The Christian Diet ... Moderation And Temperance

"Let all things be done unto edifying." 1 Cor.14:26.   

To edify is to build up, grow spiritually and improve. Everything a Christian does is, to some degree, either good or bad, right or wrong, edifying or destructive. Growing in edification is more than a onetime event. It is a constant, a way of life. We are either moving forward and upward or drifting backward and downward. An "edifying" life edifies others to edifying. It is contagious.

"And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness." 2 Pet.1:15.

Temperance is one of the steps forward and upward between believing faith...
and godliness. Temperance was a word before 'Prohbition' and means more than alcohol. The early versions of Webster dictionaries define it as "Habitual moderation of the indulgence of appetites and passions". It is simply self control of the human will.

The Apostle Paul speaks to this when he edifies the Corinthians and confirms that nothing we do or don't do, or laws we transgress, as born again Christians, will cause us to lose our salvation, but that some of those things are neither appropriate nor advisable and that he would not let himself "be brought under the power of any" of them. Habits are hard to break, once internalized.   

"All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient ... 
I will not be brought under the power of any. 1 Cor.6:12.

Again, the Apostle Paul encourages the Philippian Christians not to keep their Christian "moderation" secret or private, but to practice it openly and without apology, because your time of Christian influence in the world is short.  

"Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand." Phil.4:5.

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doeth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience (endurance) the race that is set before us." Heb.12:1.  

When you are going to endure a long and strenuous challenge, you discord or lighten every thing which will take extra energy. There are times when a soldier is entering combat when he drops his pack and everything he can do without in order to be an unhindered warrior. Athletes do the same. We as the soldiers of the cross must eliminate every unnecessary hindrance to our strength, health, mind and testimony in order to be our best for Christ.

Sometimes it isn't easy to break a habit, jettison a hindrance, or quit doing something which has become deeply rooted in our flesh, mind or spirit. But we must remember how Paul met those challenges after he met Christ.    

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Phil.4:11. 

How did Paul access that strength from Christ?  Here is how, in the words of Jesus ...    

"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Matt.21:22.

No trial is too great for God to deal with ... for you. No obstacle or temptation is too big for Him. Where there seems no way, He will make a way for you.   

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 
1 Cor.10:13.

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor.10:31.   

Eating and drinking are physically essential to our health and our lives. God made us that way and is vitally concerned with our physical health as well as our spiritual health. That has to include letting our appetite grow larger than our britches. Gluttony does not develop overnight. We train it over time until it has full control of our bodies in almost the exact same way as narcotics addiction.

"It is not good to eat too much honey...." Prov.25:27. 

When we first overeat, our stomach complains and throws it back up at us. But, we persist until our stomach swears we are starving it to death... unless we go to the "All you can eat" Conveyor Carousel Cafe.     

"Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." 3 John 1:2. 

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" Matt.6:25.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Gal.5:16.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Rom.12:1-2.

"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost .... For meat destroy not the work of God." Rom.14:17,20.

"Know ye not that they which run in a race all run, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things .... I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I ...." 1Cor.9:24-27.

"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit." Rom.8:5.

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor.6:19-20.    

There is a condition I shall call the Felix Syndrome. The Apostle Paul was given a brief moment before Governor Felix and wasted no time in putting his finger on three subjects the Governor did not want brought up, but which he needed most to hear if he was ever to be saved ... righteousness, temperance, and the judgment of God.

"And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." Acts 24:25. 

The Felix syndrome continuously puts off unpleasant decisions. But the Holy Spirit just keeps on putting our need for "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come" in our thoughts, and our conviction, guilt and misery keeps boiling over until we die or repent and we find peace with God.   

"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Heb.12:11.

However, our already glorified Christian soul is of far more importance than our, as yet, unglorified, faulty, dying body. Even Paul struggled with his flesh, and never completely conquered it. He bemoaned that fact in Rom.7:14-25.  And though Paul's born again spirit life went on to heaven, when his body died, his lifeless flesh of dust still lies in the grave awaiting its resurrection and its glorification when Jesus comes "in the air" for it. 

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 1 John 3:2.