Self-controlled
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G4998 names self-controlled, sober-minded, sensible, or sound-minded, describing ordered desires and disciplined judgment under God's truth. Readers often come to this word asking about self-control, sober-minded leaders, sensible living, and Christian maturity.
Reader summary
Full entry for σώφρων (G4998) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4998 names self-controlled, sober-minded, sensible, or sound-minded, describing ordered desires and disciplined judgment under God's truth. Readers often come to this word asking about self-control, sober-minded leaders, sensible living, and Christian maturity.
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include self-controlled (3), [to be] self-controlled (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Timothy 3:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Titus (3), 1 Timothy (1).
G4998 names self-controlled, sober-minded, sensible, or sound-minded, describing ordered desires and disciplined judgment under God's truth. Readers often come to this word asking about self-control, sober-minded leaders, sensible living, and Christian maturity. In the Pastoral Epistles, the word must be read inside the sentence, the paragraph, and the local charge to Timothy or Titus before it becomes a broader teaching category.
This companion keeps the search question useful while refusing to let a search term control the text. It helps shepherds, teachers, leaders, churches, groups, families, and disciples ask what the passage is actually doing, how the word serves the book argument, and how the gospel governs the application. It also guards against equating maturity with personality restraint while missing the gospel-shaped wisdom and ordered life Scripture commends.
The aim is not to create a shortcut around Scripture but to make the word a doorway back into Scripture with clearer questions and better boundaries.
Self-controlled; sober-minded; sensible matters for readers because it opens the steady character required for those who lead, teach, serve, and model godliness.
An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
An overseer must be self-controlled as part of a tested character profile.
Instead, he must be hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
An elder must be self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.
Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love, and perseverance.
Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, and sound in faith, love, and endurance.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Mental soundness controlling behavior; sober judgment restraining impulse rather than mere discipline.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
self-controlled, temperate
Read verseself-controlled, temperate
Read verseself-controlled, temperate
Read verseself-controlled, temperate
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 4 lexical occurrence verses.
σώφρων is built from these roots:
Given the cultural challenges in Crete, elders must display inner governance by the Spirit rather than impulsive or culturally shaped behavior. Titus 1:5-9
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Teach G4998 by starting with the local passage and the burden that caused the word to matter there. The entry opens the steady character required for those who lead, teach, serve, and model godliness. A faithful teacher should define the word plainly, show how the immediate context uses it, and then move carefully to related witnesses without pretending that one word proves every doctrine attached to the subject.
This matters for end users who may search for self-control, sober-minded leaders, sensible living, and Christian maturity but need more than a dictionary answer. The word should bring them back to Christ, the gospel, the household of God, and the obedience Scripture calls for. It corrects impulsive spirituality and leadership that prizes charisma without sober judgment.
Keep the tone clear and sober: enough definition to orient the reader, enough canonical connection to deepen trust, and enough restraint to avoid making the word say more than the passage says.
1Tim.3.2
The adjective points to sound judgment and restraint. The local lists show how it functions among other character requirements.
Use the Old Testament and wider canonical background only where the cited passages or the local lexicon artifact warrant it. The Pastoral Epistles remain the controlling entry point for this batch.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain