Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Spirit-Governed Man: Egkratēs and the Necessity of Self-Control in the Eldership

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The Spirit-Governed Man: Egkratēs and the Necessity of Self-Control in the Eldership · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We're launching a specific
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  series today that we're calling Reformed Thinking, and the
• 0:06
  concept is pretty straightforward.
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  We're taking a stack of these dense, heavy hitting theological
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  sources, you know, commentaries, Greek word studies, historical
• 0:16
  analysis, and we're going to try to extract the vital insights
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  for you. That's right.
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  And just to frame this up for everyone listening, we're not
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  just, you know, skimming the surface of general spirituality
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  here. No, we're looking at these
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  topics through the lens of the historic Protestant faith.
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  And specifically, we're adhering to the Westminster Confession.
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  The goal isn't to be academic just for the sake of it, but
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  really to show that sound theology is the engine for how
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  we live practical lives. Today we are tackling a topic
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  that feels, well, honestly, it feels a bit dangerous.
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  We're talking about leadership. It is.
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  But looking at these notes, this is not the kind of leadership
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  advice you're going to find on LinkedIn or, you know, in the
• 0:57
  Airport Bookstore business section.
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  No, it's dangerous because it attacks our default assumptions.
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  I mean, we live in a world that is obsessed with charisma.
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  Totally. We want leaders who are dynamic
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  platform builders, guys with that IT factor.
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  We look at results, we look at followers.
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  And we live in this age of what they call expressive
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  individualism, right? Where the highest good is to be
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  true to yourself and just let it all hang out.
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  The world asks a leader, what do you feel or what kind of numbers
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  can you put on the board? But when you open the
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  Scriptures, specifically the Pastoral Epistles which we're
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  focusing on today, the question changes entirely.
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  Scripture doesn't ask how big is your personality, it asks who is
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  your master. That is the hook.
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  We're doing a deep dive into the concept of the countercultural
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  shepherd. Our sources are focused
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  primarily on the Book of Titus, specifically chapter 1, verses 5
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  through 9, and the mission today is to uncover why God's remedy
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  for a chaotic, messy world isn't a charismatic CEO, but a man
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  characterized by very specific Greek word ecritus.
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  Self-control. It sounds almost boring compared
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  to visionary or revolutionary doesn't.
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  It it really does. But as we get into the text, I
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  think we'll see it's actually the most radical thing a leader
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  can be. So let's start with the context.
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  We have to go to the island of Crete.
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  We do, and we have to get rid of our modern mental image of
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  Crete. It sounds like a lovely
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  Mediterranean vacation spot now. Yeah, I'm picturing a beach.
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  Of course, but in the 1st century, Crete was a mess.
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  It was a pirate haven, a Center for mercenaries, and just
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  morally chaotic. So Paul Lee's Titus there with a
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  specific job. Titus 1.5 says This is why I
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  left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into
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  order. I want to pause on that phrase
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  put into order. The Greek word there is
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  fascinate. It's a medical term.
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  Oh, really? Yeah, it implies sitting a
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  broken bone, so. It's not just tidying up a messy
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  room. No, not at all.
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  It implies that the church in Crete wasn't just disorganized,
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  it was fractured. It was structurally unsound, and
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  the reason for that fracture was the culture itself.
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  The church was being infected by the surrounding atmosphere.
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  Paul actually quotes a Cretan poet again named Epimenides in
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  verse 12. And the quote is brutal.
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  He says Cretans are always liars, evil beasts.
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  Lazy gluttons. That is A1 star of you if I've
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  ever heard one. It is lazy gluttons.
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  I looked at the literal translation in our notes here
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  and it's Gaster's Argy. Idle bellies.
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  Idle bellies. Think about the image the
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  paints. It describes a culture that is
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  ruled entirely by appetite. It is ruled by the stomach.
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  If they want it, they eat it. If they feel it, they say it.
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  It's a culture of total consumption and 0 restraint.
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  Which, if we're being honest, sounds uncomfortably familiar to
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  the modern West. It's a mirror.
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  We might not call them evil beasts, but we certainly
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  celebrate the idle belly lifestyle.
