Basic HTML Version
I Keep My Body in Subjection, March 15
Exercising Self-control
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by
any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a
castaway.
1 Corinthians 9:27
The body is the only medium through which the mind and the soul are
developed for the upbuilding of character. Hence it is that the adversary
of souls directs his temptations to the enfeebling and degrading of the
physical powers. His success here means the surrender to evil of the
whole being. The tendencies of our physical nature, unless under the
dominion of a higher power, will surely work ruin and death.
The body is to be brought into subjection. The higher powers of the
being are to rule. The passions are to be controlled by the will, which is
itself to be under the control of God....
The requirements of God must be brought home to the conscience.
Men and women must be awakened to the duty of self-mastery, the need
of purity, freedom from every depraving appetite and defiling habit. They
need to be impressed with the fact that all their powers of mind and body
are the gift of God, and are to be preserved in the best possible condition
for His service....
Human barriers against natural and cultivated tendencies are but as
the sandbank against the torrent. Not until the life of Christ becomes
a vitalizing power in our lives can we resist the temptations that assail
us from within and from without.... By becoming one with Christ, man
is free. Subjection to the will of Christ means restoration to perfect
manhood.
Obedience to God is liberty from the thraldom of sin, deliverance
from human passion and impulse. Man may stand conqueror of himself,
conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of principalities and pow-
ers, and of “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” and of “spiritual
wickedness in high places.”
[79]
82