Fruit of the Spirit Temperance 9 Choose Your Fruit Wisely

Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, TEMPERANCE (self-control): against such there is no law.”

Earlier in the study of the FRUIT of the SPIRIT, I commented how I believe each fruit is built upon the one preceding it. No, it’s not because one is more important than the other, but because how they complement each other. Now we are at the end of the fruit list with TEMPERANCE. What is intriguing is “self-control” is what is needed to exercise all the other fruits. For example: it takes TEMPERANCE or self-control to implement the showing of the Love of God even during difficult times. That produces joy which breeds peace………and now we end with TEMPERANCE or long-suffering.

TEMPERANCE or Long suffering is spoken about in several places in the Word of God either in verse or by example of different Bible characters. Do you remember David as he was being pursued by King Saul? Saul was so jealous of David and his accomplishments that he was out to kill him. One night while King Saul was sleeping in a cave, David came upon him and had the opportunity to kill him. Read with me:

I Samuel 24:4-7 “Then the men of David said to him, "This is the day of which the Lord said to you, 'Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.' " And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul's robe. Now it happened afterward that David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe. And he said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way.”

Then we see another person in the Old Testament that had to use TEMPERANCE in a different way. She was Esther (Hadassah). She was a Jew, however, she was not allowed to tell anyone. Her life and all the Jews depended on her using self-control.

Esther 4:14 “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.” (If you don’t keep silent!)

TEMPERANCE is a FRUIT that needs to be eaten on a daily basis in most of our lives. Christians are commanded to use self-control in every area of their lives. Their minds are to be under control of the Spirit as often what we think turns into actions. Desires can be strong and lead us down wrong pathways, but, exercising TEMPERANCE /self-control can save many heartaches. One person said that self-control was discipline that gave us victory over the wrong pulls of our mind and body.

I Corinthians 9:27 says, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

”Galatians 5:16 tells us, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” The reasons verses like these are important for us to hold close to our heart and minds is because the Bible tells us in Matthew 7:16a, “You shall know them by their fruits.”

Imagine you have a beautiful basket filled with fruit that exemplifies your life. What would it look like? Which of the fruit would be in abundance? Which fruit would be flowing over the top? I can promise you in the story of King Saul and David, David had a basket full of TEMPERANCE. Queen Esther saved a whole nation because of her self-control. A law had been signed into being, but her self-control overrode the law and brought salvation to many.

We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s not against the law!”. Well, in truth there are many things against the law in this life. But the greatest knowledge we have is that Galatians 5:23b tells us that there is NO law going against any of the FRUIT of the SPIRIT. We are free to eat any of it to our hearts content!

And did you notice that though we have separated all the individual types of fruits, they all act as 1 – ONE! The FRUIT of the Spirit! I Corinthians 6:17 tell us we are one with the Spirit of God. We need to portray Christ in every aspect of our lives so others will see the Glory of the Lord through us! Choose your fruit wisely!

I Corinthians 6:17, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”