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  Consumerism is just a fancy word for being ruled by appetite.
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  And this is where the countercultural part comes in.
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  The sources make a point that's just brilliant.
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  The elder, the leader in God's house, must be a counter cretin.
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  I love that concept, counter cretin, but isn't there a danger
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  there of just being a contrarian?
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  You know, just doing the opposite of whatever the world
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  does for the sake of it. It's deeper than that.
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  It's not about just wearing different clothes or listening
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  to different music. It's about the operating system.
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  If the culture is defined by consumption, the elder is
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  defined by abstinence. If the culture is defined by
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  indulgence, the elder is defined by discipline.
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  So leadership in the church is a polemical act.
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  It is. It's an act of war against the
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  chaos of the culture. So if a leader just mimics the
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  culture, if he lacks restraint, if he's just another idle belly,
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  he loses all moral authority. He can't heal the fracture in
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  the church if he has the same bone disease as the world.
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  He has to be fundamentally different in how he operates
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  internally. And that brings us to the core
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  word for this episode, equities. We need to do the word study
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  here. I know sometimes people glaze
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  over when we get into the Greek, but this one is really necessary
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  to understand the stakes. It really is.
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  What does equities actually mean?
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  Well it's a compound word. You have N meaning in and then
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  kritos which means strength or dominion.
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  So literally it means something like holding power within.
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  Inner mastery. Inner mastery.
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  That's a good way to put it. That seems almost stoic.
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  You can see why. Think of it as executive power.
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  It's the ability to govern oneself.
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  In Greek philosophy, they contrasted the Ecritos man with
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  the Ekrasia man. OK, what's that the?
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  Ekrasia man is incontinent. He's powerless against his own
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  drives. He might know what is right.
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  He might have the knowledge, but he has no brakes.
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  I see. Yeah, cartoon's man has brakes.
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  Yeah, he has the power to say no to himself.
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  Our sources draw a really interesting distinction here
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  between Eckerto's and another word in the list, Sufran.
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  Yeah, because in English Bibles we see them translated as
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  sensible, prudent, self controlled and it kind of blend
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  together, but they're not the same.
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  Thing. No.
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  They're distinct and the distinction is vital.
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  So written's about the mind. The mind, it's soundness of
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  judgment, clarity, the ability to see reality correctly.
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  You could call it the mindset. Ecritase is the muscle.
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  Break that down, the mindset versus the muscle.
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  OK, so a man can have clear thinking.
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  He knows he shouldn't eat the whole pizza.
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  He knows he shouldn't lose his temper at the board meeting that
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  is Sue's room. He sees the reality.
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  Got it. But if he lacks ecritase, he
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  eats the pizza anyway. He screams anyway.
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  He has the judgement, but not the power to execute that
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  judgment against the resistance of His flesh.
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  That is a huge distinction. I think we've all met people,
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  maybe particularly in academic circles, who are brilliant
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  theologians. They have the Sufran part down
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  cold. They know the doctrine, but
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  their lives are chaotic. Because they lack the equities
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  muscle. They have the map, but they
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  don't have the steering wheel. And Paul is saying to Titus, do
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  not appoint men who only have the map.
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  You need both. We should probably clarify what
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  this is not though, because I think when people hear
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  self-control they get a specific mental image.
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  They imagine the stoic just gritting your teeth, suppressing
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  all emotion, being a robot. And that is absolutely not it.
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  Christianity is not stoicism. We're not saying emotions are
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  bad. Jesus wept.
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  Jesus felt anger. Jesus felt great distress.
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  Becritism is not about killing emotion, it's about ordering it.
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  It's not asceticism either. We're not saying food is bad or
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  the body is evil. We're reformed.
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  We believe creation is good. So it's not about starving
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  yourself to prove your holy no. A man who starves himself
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  because he thinks matter is evil is not self controlled.
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  He's heretical. True self-control is the
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  stewardship of pleasure, not the rejection of creation.
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  Here's a tricky one mentioned in the source material.
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  It's not just personality. This is where search committees
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  get tripped up. Now so.
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  Well, some men are just naturally quiet.
