Continence is the Spirit-wrought self-restraint of bodily desires, especially sexual ones. Paul speaks of it directly in 1 Corinthians 7:9: "if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn." In the KJV, the word translated temperance in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23) is the same Greek egkrateia — mastery of self. Continence is not repression or sexlessness; it is the discipline that orders desire toward its covenant end (marriage) and refuses to be ruled by appetite. The man who cannot govern his own body cannot govern a household or a church (1 Timothy 3:2-5). Continence is foundational masculine virtue.