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Greek Word for Self-Control: What Does “Egkrateia” Really Mean?
Quick answer: The Greek word for self-control is ἐγκράτεια (egkrateia), pronounced eng-KRAH-tay-ah, Strong’s G1466. (The Greek “gk” is said like the “ng” in “finger.”) It’s built from en, “in,” and kratos, “strength” or “power to rule,” so it means “power held within”: mastery over yourself. The KJV translates it “temperance.” The noun appears only four times in the New Testament (Acts 24:25, Galatians 5:23, and twice in 2 Peter 1:6). Its most famous use is the last item in the fruit of the Spirit, which holds a surprise: the Bible’s word for self-control is listed as something the Spirit grows, not something you manufacture.
Word Study: Where “Egkrateia” Comes From
It starts with power. The root, kratos, is a strong word. It means might, grip, the power to rule. The New Testament uses it for God’s own dominion in doxologies like “to him be glory and dominion for ever” (1 Peter 5:11). Add the prefix en, “in,” and you get egkratēs: someone who is “in power,” who has a firm hold. Egkrateia is the quality of having that grip on yourself: your appetites, your temper, your tongue, your body.
The Greeks prized it. Unlike some Bible words the church had to rescue from a bad reputation, egkrateia was already admired. Xenophon reports Socrates calling it the foundation of virtue. Aristotle gave it a whole discussion in Book 7 of his Nicomachean Ethics, and he drew a sharp line that still helps. The egkratēs person, he said, feels strong desires pulling the wrong way but holds firm. The akratēs person, the “powerless” one, knows what’s right and gives in anyway. Self-control, in its original sense, isn’t the absence of temptation. It’s strength in the middle of it.
You can see it in Joseph. When Joseph finally faced the brothers who sold him, he nearly broke down. Genesis 43:31 says: “And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread.” In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, “refrained himself” is a form of this same word family. Joseph’s heart was bursting. He held it, for the moment, for a purpose. That’s egkrateia: not a cold heart, but a full one held in a strong hand.
So when Paul lists egkrateia as fruit of the Spirit, he’s using a word every Greek reader already respected, and quietly changing where it comes from. The philosophers treated it as the peak of human willpower. Paul lists it alongside love, joy, and peace as something grown by God.
Want to see self-control lived out by the One who never lost it? Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, pressed by crowds, and provoked by enemies, and He never lost hold of Himself or His mission. The best way to grow that kind of strength is to walk with Him, day by day, through the Gospels. 30 Days Walking with Jesus is a set of short, easy-to-read devotionals that bring His words, actions, and love to life. It’s built for new Christians learning how to start and for long-time Christians who want the connection back. The 3-day sample below is free.
Where This Word Appears in the Bible
The noun egkrateia is rare in the New Testament, but its family shows up in some memorable places: the verb egkrateuomai (G1467, “to exercise self-control”) and the adjective egkratēs (G1468, “self-controlled”). Watch the KJV: almost every time, it says “temperance” or “temperate.”
| Reference | Text (KJV) | What the word is doing here |
|---|---|---|
| Galatians 5:22–23 | “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” | The ninth and final fruit of the Spirit (egkrateia) |
| Acts 24:25 | “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come Felix trembled…” | One of three things Paul preached to a Roman governor (egkrateia) |
| 2 Peter 1:6 | “And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;” | A step on a ladder of growth, used twice in one verse (egkrateia) |
| 1 Corinthians 9:25 | “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” | The athlete’s training discipline (verb, egkrateuomai) |
| Titus 1:8 | “But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;” | A required quality for church leaders (adjective, egkratēs) |
Look at 1 Corinthians 9:25 again. Corinth hosted the Isthmian Games, and its people knew what an athlete gave up for a wreath of leaves that would wither within days. Paul’s point is simple: if they’ll train like that for a crown that fades, what should we be willing to do for one that doesn’t? And he applies it to himself first: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection” (9:27).
Verse Deep Dive: Acts 24:25, the Sermon That Made a Governor Tremble
“And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” (Acts 24:25)
On the surface, this looks like a general sermon on three big topics. Once you know who was listening, and what egkrateia means, it reads like Paul pointing straight at the governor’s heart.