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  They're introverted, they're conflict avoidant.
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  And we look at them and say, oh, he's so self controlled.
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  He never raises his voice. Right, the chill guy.
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  Exactly. But, the sources warn us,
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  silence is not always self-control.
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  A man could be quiet and still be enslaved to secret sins.
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  He could be seething with bitterness internally, but just
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  be too afraid to speak. That's fear of man, not mastery
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  of self. Precisely.
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  That is a really important diagnostic.
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  Just because someone is chill doesn't mean they're ecorotos.
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  They might just be passive. And passivity is a lack of
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  Kratos, a lack of power. Self-control is active.
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  It's an exertion of strength. OK, so let's move to the logic
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  of the list. In Titus One, Paul gives this
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  whole list of qualifications for an elder, and it starts with
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  this umbrella term above reproach.
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  Right, Titus 1.6 to 7. Now we have to be careful here
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  above reproach does not mean sinless perfection, right?
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  If it meant that the church would have no leaders, Peter
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  certainly would not have qualified.
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  So what does it mean then? It means there's no handle for
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  accusation. There's no subtle pattern of
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  scandal or hypocrisy that someone can grab onto and use to
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  discredit the gospel. It means his life is consistent.
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  And the metaphor Paul uses here to explain why this is necessary
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  is the. Steward God's Stuart This is the
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  theological key to the whole argument.
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  The church is God's household. It's not theirs.
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  It doesn't belong to the pastor, doesn't belong to the board, it
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  belongs to God. The overseer is a manager of
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  someone else's property. And the logic is, if a man
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  cannot rule his own self, his own internal household, how can
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  he possibly be trusted to manage God's external household?
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  That connects directly to the negative list.
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  In verse 7, Paul lists these five vices Arrogant, quick,
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  tempered, drunkard, violent, greedy, and looking at the
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  sources, these are not just random bad things picked out of
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  a hat. Not at all.
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  They share a root. They are all manifestations of
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  the ungoverned self. Walk us through that.
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  Connect the dots between, say, arrogance and the ungoverned
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  self. Look at them.
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  Arrogance or being self willed as in some translations put it,
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  is self pleasing. It's the demand to have your own
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  way right? Being quick tempered is self
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  defensive. Is the ego lashing out when it
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  feels threatened? OK, I can see that.
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  Drunkenness is self indulgent. Violence is self asserting.
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  Greed is self-serving. It is the ego run wild in five
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  different directions. Wow, so ecritize self-control is
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  basically the hinge that stops all of.
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  Those it's the counterweight, yeah.
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  You cannot avoid being a drunkard without the active
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  presence of self-control. You can't avoid being violent or
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  quick tempered without the active presence of self-control.
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  So. It's foundational.
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  It is. If you pull the pin on
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  self-control, all those other vices just explode.
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  This moves us into the theology of it all because we're talking
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  about self-control and mastery. But as we said, we're reformed
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  Christians. We don't believe you can just
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  bootstrap your way to holiness. This sounds a bit like we're
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  saying just try harder. And this is where we have to be
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  very, very careful to distinguish between moralism and
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  sanctification. What's the specific difference
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  in this context? Well, Greek ethics, like
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  Aristotle, saw self-control as a triumph of human reason.
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  I'm smart enough to control myself.
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  My mind is stronger than my body.
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  Right, the bootstraps idea. Exactly.
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  Christian theology sees it as a triumph of the Holy Spirit.
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  Galatians 5 lists self-control as a fruit of the Spirit.
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  It's not a work of the flesh. So practically, how does that
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  work? If I'm a leader struggling with
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  anger, I don't just say stop it, no.
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  You have to engage in what theologians call mortification
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  and vivification. Those are some heavy theological
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  terms. Let's unpack them for the
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  listener. OK, so mortification is the
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  spirit empowered killing of sin. It's strangling the desires.
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  You don't just stop the behavior, you attack the root
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  desire. But you can't just kill.
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  You have to bring life. That's vivification, the
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  enlivening of new obedience. You replace the love of sin with
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  a higher love, a love for God. So self-control is the engine of
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  that process. It's the act of fighting.
