He knew how to deal with plenty?

He wants us to look and act like Him eventually. Not because He has mesmerized us and turned us into machines of obedience, but because we want to, and have the self-control to make it happen.

His servant Paul thought along these lines in 1 Corinthians 9:

24Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 25Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Are these the words of the overweight? Was this man a shameless slave to his own passions? Could he say no to the fine foods around him in Greece and Syria and Asia? The answers are clear. Paul was in a competition, against his own inner longings. Temptation was constant with him as with us, and the only way he knew to fight it off was to use the gift he had been given of self-control. I call it a gift here because the Holy Spirit Himself is a gift. We like to distinguish between fruit and gift of the Spirit, but everything that comes from God is a gift.

If Paul had not been able to control his body, how could he have preached to others about how wonderful this Jesus really is, who can change our entire lives?

I trust my readers/hearers are getting both sides of this story. I’m not talking about human-style self-discipline, nor was Paul. I’m talking about friendship with Jesus that is so real that Jesus imparts to us the powers of His own Spirit, Who in turn gives us the ability to do whatever needs to be done. This is a Jesus thing, this weight loss.