A City With No Walls
Ryan O’Neill
Options are tough. Blue pill or red pill? Salad or pizza? Dogs or cats? (Very obviously dogs)
I’ll often want coffee after 4pm but I know that If I do indulge, I’ll stay up all night.
More than anything, most days I want to sit down and pound a whole box of Chicken in a Biscuit, but I know that if that’s the case I’ll have to work three times as hard as I currently do in the gym to maintain my health.
The practice of self-control can have massive effects in our lives. It can help reduce stress; if we’re in school or class it’s proven to help get better grades; the art of practicing self-control leads to having better relationships with your friends, and spouses; can translate to being better at sports; and it starts young! A 40-year study of 1,000 children revealed that childhood self-control strongly predicts adult success in people of high or low intelligence, in rich or poor families.
Above all, not surprisingly, self-control is an integral part of a healthy spiritual life.
Proverbs 25:28: “A person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls.”
Today our cities don’t really have walls - at least not nearly to the extent they did back when this was written. Back then, in this context, walls were crucial. They were built for security, described as thick and strong, grand, and sometimes considered impenetrable. Plainly put, they were made to keep a city safe, and to keep things out. With this in mind as the context of our passage in Proverbs, if a wall is broken down, all the harmful things that are meant to be kept out now have a casual stroll right on in.
King Solomon (the author of Proverbs) knew about this. Why would he be worried about self-control? Because walls that are broken have no chance of being able to protect. This weaves massive implications into the conversation of self-control and the impact it has on our spiritual lives. Those who live their lives devoid of self-control will have no defense against different forms of temptation and the attacks of the enemy.
On the contrary, self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. It comes from a posture of allowing God to mold and form you, and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you and direct you in a way that is beneficial to the Kingdom. As Christians, it goes into everything we do. We need it to allow ourselves to grow closer to God. With this in mind, it’s important to focus on building up our walls with spiritual disciplines and practices like reading scripture, being a part of a healthy Christian community, meditating with the Lord, silence, and prayer. These forge a healthy, robust wall that can defend against attack.
Romans 6:6 says that we are slaves to sin. We will always be inclined to slip into the pervasive nature of our sinful desires. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, we are incapable of knowing and choosing how best to meet our needs. But with the Holy Spirit, we make decisions that will allow us to cultivate a deeper relationship with the Lord while staying away from negative influence. Proper self-control leads us to better allow God to be in control. Simply put, self-control is the on ramp to spiritual maturity, and is crucial as a disciple of Christ.