Heard a sermon on Titus 2 last week. v2 says, “Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.” The word “temperance” stood out for me, and I’ve been thinking about it since. Temperance means “moderation”. The idea is that you control your natural appetites, so that you don’t indulge them beyond reason. It’s not talking about resisting a sinful appetite, rather it’s talking about controlling how much you indulge a good desire. The opposing vice is gluttony.
Temperance is certainly not a characteristic of our age and society. We seem obsessed with indulging ourselves, and re-indulging ourselves, with every good (and perceived good) thing we can find. So why is temperance a virtue? Well, we know that you really can have too much of a good thing. A fine meal is delightful. But too many fine meals will lead to obesity. A drink of wine is a good thing. Too much, and you will get drunk. Buying a CD is good. Buying too many will send you broke. And so on. I suspect every good pleasure can be perverted by over-indulgence.
And perhaps there is another reason as well. If we are continually giving in to our natural desires, we are establishing a bad habit. We are not developing or exercising self-control. That may be fine when we are desiring good things, but when we find ourselves desiring bad things, we will have no strength nor skill to resist. There is something weak and contemptible about someone who cannot control their appetites. And something very admirable about the person who can…
Cross-posted from my blog. I may or may not get around to writing about the other 6…