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  It is, and we have to avoid two big errors here.
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  On one side you have legalism, right?
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  Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.
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  Thinking that if I just make myself miserable enough, God
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  will be impressed. That's the aesthetic trap again,
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  the monk in the desert vibes. Right.
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  But the other error, and this is the one our modern culture
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  really struggles with, is antinomianism.
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  The idea that the law doesn't matter.
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  Yes. Or in modern terms, we call it
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  authenticity. We have this idea that being
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  real means venting every emotion.
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  I'm just being authentic by screaming at you.
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  Oh. Yeah, I've heard.
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  That one or I'm just struggling, honestly, while, you know,
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  indulging in sin. I'm just messy, that's who I am.
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  But a grace that leaves a man enslaved to sin is not biblical
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  grace. Biblical authenticity is
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  confessing sin, yes, but then killing it.
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  It is not making peace with it. The sources mentioned the third
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  use of the law here. This is a classic reformed
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  distinction. Can you explain that simply?
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  The third uses for the believer. We're saved by grace, justified
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  by faith alone. But because we're saved, we look
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  at the law, things like the 10 commandments for this list in
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  Titus to see how to please the God who saved us.
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  It's a guide. It guides our gratitude.
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  Self-control is concrete obedience shaped by gratitude.
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  Which brings us to the ultimate example.
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  Because if we're looking for self-control, we don't just look
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  at a list of rules, we look at a person.
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  We look at the Christological center.
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  Jesus is the ultimate ecritus. Let's look at the examples the
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  sources gave the Wilderness temptation.
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  Think about the contrast. Adam was in a garden surrounded
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  by food, and he failed to control his appetite.
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  Israel was in the wilderness and they complained about hunger
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  constantly. Then you have Jesus.
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  He's in the wilderness. He is starving, literally
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  starving. And Satan says turn these stones
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  to bread. He had the power to do it.
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  He. Had the Kratos the raw power, he
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  could have made a banquet, but he had the ecritus, the inner
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  mastery to say no. He mastered the biological Dr.
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  of hunger to obey the word of God.
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  And then the Passion Gethsemane. Gethsemane is the mastery of
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  anxiety, the mastery of the survival instinct.
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  Every human cell in his body was screaming to run away from the
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  Cup of Wrath and the Cross. Mere words fail us here.
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  He said he could call down legions of angels.
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  He had the power to wipe out his enemies instantly, but he held
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  it in. That is true, Kratos.
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  He's submitted to the Father. So for the Christian leader, the
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  elder, the point is not just try to be like Jesus in a mimicry
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  sense, it is deeper than that. It's union with Christ.
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  This is the heartbeat of Reformed theology.
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  And Elder is not just a guy trying to copy a historical
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  figure. He is united to Jesus by faith.
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  OK. The power for self-control comes
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  from the life of the risen Christ flowing through him.
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  The SAP that produces the fruit is the spirit of Christ.
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  That is encouraging because if it were just up to my willpower,
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  I am toast. But if it's Christ in me?
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  That changes everything. I mean self-control has received
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  power, not just a generated 1. I want to shift gears to the
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  practical side. Section 6 in our outline is
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  pastoral necessity. Why does the job of being a
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  pastor or elder demand this aside from just God said so?
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  Because the Church does not need impressive men, it needs safe
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  men. Safe men?
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  That almost sounds derogatory in our culture.
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  We want dangerous leaders, disruptive leaders.
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  We think we do until we get hurt.
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  Ministries high pressure, sheep bite.
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  People are messy. They complain, they sin against
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  you. If a leader is unrestrained, if
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  he lacks self-control, he becomes dangerous when the
• 15:28
  pressure rises. If he doesn't have inner
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  government, he exports his internal chaos onto the flock.
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  He vents. He vents.
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  He reacts. Imagine a counseling scenario.
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  Someone is telling you something difficult, maybe even attacking
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  you verbally. You're a terrible pastor.
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  You didn't visit my mom. If you lack self-control, you
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  panic or you lash out. You defend yourself.
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  Pastoral care requires the ability to listen without panic
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  and speak truth without harshness.
