A Korean king with faltering self-control may need this device. The cup is placed on top of the pedestal. Wine is poured from the carafe, but only two ounces. That amount may be sipped from the cup, but if even a drop or two more than exactly two ounces is poured into the cup – its entire contents magically drain away and disappear into the pedestal. Self-imposed moderation.
Moderation and self-control are defense mechanisms. They protect us against the impetuous urges of our fallen sinful human nature. Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control (Proverbs 25).
But more than simply a means of bridling impulse, self-control is a fruit of the Spirit Paul says in Galatians 5; it is a reflection of the fact that there is more to us as Christians than our base, natural instinct. Instead, God grants his children a new perspective on life, one responsive to our Savior’s grace and blessing, one focused on the world ahead he won for us.
We have faltering self-control, but there is no drinking cup with vanishing contents to constrain us. So we pray that God’s Spirit would govern the way we live, what we consume, how we treat others, the words we speak and the things we seek. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me (Philippians 1). When our self-control fails, in faith we take hold of our Savior Jesus Christ, both the strength he gives and the forgiveness he won.
(ELS mission work in South Korea is conducted by the Asia Committee of the Board for World Outreach.)
Find this interesting? Share it!
Steve Petersen
