"And [add] to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness" (2 Peter 1:6)
The beautiful word temperance occurs strategically in the theology of the New Testament. Temperance is the helmsman in easy control of the powerful ship as it ploughs through the sea with all its parts working in harmony.
Temperance is that in the Christian man's life which brings every faculty into harmony with every other, and the total personality into accord with God's plan for the whole man. In a life so directed there can be no place for excess.
Temperance is not automatic. It is listed among the fruit of the Spirit, but it requires prayer, Bible reading, cross-bearing, hard discipline, obedience and self-denial before it can become a fixed part of the Christian's character.
Those who are in the flesh live unto themselves; those who are in the Spirit live unto Christ. There are but two moral characters that are essentially different, and this is the radical difference between them.
~A. W. Tozer~
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