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  You can't do that if you're ruled by your emotions.
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  And then there's the authority aspect.
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  We've seen so many documentaries lately about abusive leadership.
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  Authority without restraint becomes tyranny.
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  It's that simple. If you have power over people's
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  spiritual authority and you have a need to win every argument or
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  need to be the center of attention, you will use people
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  as props for your ego. You'll crush them you.
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  Will crush descent self controls at the brake pedal that stops
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  authority from becoming abuse. And practically, elders are just
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  they're near the snares. They handle money.
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  They handle vulnerable people. They handle spiritual power.
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  Those are the three things that destroy men.
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  Money, sex and power. Right.
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  Without ecritase, simply being near those things will
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  eventually result in a scandal. It's inevitable.
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  It's like walking near a fire soaked in gasoline.
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  If you don't have the shielding of self-control, you will
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  ignite. Let's get concrete.
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  The sources give us a list of concrete marks.
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  Where must this be visible? Because it can't just be a vibe,
• 16:53
  it has to be observable. No, it has to be observable.
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  The first one is speech, the. Tongue James talks about this.
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  The tongue is the quickest revealer of the heart.
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  Restraint means not weaponizing the truth.
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  It means avoiding sarcasm. It means refusing to have the
• 17:08
  last word. It means refusing to win an
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  argument by volume or intimidation.
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  That is a tough one. The need to have the last word
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  is strong, especially if you know you're right.
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  It's the ego screaming I matter, look at me. self-control says
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  Christ matters. I can be silent.
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  The second mark is temper. Paul specifically forbids the
• 17:29
  quick tempered. The test here is how does he
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  handle contradiction when someone disagrees with him at a
• 17:34
  meeting? Does he view it as rebellion?
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  Does he take it personally? How dare you question me?
• 17:39
  Exactly. True self-control absorbs
• 17:42
  tension. It doesn't reflect it back as
• 17:44
  sin. Then we have appetites and
• 17:46
  habits. The lazy blutton check.
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  And this is where we have to modernize the application.
• 17:50
  In Crete it was food and wine. Today it might still be food and
• 17:54
  alcohol, but it's also entertainment, sleep, gaming,
• 17:59
  endless scrolling. A man mastered by comfort cannot
• 18:03
  serve a suffering flock. If he can't say no to his phone,
• 18:07
  how is he going to say no to a heresy?
• 18:09
  Good point. How is he going to get up in the
• 18:11
  middle of the night to visit a dying St. if he is enslaved to
• 18:14
  his own ease? That hits home.
• 18:16
  Then there's sexuality and digital life.
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  We have to speak plainly here. Pornography is the respectable
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  sin in many circles, or at least the hidden plague.
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  The requirement for an elder is a man who guards his eyes.
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  He refuses secret worlds of fantasy.
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  And prudence. Yes, avoiding flirtatious
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  ambiguity, not putting himself in situations that are
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  compromising. It's having clear hard
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  boundaries because he knows his own weakness.
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  Money is next. Contentment versus the greed for
• 18:44
  gain. Integrity with church funds.
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  But specifically, it's about whether he's happy with what God
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  has given him, or if he's always clawing for more status symbols.
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  And finally the no test. Can he say no to legitimate
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  goods? Can he say no to sleep?
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  To pray? Can he say no to leisure?
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  To serve? If you can only do what he feels
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  like doing, he's not a shepherd, he's a child.
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  That brings us to the counterfeits, because there are
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  guys who look self controlled but are not, and the church
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  often gets fooled by these guys. The devil is happy with a fake.
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  The first counterfeit is image management.
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  Reputation control. Exactly.
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  Looking common public but exploding at home.
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  The source calls this reputation control versus self-control.
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  One is fear of man, the other is fear of God, Right.
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  A man who controls himself only when people are watching is a
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  hypocrite, not an elder. Then there is the chill guy we
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  mentioned earlier. Personality being conflict
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  avoidant is not the same as having mastery.
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  He might just be lazy or scared he lets wolves in because he
• 19:45
  doesn't want the hassle of a fight.
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  That is not self-control. What about pragmatism?
