Noah Lyles wasn’t the favorite to win the 100-meter race during the 2024 Summer Olympics. When the medal race began, he was the slowest runner off the starting block. This would typically mean defeat for an athlete running this short of a race at this level.
Thirty meters into the race, Lyles was still in last place. But Lyles picked up his pace, and with a couple of seconds remaining, he was neck and neck with the race leaders. As the finish line approached, Lyles extended his body to edge himself over the finish line. It was a photo finish!
Race commentators initially thought the race favorite, a Jamaican runner, won. As it turned out, Lyles won the race by .005 seconds, clocking in an impressive time of 9.784 seconds!
Noah Lyles won gold because he had mastered his body.
Temperate in All Things
The Apostle Paul writes about athletes mastering their bodies in 1 Corinthians 9. He uses this analogy to illustrate the importance of temperance. Paul refers to an athlete running a race for a prize, then writes, “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (verses 24-25).
Runners in high-level competitions must be temperate in all things to win the prize. Temperate means exercising self-restraint. The Outline of Biblical Usage defines temperance as “the virtue of one who masters his desires and passions.” Synonyms are self-discipline and self-control.
The analogy of a temperate athlete would have resonated with the people of Corinth in Paul’s day. Nearby, the Greeks held the Isthmian Games, one of the four main ancient Greek athletic competitions that included the famous Olympic Games. The Corinthians were familiar with the training regimens that athletes underwent before competing in the games.
The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary explains that each athlete lived “on a strict self-denying diet, refraining from wine and pleasant foods, and enduring cold and heat and most laborious discipline.” They exerted self-control in all matters: While preparing to compete, self-discipline was their whole way of life for months or years.
Paul used this example to show how we should approach the Christian way of life. “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 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” (verses 26-27). Paul himself drew inspiration from the analogy.
Like athletes, Christians must be temperate in all things to receive our crown. Why? How can we take on this virtue?
Strive for the Mastery
1 Corinthians 9:25 describes an athlete who strives for the mastery. That English phrase comes from the Greek word agonizomai, which in other Bible verses is translated fight or labor fervently. Strong’s defines it as to struggle or compete for a prize. Christians must struggle for mastery just like athletes.
Herbert W. Armstrong explained to the newly begotten Christian that “you have left behind the ‘easy way’ …. You have passed the crossroads and turned off onto the narrow, rutty, bumpy, rocky and hard and difficult road that very few people in this world ever are willing to enter—but that leads to success, to usefulness, to happiness, joy and eternal life” (Worldwide News, Sept. 17, 1985).
It takes temperance to stay in our difficult spiritual race and win the prize at the end. A Christian must endure hardness just like an athlete competing for an Olympic prize.
This is the same message Paul conveys in 2 Timothy 2. He encourages Timothy to “endure hardness, as a good soldier” (verse 3). Verse 4 says, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” Self-discipline is needed to avoid getting distracted by the affairs of everyday life. Good soldiers, like good athletes, must stay focused on the end goal.
In the next verse, Paul returns to the example of an athlete: “And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully” (verse 5). The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary states that an athlete observes “all the conditions of both the contest … and the preparation for it, namely, as to self-denying diet, anointing, exercise, self-restraint, chastity, decorum, etc.”
What is true for soldiers and athletes is also true for Christians: Temperance is key for mastery. To endure hardness, stay focused, and be in subjection to God’s physical and spiritual law, we need temperance.
How do we get it?
Fruit of the Spirit
In Galatians 5:23, temperance is listed as a fruit of God’s Spirit, which means it comes from God.
Athletes who have no access to the Holy Spirit can only exert self-discipline on a physical level to accomplish physical goals. But Christians have spiritual goals, which can only be accomplished through the use of God’s Spirit. Physical temperance will not propel a Christian across the finish line in a spiritual race.
This fruit of God’s Spirit enables a Christian to endure to the end. It’s a battle to master the self. There can be losses or setbacks, but God’s temperance will keep you in the fight and help you stay focused on the spiritual rewards. Like Paul, we can use this godly fruit to run with certainty and know that God will give us the power to win our battles.
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (verse 24). A temperate Christian will not be satisfied with partial victories. He will keep working until he completely overcomes his sins, continually bringing his mind and body into subjection to God, and keeping the flesh crucified. The fight will not stop until the race is won.
Mr. Armstrong explained, “God has not intended our Christian lives in His service to run smooth and easy, with no problems, no concerns. God intended—ordained—that we should be confronted with continual problems, difficulties, troubles—that we should have to make constant sacrifices, learning to give up our own ways and wants …” (co-worker letter, Feb. 25, 1955).
Jesus Christ had a similar message for His disciples: “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). To be Christ’s disciples, we must be willing to give up our own ways and wants. That takes real self-restraint.
Don’t Be a Felix
One man who lacked restraint was Felix, a governor of Judea when Paul was imprisoned at Caesarea. He was known as cruel and wildly extravagant. He committed crimes and used his political influence to shield himself from consequences. At the time of Paul’s imprisonment, he was in his third marriage. His wife, Drusilla, was the daughter of King Herod. Felix had convinced her to leave her husband so they could marry. He exhibited no self-discipline—whatever he wanted, he got.
When he learned about Paul, Felix actually wanted to hear what he would say.
“And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ” (Acts 24:24).
Paul knew Felix’s reputation and tailored his message for the governor. Verse 25 shows that Paul “reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.” He preached about the importance of temperance and the need for self-control. It was exactly what Felix needed to hear. It gripped the governor to the point that he actually trembled at Paul’s words.
With that kind of response, you might think Paul had gained a convert. But Felix did not want to change. He didn’t want to submit to God and surrender his lusts. He told Paul, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee” (same verse). He put it off and never came back to it. Not only that, he even tried to bribe Paul (verse 26).
