February
24, 2014
[Pastorgraphs now online at ChristSD.com]
“40 Days to Integrity”
COMING SOON! I’m
excited to announce “40 Days to Integrity” is almost ready for release
March 5th (the first day of Lent). “40 Days” is a Lenten devotional
series of 40 daily 5-minute videos dealing with a topic related to Integrity
you can watch on the web. There is no cost, and all you have to do is either:
Click
here
to send an email registration (no message necessary) and you will receive daily
email reminders with a link to the devotional video for that day. (If the link
doesn’t work for you, just let me know you want to join the journey.)
Or
if you are on Facebook, “Friend” The
Integrity Network (www.eIntegrity.net) and the
video for each day will appear on your Facebook news feed. Let your family,
friends and colleagues know. Everyone is invited to join this Lenten journey to
Integrity.
Pastorgraphs: “Temperance: All Things in Moderation”
“And beside this, giving all
diligence,
add to your faith: virtue;
and to virtue: knowledge;
And to knowledge: temperance;
and to temperance: patience;
and to patience: godliness;
And to godliness: brotherly kindness;
and to brotherly kindness: charity.”
I identify
with Peter as he sets out the building blocks of discipleship in this text. You
may have noticed in recent Pastorgraphs I am trying to set out the building
blocks of integrity. My feeble efforts are like Peter’s discipleship building
blocks, or John Wesley’s defining the steps to holiness and perfection
(godliness) for the early Methodists. The common thread is: If you do not have
an idea of what discipleship, holiness or integrity are, you surely will never
achieve them.
When you
hear the word temperance, you probably conjure up images of Carrie Nation
breaking up a saloon with her axe as a part of the Temperance Movement. But
temperance is not just about alcohol. Temperance is moderation in thoughts,
emotions and actions, demonstrated by your personal restraint.
It is too
sad that many perceive religion as being against all pleasures. My ethics
professor in seminary once said, “God has given us plenty of pleasures for all
five senses. When we enjoy the pleasures God intended as He intended, nothing
is more beautiful and life enriching. But when we indulge in the pleasures as
God did NOT intend, nothing can be uglier and more destructive.”
Temperance
is about discretion; the ability to know how much of a thing is too much or too
little.
Temperance
is one of the four cardinal virtues identified by the Greek philosophers. The
Apostles Peter and Paul emphasized their importance in their epistles to the
fledgling Christian communities. As a cardinal virtue (along with justice,
prudence and courage), no other virtue can exist without temperance. Each of
these four cardinal virtues depend upon and amplify each other.
Golden
Mean
Temperance
is the virtue of moderation and restraint over a wide range of human vices;
such as, promiscuity, drunkenness, gluttony, vanity, or anger. As a virtue, it
stands between the vices of excess (self-indulgence) and too little
(austerity). Aristotle called “The Golden Mean” what we might today call the
“Sweet Spot”, or “Goldilocks Point” (not too much, not too little, but J-U-S-T
right!) amount of an activity, thought or action.
Four
Virtuous Norms
For each of
the four Cardinal Virtues, there is a matching Virtuous Norm which The
Integrity Network (eIntegrity.NET) defines as how you “do” the virtue. (A
virtue is something you “do”, not something you “have”.) In the Four Virtuous
Norms, temperance fulfills: “Doing the right thing…in the right way”. By
that, we mean the precise amount (neither too much or too little) for each
action, thought or activity.
VIRTUE
NORM
Justice: Doing the right thing.
Justice: Doing the right thing.
Temperance:
Doing the right thing…in the right way.
Prudence:
Doing the right thing…at the right time.
Courage:
Doing the right thing…for the right reason.
That’s all
a bit academic. So how do you exercise temperance in real life, especially
since Peter and Paul placed such importance on it with the early church? Here
are some keys to help you.
Seven
Keys to Living a Temperate Life
1. Temperance requires discipline. The Apostle Paul wrote: “And every
person who strives for mastery is temperate in all things.” (1 Corinthians
9:25).
2. Temperance exercises self-denial. Temperance involves delayed gratification,
commonly associated with maturity. Immature children throw temper tantrums when
they do not get instant gratification. Paul wrote, “That the mature men be
sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.” (Titus 2:2)
3. Temperance recognizes your long-term
goals.
Temperance is the ability to deny yourself immediate gratification for the good
of reaching a long-term goal and the benefits reaching the goal will bring.
4. Temperance controls desires of the
mind and soul.
Pleasures of the mind and soul include pride, greed, vanity, arrogance, and so
on. The Bible says, “Pride goes before the fall.” In many ways, the temptations
of the spirit are more devastating than those of the body.
5. Temperance controls desires of the
body. In addition
to controlling the mind and soul, the temperate person controls pleasure
impulses (passions) of the body. Bodily pleasures encompass the senses. That
does not mean every sense is a vice. We may delight in beauty, music, art,
taste, touch and smell; but to obsess in the senses (sensuality) is a vice.
Thomas Aquinas said, “Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which
binds the passion.”
6. Temperance controls emotions. This may be the most difficult
part. Besides the lures of the mind, soul and body, there are emotions you must
control to reach temperance. Particularly, the emotions of anger, fear, and
hatred must be replaced with love, acceptance and forgiveness.
7. Temperance is a Fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:
against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23). In that sense, temperance
is a gift from God. He bestows it upon those who desire it and strive for a
holy (and wholly) life.
You might
say,”I don’t know if I have what it takes.” Don’t let that stop you, because as
Paul wrote in Philippians 4: “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The
Lord is at hand. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” With
God’s help, you can do all things, including receiving the “fruit if the
Spirit" of temperance.
Devotedly
yours, Bill Jenkins
From the
Quote Garden:
“Temperance is
reason's girdle and passion's bridle,
the strength of the
soul and the foundation of virtue.”
~ Jeremy Taylor ~
Christ United Methodist Ministry
Center
“Christ
in the Heart of San Diego”
3295
Meade Avenue - San Diego, CA 92116 - (619) 284-9205
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