1. Look who’s in the room. Verse 24 says Felix “came with his wife Drusilla.” The Jewish historian Josephus tells us how that marriage happened: Drusilla had been married to another king, and Felix persuaded her to leave her husband for him. The Roman historian Tacitus described Felix as a man who used a king’s power with a slave’s mind. This was a ruler with plenty of power over others and very little over himself.
2. Paul chose his three topics on purpose. Felix asked to hear “concerning the faith in Christ” (24:24). Paul could have given a safe, abstract talk. Instead he spoke about righteousness (the justice Felix was supposed to uphold as a judge), egkrateia (the self-mastery his marriage showed he lacked), and judgment to come (the day when even governors give account). Each one landed somewhere personal.
3. The powerful man trembled before the prisoner. Paul was the one in chains. Felix held all the kratos in the room: the power to free Paul or keep him. But Paul spoke about the power that really matters, rule over your own desires, and Felix was the one shaking. Real strength, the passage suggests, isn’t measured by how many people you control.
4. And then Felix proved the point. “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Felix did call for Paul often after that, but verse 26 tells us why: “He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul.” Two years later he left Paul in prison to please the crowd (24:27). The man who trembled at a sermon about self-control couldn’t control his greed, his fear of people, or his habit of putting off what mattered. The “convenient season” never came. That’s the quiet warning in this passage: the opposite of egkrateia isn’t always a wild binge. Sometimes it’s just “not now.”
Not All “Self-Control” Is the Same
The New Testament has a small cluster of words around self-control, including its opposite, which the KJV translates with the old word “incontinent.”
| Word | Meaning | What it’s about |
|---|---|---|
| egkrateia (ἐγκράτεια, G1466) | Self-control, “power within” | Holding firm against desires that pull hard |
| akrasia (ἀκρασία, G192) | Lack of self-control, “powerlessness” | Giving in. KJV: “excess” (Matthew 23:25), “incontinency” (1 Corinthians 7:5) |
| akratēs (ἀκρατής, G193) | Without self-control | Listed among the marks of the last days: “incontinent” (2 Timothy 3:3) |
| sōphrosynē (σωφροσύνη, G4997) | Sound-mindedness, sobriety | A settled, well-ordered mind. KJV: “soberness,” “sobriety” |
Matthew 23:25 is worth a second look. Jesus tells the Pharisees they “make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.” “Excess” is akrasia. These were the most outwardly disciplined religious men of their day: fasting, tithing, rule-keeping. Jesus says that inside, they had no self-control at all. Rules on the outside aren’t the same as strength on the inside.
Titus 1:8 puts two of these words side by side: “sober” (sōphrōn) and “temperate” (egkratēs). Aristotle’s distinction helps explain why Paul might want both. Sōphrosynē is the calm of a mind that’s well-ordered. Egkrateia is the grip that holds when the mind is under pressure. A leader needs a settled head and a strong hand.
Why the Original Word Changes the Meaning
“Temperance” got too small. When the King James Version was made in 1611, “temperance” meant moderation and self-restraint in every area of life. Over time, especially after the temperance movements of the 1800s, the word shrank to mean mostly “not drinking alcohol.” Read Galatians 5:23 with that modern meaning and you’d think the last fruit of the Spirit is about one habit. Egkrateia is much bigger. It’s mastery over every appetite: food, anger, spending, screens, sex, words, the urge to put off what you know you should do today.
“Self-control” isn’t self-made. This is the bigger surprise. The Greek philosophers treated egkrateia as the crown of human effort. Paul puts it on a list with love and joy and calls the whole list “the fruit of the Spirit.” Fruit isn’t built. It grows from a living connection. A few verses earlier, Paul gives the strategy: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Notice the order. He doesn’t say “stop fulfilling the lust of the flesh, and then you’ll be spiritual.” He says walk with God first, and the grip grows.
That’s good news if you’ve tried and failed at self-control more times than you can count. The kratos in egkrateia, the power, doesn’t have to start with you. It’s God’s strength, growing inside you. Your part is staying connected, and choosing, again and again, to let it hold.