This world has plenty of Felixes—people who hear Christ’s message but don’t respond to it. God wants the knowledge He gives us to change us. There is no better way to show God that we appreciate His truth and education than to act on it.
Knowledge unapplied has no value. Character is built by applying God’s knowledge. This is where temperance is key.
Add Temperance to Knowledge
“Character, then, once the true knowledge is acquired and the right decision made, involves self-discipline,” Mr. Armstrong wrote. “The truly educated person is a self-disciplined person” (Good News, July 1952).
There is a vital connection between self-discipline and character growth. Once you acquire true knowledge and decide to act on it, you need temperance to follow through.
The Apostle Peter makes this point in 2 Peter 1:4: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” To partake of God’s divine nature, we must escape lusts and other corruption. This requires self-denial.
Peter then lists other virtues needed for more character development: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance …” (verses 5-6). We must add temperance to knowledge. “Once you have the knowledge, it is worthless unless you exercise theself-mastery to live by it, to do what you know you should” (Royal Vision, November-December 2018; emphasis added). We need temperance if we are to apply the knowledge God teaches us.
Temperance is also a key to building faith. “Your faith will always be deficient without temperance, because failure to temper and restrain your carnality and lusts will undermine God’s indwelling presence in you. But exercising temperance builds faith” (ibid).
Along with these other spiritual qualities, temperance will help you lead a fruitful Christian life. “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 8). Peter says we should abound in temperance!
When you study this, you see that temperance is not merely a matter of self-restraint or self-denial. It’s also about doing.
Be a Doer
In that Good News article, Mr. Armstrong broke down self-discipline into two parts: “1) self-restraint to resist the lower impulses and pulls in human nature—to restrain the self from desires, impulses, habits or customs which are contrary to the right way; and 2) self-propulsion or determined initiative to drive the self to do those things which ought to be done. In other words, in true character in action there is the positive and the negative.”
Many people wrongly view Christianity only as a life of self-denial or asceticism. Though it does involve denial and sacrifice, Christianity is the way of usefulness and abundant living. We need propulsion to drive ourselves to be doers of God’s Word.
“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). God’s Word teaches there are not only sins of commission—doing something God commands against—but also sins of omission, failing to do what God commands or teaches us to do. Temperance helps us avoid both types of sin and allows us to live the balanced and abundant way that comes from obeying God.
It takes temperance to pray, study, meditate, fast and fellowship as God commands. It takes temperance to attend services, Bible studies and other church activities. It takes temperance to keep physical and spiritual laws. We must drive ourselves to develop right habits—and the power to do that comes from God.
Restraint and Propulsion
Paul brings both sides of temperance together in Romans 12:21: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” This requires restraint and propulsion. The two together make for a potent Christian.
As you ask God for this power and put temperance into practice, you’ll find it easier to follow through. When you exercise discipline in one area of your life, it will often lead to discipline in other areas.
One example of where this tends to happen revolves around your sleep schedule. Being disciplined in what time you go to bed at night and wake up in the morning can improve discipline with daily prayer and Bible study. It can help you control how you spend your free time in the evenings. Making a positive change in your bedtime routine can snowball into positive changes to other parts of your day.
Another example is in physical health. Making one positive change to your diet and experiencing the benefits can give you confidence and motivation to make other changes.
This is one reason why it’s helpful to break down the instruction you receive from God into smaller action steps. It will be less overwhelming, and gaining one success can inspire you to reach for more.
This also plays out in child rearing. Parents who teach their children self-control will set them up for more success in the future. Child Rearing With Vision explains, “Modern psychologists believe children can learn self-control on their own. Don’t believe them. Self-control is learned with proper child training, parental supervision and practice. Solomon wisely taught that a child left by himself or herself will never develop self-control (Proverbs 22:15; 29:15).
“A child furnished with self-discipline has an invaluable tool for meeting life’s challenges. Many relational and personal problems can be avoided, or strongly tempered, when one has self-control.”
Many of the recommendations in that book, if applied, will instill habits of discipline in children. Then, when they become adults, they should have fewer problems or less intense problems because self-control is habitual. They will also yield the fruit of temperance more readily when they become baptized.
A Temperate Mind
With proper training, our children can grow up to be the kind of adult Paul described in Titus 2:2: “sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.” The Greek word for temperate here, sophron, is different from what Paul used elsewhere. It means of a sound mind. Yet there is a connection between soundness of mind and temperance.
A sound mind comes from exerting self-control. We can use restraint and propulsion in our mind to push out wrong thoughts and seek the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). So much of our spiritual war takes place in the mind. A sound mind is a temperate mind.
The Greek word translated temperate here is related to the word Paul used translated sound mind in 2 Timothy 1:6-7, regarding the Holy Spirit: “Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
God’s Spirit is a spirit of temperance. Temperance is a key to power and a sound mind. Temperance is “one of the real keys to spiritual power and effectiveness” (Royal Vision, May-June 2005). All the fruits of God’s Spirit are connected because they all come from God.
“Do you, today, have the same power the original Christians had?” Mr. Armstrong asked. “They were just as human as you! The real question, then, is this: Do you yield yourself as fully—surrender your will as unconditionally to God—pray as often, as earnestly and intensively, as they? If you do, you will be filled with as much of the divine power as they—for God is no respecter of persons!” (Good News, February 1983).
God wants to make this real spiritual power available to you. It requires exercising the discipline needed to go to God for help. Use temperance to endure hardness, to stay focused, and to propel you forward in your spiritual race.
An incredible prize awaits those who cross the finish line—a prize far greater than any gold medal. Follow the example of an elite athlete, and be temperate in all things.