Fruit of the Spirit: Temperance, Summary

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith—which leads to faithfulness—meekness, temperance or self-control; against such there is no law. Self-control. The root meaning of this word is mastery, power. It means you can get a grip on life. It means that you have things under control. The word is not used often in the New Testament in its various forms; it's found only seven times. It literally means to get a grip on things, to get a grip on life. You see, either you are the master or you are being mastered. Either you and I are reigning in life or we are slaves.

Now please keep in mind that when the Holy Spirit of God controls your life, you do not go out of commission. He does not pull all of your fuses and He just moves in and takes over. Sometimes we pray, "Oh Lord, take over in my life," as though God is going to do it instead of us or in spite of us, but He’s not going to work that way.

Paul wrote to the folks at Corinth who were having a rough time in their business meetings; they just did not understand how to handle their business meetings and their worship services. And one would get up and say, "Now the Spirit has led me to say this," right in the middle of somebody else's sentence. And someone would be praising God or speaking forth the Word and someone else would stand up, and there was confusion. And Paul said God is not the author of confusion. And they said, "But Paul, when the Spirit of God gets a hold of you, you simply have to move." And Paul wrote to them and said, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, 1 Corinthians 14:32.

When the Holy Spirit takes over, you don't lose control, you gain control. This is why Paul wrote to the Ephesians, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, Ephesians 5:18. When a person is filled with alcohol, he loses control and makes a fool out of himself. He says, be filled with the Spirit. Now when you’re filled with the Spirit, you have control. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.

Paul was witnessing to Felix and Drusilla, Felix's wife, and listen to what he says, Acts 24:25: And as he, Paul, reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled. Now I should think he would tremble. You see, the Gospel involves righteousness. What about yesterday's sin? What are you going to do about that? The Gospel involves temperance, self-control. What about today's temptations? And the Gospel involves judgment to come. What about tomorrow's judgment? And if you're not ready on these three areas, you'd better tremble.

But notice at the heart of this: temperance, self-control. You see, when a person becomes a true believer in Jesus Christ, there ought to be self-control, not sin-control, not Satan-control, not control by the world and the flesh, control by the Holy Spirit. And once again, this control is not that of a master manipulating a robot. Rather, it is that inward working of the Spirit of God whereby He enlightens the mind, whereby He warms and stirs the heart, and whereby He gets a hold of the will. And it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. It's a beautiful experience.

In 2 Peter 1, Peter is talking about growing in grace. 2 Peter 1:5: And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience. Notice now, you say, "I have a lot of Bible knowledge." Good. Have some self-control to be able to use that knowledge for God's glory. A part of growing in grace is growing in self-control. You know, we as Christians would not think of going to some wicked place of amusement.

We would not think of turning our bodies over to some vile sin or some ugly habit, but we lack self-control when it comes to, well, eating, or getting up in the morning to read the Bible and pray, or perhaps spending money, or perhaps controlling the tongue. Visit the average church congregation and look around, and you wonder whether God is producing self-control in our lives today. So let's not look at the unsaved crowd; let's look at ourselves today and ask ourselves, do we have the fruit of the Spirit, which is self-control? I've had preachers say to me, "Brother Wiersbe, I just can't get a hold of myself to study like I should." Well, one of the gifts of the Spirit, one of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. And it's important that we do what God wants us to do. Now let's just apply this to certain areas of our lives.

First of all, we need self-control in the area of the body. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul compares the Christian life to an athletic contest. Let me read it to you. 1 Corinthians 9:24: Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. You see, in the Christian life, everybody can get the prize, everybody can get a reward, not just one. Everybody has that wonderful possibility. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things, 1 Corinthians 9:25.

Just as an athlete says, "Sorry, I have to go to bed tonight, I'm not going to stay out. Sorry, I don't want any of that food, I'm watching my diet. Sorry, I can't go to that party, I've got to do my exercising." Just as an athlete exercises self-control, so must we physically. Don't believe this lie that there's a difference between the physical and the spiritual. You are one person. I am one person. And many times what we think is a spiritual problem is a physical problem. We're not taking care of our bodies as we should. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.

