Part Three: Life
XIX. TEMPERANCE
As there were men in ancient Israel who failed to measure up to Old Testament ideals of justice, so there were those in the early Church who failed also in this basic human obligation. Paul, in I Corinthians
6:1—11, denounces a church which permitted its members to engage in lawsuits with each other. Surely in the Church of Christ, of all places, men should be able to live together in an atmosphere of fair dealing and a mutual, brotherly concern for justice! What a scandal it was in the eyes of pagans that such outrageous behavior as that mentioned in v. 8 should be found amongst Christians—those who professed to have been
"washed," "sanctified" and "justified in the name of the Lord Jesus"
(11). The church at Corinth was, of course, not typical of early Christian congregations, nor is such conduct very common in churches today, but the passage is a good, if somewhat unsavory, reminder that Christians are at all times expected to be more, not less, sensitive to the demands of ordinary human justice than their unbelieving neighbors.
St. Paul’s little letter to Philemon is as eloquent, though subtle, an appeal to a man’s sense of fair play as has ever been written. Onesimus, a slave owned by Philemon, had run away and finally become Paul’s servant in prison. Paul sent him back and wrote this note to beg his master not to treat him rigorously, as the law allowed, but for love’s sake (vv. 7—9) and Paul’s sake (13, 17—20), to receive him kindly and as a brother. Although, admittedly, Onesimus had done what was wrong, he had redeemed himself by his subsequent conduct (11) and was
entitled not merely to cold human justice but to the higher justice which Philemon had learned in Christ (4—6).
master of his passions that he remained imperturbable whatever the circumstances of his life might be. the Bible, in the nature of things, cannot attribute so central an importance to temperateness and the other qualities associated with it, since the biblical ideal of human character is that of passionate devotion to God and His righteous rule. Without passion the great men of the Bible would be nothing, as is evident from the briefest consideration of the lives of the Old Testament prophets or of our Lord and his disciples.
But, granted that the passion for God is the basic element in the character of biblical man, it is also true that self-control, temperance, patience and contentment have their place. Even though there must be no attempt to limit the scope of man’s dedication to God, there still remain large areas of life in which men must have a real concern with purely secular things—their physical needs, for example, and those of their families—and in these areas the Bible calls for the same kind of temperance and self-mastery as did the great moral thinkers of the pagan world. On this level the Christian ideal of virtue is different from the pagan only in that it provides it with a securer basis. The pagan
commends these virtues only on the basis of self-regarding wisdom; the men of the Bible see them as also rooted in the will of God and His generous concern for the welfare of His children.
It is naturally in the wisdom literature rather than in the prophets that we find these things emphasized. Our reading includes several brief
selections from Proverbs, all of which praise the life of moderation and self-control. The first (15: 16f) speaks of how much better it is to live simply, with reverence for God (" the fear of the Lord") in one’s heart, and love as the bond of one’s family life, than to strive for wealth and luxurious living ("a stalled ox"), which so often bring only trouble and hatred. The next passage (25:28) pictures the man of uncontrolled impulses—the angry, greedy or fretful man—as being like a city whose walls are already breached and open to the enemy. The last (30:7—9) is an appealing little prayer that life’s necessities may be supplied only as required, and in moderate measure. We have previously noted that one of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer ("give us this day our daily bread") is based upon v. 8.
Ecclesiastes is the one book of the Old Testament which approaches closely the pagan idea of moderation without improving upon it.
Nevertheless it contains some good common sense, as one can see from 5: 10—12, which points out how foolish it is to be anxious for wealth,
since this is a desire which feeds upon itself and is never satisfied.
Furthermore, wealth brings vexatious responsibilities and cannot increase one’s ability to enjoy the simple pleasures of life (12). The strangest passage in this strange book is one which advises moderation even in piety (7: 16f)! There is perhaps, even here, a useful reminder that genuine religious zeal can become perverted into the vice of bigotry or fanaticism and this has no true place in the character of a man of biblical faith.
The selection from Ecclesiasticus (in the Apocrypha) is a good example of the skill with which the wise men of the Bible used humor to re- enforce their lessons. The implied portrait of the glutton, stuffing himself with free food and then afterwards "breathing hard upon his bed" is amusing—but also disgusting (3 1:12—22).
When we turn from the wisdom literature to the teaching of Jesus (Luke 12:13—34) we find ourselves moving upon a noticeably higher plane. In the incident of the two brothers quarreling over their inheritance (vv.
13f) and in the parable of the rich man who felt that his wealth was adequate insurance against all the ills of life (16—20) we have unforgettable pictures of the ordinary unconverted man whose life is dominated by an uninhibited passion for possessions and financial security. But our Lord’s warning to his disciples is really not so much against greed and immoderate love of material things as it is against the kind of restless anxiety about the future which so often afflicts even the regenerate. Intemperate worry of any kind is wrong for the Christian, since the man of faith should know that God is always doing more for us
"than either we can desire or deserve." The Christian’s journey through the world should be a calm one, untroubled by violent winds of
covetousness (is) or fretful discontent (22).
This was the lesson which Paul had learned so well and expresses so beautifully in Phihippians 4:10—14. He is writing to thank his friends in Philippi for a gift which had been sent to him while in prison. He is grateful for their help and for the thought which prompted them to send it as soon as the opportunity came (v. 10); but at the same time does not want his benefactors to feel that his previous lack of comforts and
necessities had made him discontented or impatient (11—13). Moved at all times by a restless zeal for Christ, he nevertheless knew the secret of self-control and could meet the crises of his private life calmly,
temperately and in a spirit of deep content.
II Peter 1:2—7 contains a list of virtues such as is found in many of the New Testament epistles. The reader will notice the prominent place given to those with which we have been concerned in this discussion (v.
6).