TEMPERANCE

Acts 24:25 And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, go your way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for you.

As we see in the verse before this one, Paul was ministering to Felix about faith in Christ. There are three big things that Paul was led to speak to Felix about and that was righteousness, temperance, and judgement. The combination of these caused Felix to send Paul away, so it obviously must have convicted him and instead of turning to the Lord, Felix sent Paul away. I want to look at temperance, one of the three Paul was ministering to Felix. What is temperance? It is the last fruit of the nine fruits of the born-again spirit mentioned in Galatians 5. The Greek word for temperance is egkrateia, and it means self-control, restraining one’s passions and desires. It is similar to will power but much better because temperance (self-control) comes from the spirit realm instead of the soul realm. Paul must have really shaken Felix up talking about self-control, and I would say it was an issue with Felix since later verses tell us he was waiting on someone to give him money for Paul. The Word of God tells us about this fruit again in 2 Peter 1:5-8 when we are told to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. When you add these to your faith life, you will not be barren or unfruitful. It is interesting that right after knowledge, the Holy Spirit tells us to add self-control (temperance). Self-control is obviously very important if we are going to successfully walk out this life in Christ. Without the fruit of temperance, our flesh will run wild. Temperance means you are in control of your desires. There are many things in this life that are good unless they are taken to an access. Anything that you can’t put down, can’t live without, and have to have lest you go crazy, then temperance is lacking, and that fruit must be developed in your life. There is some additional wisdom in Proverbs 25:16 (NASB2020) given to us which says, “Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, so that you do not have it in excess and vomit it.” Honey is good; it is sweet and even good for you, unless you eat too much and then, it can become a real mess. Proverbs 25:28 (NASB2020) says, “Like a city that is broken into and without walls so is a person who has no self-control over his spirit.” In other words, when temperance is not found in your life, it is like leaving all the gates open into your life and then, you are headed for destruction because you have opened the doors wide for the devil to come steal, kill, and destroy. Thank God, He has given us this fruit of the spirit called temperance to combat the evil tendencies of our flesh.