Now they, these athletes, do it to obtain a corruptible crown. They gave them a wreath that faded. But we an incorruptible. Now Paul concludes this by saying, I keep under my body, 1 Corinthians 9:27. That is, I control my body and bring it into subjection. Why? Lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. He’s not talking about losing salvation. The word castaway was an athletic term meaning somebody who was disqualified. An athlete is disqualified if he doesn't keep the rules. If he breaks training, he’s disqualified. If we disciplined ourselves with half of the discipline of a good athlete, we'd all be better Christians. But we're not taking care of our bodies like we should.

Secondly, we need to have discipline in our minds. Why? Because the mind controls the body. As he thinketh, so he is. Whenever somebody plunges into some gross sin, you can be sure of one thing: he started thinking about that a long time before he fell. Wrong thinking leads to wrong living. Paul writes this way in 2 Corinthians 10:5: Casting down imaginations, reasonings, casting down every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Now he’s talking here about spiritual warfare. The people in Corinth weren't thinking right, and they were arguing with Paul and resisting the Lord. Paul said, "When I show up, I'm going to use God's truth, not physical weapons; I'm going to use spiritual weapons and I'm going to get into your minds and we're going to bring down, pull down those high walls, just like Jericho. We're going to pull down those high walls that are resisting God's truth, and I'm going to get every thought into captivity to obedience to Christ."

Now we need our minds to be disciplined. The Spirit of God wants to discipline the mind so we think like Christians. We don't think like unsaved worldly people. Jesus told His disciples He was going to go to the cross and die, and Peter said, "Far be it from You, Lord, this will never happen to You, pity Yourself." And Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan, you're not thinking like God, you're thinking like a man." And one of the great tools that Satan has to wreck churches and to wreck homes is to get people thinking the wrong thoughts. Are your thoughts captive to the Holy Spirit? Do you think Bible? Do the precepts and promises and principles of the Word of God control your thinking?

A third area where we need self-control is the tongue. My, all the trouble that comes in homes and in churches and in our lives today because of the tongue. Proverbs 13:3 says, He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life. You want to spare yourself a lot of trouble, a lot of difficulty, just get control of your tongue. In James 3, James tells us that the tongue is a fire and the tongue is a dangerous animal, a poisonous animal, and the tongue can do all kinds of damage.

On the other hand, the tongue can be a great blessing. What we say to others can be an encouragement to them. And how important it is to learn to control the tongue. Proverbs 10:19: In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. That's a good statement, isn't it? Letting the Holy Spirit control our tongue. The Holy Spirit of God controlling the body, controlling the mind, controlling the tongue. And when the Holy Spirit is in control, then all of our being is being used to the glory of God. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith—which leads to faithfulness—meekness, temperance or self-control; against such there is no law. We read these words in Galatians 5:22-23. But let’s keep reading. Galatians 5:24: And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. The fruit of the Spirit does not come automatically. No fruit grower ever gets fruit automatically. It’s something you have to work at. And Paul tells us in Galatians 5 the steps that we must take if we are going to have the fruit of the Spirit.

Number one: we must face the fact that there is conflict. It is not an easy thing to produce the fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5:16: But this I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth or desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would, Galatians 5:17. You say, "Well, today I am not going to lose my temper," and you're sure to do it. Because you see, law brings out the worst in us and grace brings out the best in us. The strength of sin is the law, 1 Corinthians 15:56 tells us that.

Now how do we accept this conflict? Well, realize of course we’ve got to agree with what God says about us, about our nature. If you're saying, "Well, I can control my sinful nature," then you aren't agreeing with God. If you say, "Well, I can change my sinful nature," then you're not agreeing with God. Everything God says about the flesh is negative. I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, Romans 7:18. Having no confidence in the flesh, Philippians 3:3. Those that are in the flesh cannot please God, Romans 8:8. The flesh is not subject to God's law, Romans 8:7. The flesh profits nothing, John 6:63. Now once you accept that, you accept God's estimate of you, then you've taken the first step toward producing the fruit of the Spirit.

If we argue with God and say, "Well, now God, I'm not as bad as other people," or "I don't do the wicked things other people do," there's no hope. We’ve got to come and say, "Lord, in me there dwells no good thing. I was conceived in iniquity. I cannot change my flesh, I cannot cover this sinful nature, I cannot control this sinful nature. Oh God, I accept what You say about this nature that I have."

