Add to your faith temperance. This is the third of seven building blocks that Christians are to add to the foundation of the Christian life. The foundation is faith, without which it is impossible to please God.
It is interesting to note that in the list of the fruit of the Spirit given in Galatians 5, temperance is mentioned there, and it is the only fruit of the Spirit that is also mentioned in Peter’s list of add-ons in II Peter 1. The fruit of the Spirit—such as love, joy and peace—are manifest in the believer’s life when he is yielded to the Holy Spirit. You cannot produce these things; they are solely the result of what the Holy Spirit produces in the life of a yielded child of God.
On the other hand, the seven building blocks listed by Peter are things that are added on to one’s faith, and we can and should be involved in that process. We cannot add love, joy, or peace; they come wholly from the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. But we can, with diligent and devoted effort, add virtue, knowledge, and patience. The one exception to this list is temperance; it is a fruit of the Spirit, and we can add temperance to our life only as we are yielded to the Holy Spirit of God. But what is it, why do we need it, and how do we get it?
- What is temperance?
It is self-control, self-discipline, moderation: “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things…I therefore run, not as uncertainly: so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (I Cor. 9:25-27)
- Why do we need temperance?
(a) For sexual purity so that we will avoid adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, because “marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” (Hebs. 13:4) “But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints.” (Eph. 5:3) “The truth is, whenever man lies with a woman, whether they like it or not, there is set up between the two, a transcendental relation which must be eternally enjoyed or eternally endured.” (C.S. Lewis)
(b) In what we eat or drink: “For the drunkard or glutton shall come to poverty.” (Prov. 23:21)
(c) In matters mental: to avoid excesses such as anorexia, bulimia, depression, hypochondria, all sorts of phobias: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Thess. 5:23)
Interestingly, when Paul had the opportunity to witness at length of the resurrection of Christ to the Roman Governor, Felix, in Caesarea, he “reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come….” (Acts 24:25). Paul would not reason with an unbeliever of that which he could not obtain through self-effort, i.e. love (agape), joy, peace. But, one wonders whether Paul knew from common knowledge that Felix had a problem with self-control in some area such as anger or alcohol or adultery, and thus reasoned with him that there was a path to freedom from this torturing sin—that being through the righteousness and temperance that comes through knowing Christ and being indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
- How do we get it?
“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption: let all bitterness, wrath, anger, and clamor and evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice.” (Eph. 4:30,31)
“O that a man would arise in me that the man I am would cease to be!” (Augustine)
“Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Eph. 4:32) Temperance is a fruit of the Spirit which every believer can enjoy as he or she is yielded to the God’s Holy Spirit.
It was the wisest of the wise who said, “He that is slow to anger (temperate) is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” (Provs. 16:32) Strive diligently, therefore, to add to your faith temperance through moment by moment yielding to God’s Holy Spirit, who dwells within you as a believer. “Few,” one has opined, “are fit to be entrusted to themselves.” That is true even of believers! But entrusted into the guidance of God, through the work of His Holy Spirit, we can be governed in our spirit, soul, body and mind.
Believers are taught in the Holy Scriptures, by His spirit, to be governed in mind, body and spirit so that our lives will not be a reproach but a rebuke in a godless age that has removed almost every ancient landmark.
“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 19:21)
YOU and GOD 