The Believer's Self-Control

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says that temperance is – “Moderation; particularly, habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions; restrained or moderate indulgence; as temperance in eating and drinking ; temperance in the indulgence of joy or mirth. Temperance in eating and drinking is opposed to gluttony and drunkenness, and in other indulgences, to excess. But secondly, this Dictionary says that temperance is also exercising and exhibiting “Patience: calmness; sedateness ; moderation of passion.” These two definitions, together, rightly describe our word “self-control”. But to truly understand what is meant here, Biblically, let us proceed on tonight to look at self-control from the negative and the positive sides of it.