You see, when you got saved God gave you a new nature. He didn't change the old nature. He gave you a new nature, and now He wants that the Spirit of God shall take over in that nature. Accept God's estimate of what He says about your flesh. You have no obligation to your old flesh, your old nature. Romans 8:12: Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh. You don't owe your flesh anything. Romans 13:14 says, make no provision for the flesh. If you think dirty thoughts, you're feeding the flesh. It’s a matter of what you love, isn't it?

What do you love today? The thing you love is what you'll live for. The thing you love is what you will look for. The thing you love is what you will listen to. The thing you love is what you will sacrifice to get. But when you’ve been to the cross and you realize that on that cross Jesus not only died for your sins, but He died unto sin; He died to break the power of cancelled sin; then you can reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin and alive unto Jesus Christ. Accept the fact that there is conflict. The fruit of the Spirit is not automatic. We must fight a battle in order to produce fruit.

Secondly, there must be cultivation. The flesh, if you cultivate it, will produce all of these things that are listed here: adultery and fornication. These things are cultivated. You sow a thought, you reap an action. You sow an action, you reap a habit. You sow a habit, you reap a character. You sow a character, you reap a destiny. He lists all these things that we can cultivate in our lives if we want to. But he says, why don't you cultivate the fruit of the Spirit? It takes life to have fruit. That life is in the seed of the Word of God.

Now it’s a matter of what are you going to sow and where are you going to sow it? You sow seeds of lust in your flesh, you'll reap harvests that will pain you and they could kill you. You sow the seed of the Word of God in your heart and ask the Holy Spirit of God to cultivate that seed, and you'll see fruit coming from your life. When you produce the fruit of the Spirit which is love, and someone eats that fruit of the Spirit because you love them, there is seed in that for that person to love others. When you produce joy, there is seed for more joy. When you produce peace and longsuffering—and of course when I say you produce, I mean the Holy Spirit doing it through you—there is seed there, and that seed reproduces itself.

Number one, conflict. It’s not easy. Number two, cultivation. Number three, crucifixion. And they that are Christ's, says Galatians 5:24, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. You must yield yourself to be crucified, and this means surrendering to the Holy Spirit of God. This is Romans 6, isn't it? Now don't stay dead. Crucifixion leads to resurrection. Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. There must be this crucifixion. Every day I must give myself to the Lord, yield my body to Him, my mind and my will and my heart, and let Him, by the Holy Spirit, crucify, put to death in my life these old seeds that want to sprout up and produce problems in my Christian walk. Conflict, cultivation, crucifixion.

Fourth, cooperation. Notice Galatians 5:25: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Now the word walk in verse twenty-five is not the same word used for walk in verse sixteen. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. There it’s the word peripateo, which gives us our English word peripatetic. But the word used in verse twenty-five is a word that means to keep in step. It’s a picture of soldiers marching. He’s saying, keep in step with the Spirit. Walk in line with the Holy Spirit. Galatians 6:16: And as many as walk according to this rule—now that word rule means a surveyor's line or a carpenter's rule—peace be on them, and mercy.

What he’s saying is this: you’ve got to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. He won't do it all for you. He’s not going to pick up your Bible and read it for you. You have to do that. He is not going to set your alarm clock and get you up in the morning. You have to do that. Oh, He may help you. He is going to encourage you. He is going to work in your heart and mind. He is going to woo you. He is going gently to deal with you. He’s going to convict you in love. If we live in the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Now how do you keep in step with the Spirit? Well, through the Word of God; He wrote the Bible. Through prayer; He is the Spirit of intercession. Through fellowship with God's people; we need each other. We need the worship time together. We keep in step with the Spirit: cooperation. And the more we cooperate with the Holy Spirit by yielding to Him and obeying His promptings, the easier it becomes to walk with Him and to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in our lives to the glory of God. God put Adam in the garden to cultivate it. There must be cultivation and cooperation. And then as we walk in line with the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit, He produces the beautiful fruit of the Spirit in our lives to the glory of God.