Chapter 17

Meekness and Temperance: Strength Under God's Authority

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22–23 (KJV)

Meekness and temperance ask: What governs us? The fruit does not make us powerless. It changes what has power over us.

Meekness Is Not Weakness

Jesus was meek and not weak. Meekness is power that does not have to prove itself.

You Do Not Have to Use Every Strength You Have

Maybe you can win the argument, expose information, exercise authority, force compliance, or say the thing that hurts most. Meekness can possess strength without displaying all of it.

Temperance Means Self Control

Temperance is the ability to govern appetites, impulses, reactions, desires, and behaviors rather than being governed by them.

Desire Is Not Direction

I want it does not mean I should have it. I feel it does not mean I should act. I can does not mean I should.

Self Control Is Not Self Punishment

Temperance is freedom to enjoy a gift without becoming ruled by it.

Self Control and Control Are Not the Same

When we lack self control, we often reach for control of other people. I cannot manage my fear, so I manage you. The fruit is self control, not other control.

Power Is Safest When Submitted

Ask what happens to people when your strength enters the room. Do they become afraid and smaller, or does your strength create room for truth, growth, responsibility, and dignity?

I have strength, but it belongs to God. I have desires, but they belong under God. I have freedom, but I do not have to be ruled by it. I have a voice, but I do not have to use it carelessly. I have responsibility, but I am not sovereign. I belong to Christ. And because I belong to Him, everything else in me is learning where it belongs too. That is fruit. And that is becoming.