And it protects you. Proverbs 25:28 puts the alternative plainly: “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.” Self-control isn’t a cage. It’s a wall around a city: it keeps what’s precious in and keeps what would ruin it out.
Living It Out
Pick one area where you feel akrasia, that “powerless” feeling of knowing what’s right and doing the other thing anyway. Don’t pick five. Pick one.
Then do two things this week. First, like the athlete in 1 Corinthians 9, make one concrete training choice ahead of time, before the moment of temptation: leave the phone in another room, decide what you’ll say before the hard conversation, don’t buy the thing you know you’ll overeat. Second, like Galatians 5:16, pair it with walking in the Spirit: a short prayer at the exact moment the pull comes. Not “help me be stronger,” but “hold this with me.” And if you give in, don’t take Felix’s way out and wait for “a convenient season.” Start again today.
Journal Prompts
- Aristotle said the self-controlled person still feels the pull but holds firm. Do you think that feeling a temptation means you’ve already failed? How does it change things to see self-control as strength in the middle of temptation, not the absence of it?
- Felix trembled at Paul’s words but said, “Go thy way for this time” (Acts 24:25). Is there something God has been nudging you about where your answer has been “not now”? What would it look like to stop waiting for a convenient season?
- Galatians 5:23 lists self-control as fruit of the Spirit, not a product of willpower. Where have you been trying to white-knuckle your way to self-control on your own? What would “walking in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16) look like in that specific area this week?
Prayer
Lord, You know the places where I have no walls, where I know what’s right and do the other thing anyway. I’ve tried to fix it with willpower, and I keep coming up short. So I’m asking You to grow egkrateia in me, not as my own achievement but as the fruit of Your Spirit. Give me a strong hand over my appetites, my words, and my moods, and a full heart held in that strong hand, like Joseph’s. When I’m tempted to say “not now” to You, help me say “today” instead. Thank You that Your strength can do in me what mine never could. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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- The Greek word for self-control, egkrateia, means “power held within.” And the Bible lists it as fruit of the Spirit, which means it’s something God grows in you, not something you have to white-knuckle alone. [Post URL]
- Paul preached about self-control to a governor who’d taken another man’s wife, and the powerful man trembled before the prisoner in chains (Acts 24:25). Real strength is rule over yourself. [Post URL]
FAQ
What is the Greek word for self-control?
The Greek word for self-control in the New Testament is egkrateia (ἐγκράτεια, Strong’s G1466), from en, “in,” and kratos, “strength” or “power,” so it means “power held within” or mastery over oneself. It appears in Acts 24:25, Galatians 5:23, and twice in 2 Peter 1:6. Related words are the verb egkrateuomai (G1467), used in 1 Corinthians 9:25, and the adjective egkratēs (G1468), used in Titus 1:8.
Why does the KJV say “temperance” instead of “self-control”?
In 1611, “temperance” meant self-restraint and moderation in all things, which was a good match for egkrateia. The English word later narrowed to mean mainly abstaining from alcohol. Modern translations use “self-control” to recover the original breadth: mastery over every appetite and impulse, not just one.
Is self-control a fruit of the Spirit or something I have to work at?
Both, in the right order. Galatians 5:23 lists egkrateia as fruit of the Spirit, meaning God grows it in you as you “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). But Paul also describes training for it like an athlete in 1 Corinthians 9:25–27, and 2 Peter 1:5–6 says to “add” it with diligence. The strength is God’s; the daily choosing to stay connected and act on it is yours.
What is the opposite of self-control in the Bible?
The opposite is akrasia (G192), literally “powerlessness,” translated “excess” in Matthew 23:25 and “incontinency” in 1 Corinthians 7:5, and the adjective akratēs (G193), “incontinent,” in 2 Timothy 3:3. Proverbs 25:28 pictures it as “a city that is broken down, and without walls.”
Grow in self-control by walking with Jesus. 30 Days Walking with Jesus offers 30 days of short, easy-to-read devotionals that bring Jesus’ words, actions, and love to life, whether you’re just starting out or rekindling a faith that has gone quiet. Start with the free 3-day sample:
