Enduring Grace

Tim Keller opens with a surprising claim: self-control, the ability to order your life so you can endure hardship and resist temptation, is not actually about control at all. It is about coherence. The Greek word egkrateia means "self-rule," but the real problem is not a weak will fighting strong feelings. The problem is a disordered heart, where lesser desires have pushed their way to the top and everything is out of alignment. Keller argues that the only way to get true self-control is not to try harder, but to be captured by a greater passion — one that reorders everything else from the inside out.

Self-Control Is Really Self-Coherence

Keller begins by pointing out a paradox that Plato noticed: if you are your own master, you must also be your own slave, since the same person is the subject and object of the command. The Bible resolves this by showing that the self is not a single thing but a collection of many desires. The problem is not desire itself but epithumia — over-desire, or desire that is out of order. A desire for rest is good, but if you want rest more than you want to work, your life falls apart. A desire for food is good, but if it dominates, you get physical and emotional problems. Self-control, then, is the ability to always choose the important thing over the urgent thing because your desires are properly ranked. The most important things you want