What does the Bible say about moderation?

"Let your moderation," etc. Naturally I like to assert my rights in the world, and if I see injustice done, I like to resent it. Moderation is putting a check upon our own will, for the present content to be put upon this - "The Lord is at hand." When the Lord set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, the Samaritans would not receive Him, and the disciples wanted to draw down fire upon them. If you set your face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, you will not be received by those who are half-hearted. "The Lord is at hand."

Leaving the reader to trace out the same blessed features during His ministry, for they are "written large" by all the evangelists, we now desire to point out that what is seen in Christ should be exemplified by His people. The same apostle thus writes to the Philippians, "Let your moderation be known unto all men." This word "moderation" is the same as that which is translated "gentleness" in the passage under consideration; and this is really its true force. Another word has been suggested, namely, yieldingness; but yieldingness is only the expression of a gentle spirit. And in Philippians it is the outward conduct which is in view, and outward conduct or demeanour towards all, believers and unbelievers; for it says "to all men." The form then which gentleness would assume towards men would be that of never insisting on one's own opinions or fancied rights, but seeking with a chastened subduedness to retire and to take the lowest place in the presence of others, yielding everything to those around excepting where faithfulness to God and to His Word requires firmness. And what a powerful motive is given for the cultivation of gentleness in the words, "The Lord is at hand"! In view of His coming we may well be content to leave everything that affects ourselves to the adjustment of that day.

Leaving the reader to trace out the same blessed features during His ministry, for they are ‘written large’ by all the evangelists, we now desire to point out that what is seen in Christ should be exemplified by His people. The same apostle thus writes to the Philippians, ‘Let your moderation be known unto all men’ (4:5). This word ‘moderation’ is the same as that which is translated ‘gentleness’ in the passage under consideration; and this is really its true force. Another word has been suggested, namely, yieldingness; but yieldingness is only the expression of a gentle spirit. And in Philippians it is the outward conduct which is in view, and outward conduct or demeanour towards all, believers and unbelievers; for it says ‘unto all men’. The form then which gentleness would assume towards men would be that of never insisting on one’s own opinions or fancied rights, but seeking with a chastened subduedness to retire and to take the lowest place in the presence of others, yielding everything to those around excepting where faithfulness to God and to His Word requires firmness. And what a powerful motive is given for the cultivation of gentleness in the words, ‘The Lord is at hand’! In view of His coming we may well be content to leave everything that affects ourselves to the adjustment of that day.

Further, he was to be "temperate," an expression much narrowed and so far misapplied in our day. Self-control not in one respect but in all is its real meaning. It is the quality of having every way and expression of feeling, or inclination, checked in the Christian by his sense of God's presence, grace, and fear.

The word “temperance” in 2 Peter 1:6 means a great deal more than what is usually understood by that term. It is customary to apply the word “temperance” to a habit of moderation in reference to eating and drinking. No doubt it fully involves this, but it involves much more. Indeed, the Greek word used by the inspired apostle may be rendered “self-control.” It gives the idea of one who has self habitually well reined in.

This is a rare and admirable grace, diffusing its hallowed influence over one's entire course, character and conduct. It not only bears directly upon one or two or twenty selfish habits, but upon self in all the length and breadth of that comprehensive and most odious term. Many a one who would look with proud disdain upon a glutton or a drunkard, may himself fail every hour in exhibiting the grace of self-control. True it is that gluttony and drunkenness should be ranked with the very vilest and most demoralizing forms of selfishness. They must be regarded as among the most bitter clusters that grow on that widespread tree. But self is a tree and not a mere branch of a tree or a cluster on a branch, and we should not only judge self when it works, but control it that it may not work.

"Know ye not that they who run in a race-course run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And everyone that contends is temperate in all things; they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, as not uncertainly — so combat, as not beating air. But I buffet my body, and lead [it] captive, lest by any means, having preached to others, I myself should be reprobate." (Vers. 24-27.) The figure from these games would be most striking to the Corinthians accustomed to those of the Isthmus. Indeed the use is plain to anyone. Spiritually, the prize is not for one, but for all, if all run well. But even in the games the candidates must be temperate in all things, though theirs were but a fading crown, ours an everlasting.

(Vv. 24-27). In his thus speaking it must not be inferred that the Apostle accommodated himself to the world in order to escape reproach and spare the flesh. To dispel any such misconception, the Apostle shows in the closing verses that the path of service is one of self-denial. There is, indeed, a reward for service far better than the prize to be obtained in the world's games; there they run for a corruptible crown, but the Christian for an incorruptible. Nevertheless, if to obtain an earthly crown requires a temperate life, how much more necessary it is to be temperate in all things to obtain the incorruptible crown. The Apostle ran with no uncertainty as to the glorious end of the path. The conflict for him was no mere trifling, like beating the air. He was careful not to indulge the body, but rather to keep it in subjection, that it might be no hindrance to him in his service. The saints at Corinth were boasting in their gifts and seeking their ease (1 Cor. 4:6-8). Let us beware of preaching without practice, for the Apostle warns us that it is possible to preach and yet be a castaway. We know that the believer will never perish, and the Apostle does not say it is possible to be born again, or converted, and be a castaway. Preaching to others is not everything. First we must be a Christian and then a preacher, if called of the Lord.

In knowledge we must have temperance, or moderation. If ruled by knowledge only we may very easily become creatures of extremes. The believer of great intellectual clearness may easily so act as to imperil the welfare of his less discerning brethren, as Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 show us. Hence the need of temperance.

Then we are bidden to add temperance. Generally speaking temperance in our minds is connected with abstaining from spirituous liquors. But temperance here has a wider significance. It means self- restraint. “Every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in ALL things”. Not in one, but in all things. We are apt to go to extremes. We need to recognize the flesh in us, to curb our tempers, our egotism, our love of gain, to be a law to ourselves is divinely right.

Finally, "faithfulness, gentleness, self control." These three are personal to ourselves. Do you have faith? "Have it to yourself before God" (Rom.14:22). We must neither act on the faith of another, nor press another to act on our faith, though we may give him the Word of God to encourage him to act on his own faith. Gentleness (or meekness) is that quality that simply submits to personal humiliation, if need be, without demanding our personal "rights" as we see them. Self-control is a great inner conquest, as Proverbs 16:32 reminds us: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city." In contrast, "Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls" (Prov.25:28). "Against such there is no law." They are the spontaneous fruit of the Spirit, operating unquenched and ungrieved in our lives. Law neither produces or prohibits them.