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  This one seems rampant. He.
• 19:51
  Gets results. This is the excuse we make while
• 19:54
  he's a bit of a bully and he has a temper.
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  But look at how big the church is growing.
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  Look at the baptisms. We let giftedness cover
• 20:00
  character flaws as a counterfeit.
• 20:02
  We are trading long term health for short term stats.
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  And the last one, which I think is very tricky, spiritual
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  impulsiveness. Baptizing restless ambition as
• 20:13
  the Spirit leading. You see this with leaders who
• 20:15
  are constantly changing direction, constantly starting
• 20:18
  new things, acting on every impulse and calling it faith.
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  The Lord told me to launch 3 campuses next week.
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  The Lord told me to do this. Well, maybe.
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  Or maybe you just lack the self-control to stick with the
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  boring hard work of shepherding. Haste disguised as faith is a
• 20:34
  major counterfeit. True faith is often slow.
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  It waits on the Lord. So how does a church diagnose
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  this? If you're sitting on a search
• 20:42
  committee or you're a member looking at your leaders, what do
• 20:45
  you ask? You don't just ask, has he
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  sinned? Everyone has sinned.
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  You ask, is there a pattern of governance?
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  You look at the pressure points. What happens when he's tired?
• 20:52
  What happens when he's disappointed?
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  The. Sources suggest the home test.
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  Crucial What does his wife say? Or if you can't ask her
• 20:59
  directly, what is the atmosphere of the home say?
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  Is it chaotic? Is everyone walking on egg
• 21:03
  shells or is there peace? A man's public ministry is a
• 21:07
  performance. His home life is the reality.
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  So for the guy listening who is thinking man I am lacking here
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  or the church that realizes they need to grow in this, how is
• 21:18
  self-control cultivated? Section 9.
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  It grows through the ordinary means of grace.
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  Word, Prayer. Sacrament.
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  But it is not a magical download.
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  You don't go to a conference and get zapped with self-control.
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  It's a school. It is trained by grace.
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  As Titus 2 says. You show up, you read the Word,
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  you pray, you take the Lord's Supper.
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  It's the slow, steady drip of grace that forms the character.
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  And community. Accountability.
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  Sin thrives in secrecy. The mature man invites
• 21:48
  questions. He welcomes correction.
• 21:50
  He doesn't hide. He has men in his life who can
• 21:52
  look him in the eye and say you are out of line.
• 21:54
  And repentance as a rhythm. This is beautiful.
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  A self controlled man is not a sinless man.
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  He's a quick repenter when he loses his temper.
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  He doesn't blame shift. He doesn't say you made me
• 22:04
  angry. He says I sinned, forgive me.
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  He owns it and he turns. That is the mark of a spirit
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  governed man. This has been a heavy, but I
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  think a necessary conversation. As we wrap up, let's summarize
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  the vision here. The vision is that the Church
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  needs shepherds who are counter cretin.
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  The world is chaotic. The world is ruled by appetite.
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  We need men who stand against that chaos with a spirit wrought
• 22:30
  steadiness, men who are safe because they are governed by
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  Christ. And the hope is not in their
• 22:35
  willpower. Never.
• 22:36
  The hope is in the Chief Shepherd, Jesus.
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  He is the one who holds us. I want to leave you with a
• 22:42
  thought to chew on something that wasn't explicitly in the
• 22:44
  conversation but came to mind as we studied this.
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  OK, if the lazy glutton culture of Crete is a mirror of our own
• 22:51
  consumption obsessed world, then perhaps the greatest act of
• 22:54
  spiritual warfare today is not a miraculous sign or a massive
• 22:58
  viral sermon. Perhaps the greatest act of
• 23:01
  spiritual warfare is a man who can simply sit still, a man who
• 23:04
  can hold his tongue. A man who can obey God when
• 23:07
  every cell in his body screams I want.
• 23:10
  That is powerful. We have to ask ourselves, is our
• 23:13
  definition of strong leadership actually just unrestrained ego
• 23:16
  in a nice suit? Something to think about.
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  Thanks for joining us on the Deep Dive.
• 23:20
  See you next time.