Temperance — also translated "self-control" — is the mastery of one's appetites, passions, and desires, ordering them toward righteous ends rather than allowing them to dominate. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:23), a virtue Peter urges Christians to cultivate (2 Peter 1:6), and a quality required of elders and deacons. Paul describes it with the image of an athlete: "I discipline my body and keep it under control" (1 Corinthians 9:27). Temperance does not destroy desire — it governs it, ensuring that every pleasure is enjoyed in its proper place and measure, not twisted by excess into something destructive.
TEM'PERANCE, n. [L. temperantia.] 1. Moderation; particularly, habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions; restrained or moderate indulgence; as temperance in eating and drinking; temperance in the indulgence of joy or mirth. Temperance in eating and drinking is opposed to gluttony and drunkenness, and in other indulgences, to excess. 2. In the theology of the Stoics, temperance is one of the four cardinal virtues.
Modern culture exalts "authentic self-expression" and treats any restraint of desire as repression. "You only live once," "follow your heart," and "you deserve this" are the cultural mantras that have displaced temperance. The practical result is epidemic addiction (food, pornography, substances, screens, debt), anxiety from impulse-driven lives, and a therapeutic culture that medicalizes every failure of self-governance rather than calling it what it is: sin and weakness of will. Temperance is not legalism — it is the self-possession that makes genuine freedom possible.
• Galatians 5:23 — "Gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
• 1 Corinthians 9:27 — "But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified."
• 2 Peter 1:5–6 — "Supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control."
• Titus 1:8 — "But hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined."
• Proverbs 25:28 — "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls."
G1466 — ἐγκράτεια (enkrateia) — "self-control, continence"; from en (in) + kratos (strength, power) — literally "holding power within oneself"; mastery over one's own desires.
G4997 — σωφροσύνη (sōphrosynē) — "soundness of mind, sobriety, self-restraint"; the virtue of sound moral judgment in all areas of life.
"The man who cannot govern himself cannot govern others. Temperance is the foundation of all leadership."
"Self-control is not the denial of life's pleasures — it is their proper ordering, so that nothing rules you but Christ."
"Paul trained his body like an athlete. Temperance is not passive; it is active, daily, disciplined war against the flesh."