besquared.org Blog

Today’s Text

Tom Wright (N.T.) has a wonderful little thing on this text that I plan to scan in and share with everyone. But until then I will comment on one little sub point.

C.S. Lewis uses this text to talk about temperance. (Or at least that part at the end about eating and drinking etc.) He reminds his reader that temperance is not abstinence but moderation. In particular he responds to the “temperance movement” of his day which focused on abstinence from drinking. He acknowledges that wisdom and temperance may often requires abstinence for some specific reason, but it is not itself synonymous with abstinence.

This gets me thinking. I think that God’s people (both Israel and the church today) have trouble with moderation and radicality. There is an old proverb “Moderation in all things.” I analyzed this proverb in a logic class once. There is a name for this kind of sentence. It is a sentence that if true proves itself false. (You identify these kinds of sentences by following the classical deduction strategy “reductio ad absurdum” or proof by contradiction.)
follow me. If it is true that we should practice moderation in all things, then we must in fact practice moderation in moderation, which would mean that we shouldn’t do it all the time for to do it all the time would be immoderate. This contradicts the beginning sentence which we assumed to be true, so we have a contradiction.

So we must have been wrong to assume that “moderation in all things” is a true axiom. Now proof by contradiction is nice because it is logically unassailable. But in this case it might have been easier to just list a few things that we should not be moderate about. We should not be moderate in love for God. We should not be moderate in our love of neighbor. We should not be moderate in our hatred for the Yankees. You get the idea.

So there are some things about which we should be moderate and some about which we should be immoderate (or radical which despite its political overtones, is a rather good antonym for moderate). The problem that we face it seems to be is two fold. One we are usually radical in the areas where we should be moderate and in my experience we are almost always moderate in the areas in which we should be radical.

I think that it probably is a good axiom to suggest that we should be moderate in most things, and so it seems to me that the inquiry that Christians heed to pursue in every area of Christian life, is always, is this an area in which radicality is appropriate. to the temperance movement of the early 20th century, Lewis cautions, no this is not an area for radicality. I would agree with him.

So the first area of caution is to remember that God’s people have usually been wrong about when to be moderate and when to be radical. The second area of caution is that even when we have chosen to be radical, life is usually complex enough that within the arena of radicality, we must exercise moderation. Suppose I were radically committed to disciple making and evangelism. Then I would need to exercise moderation between the demands , preaching, and study, and soul care, and conversion, and deepening, and modeling and sending, etc. Suppose I were committed to radical generosity. Then I would need to practice moderation of lifestyle to consume few resources, and or assets so that I would continue to earn so that I might continue to give etc. Even in radicality moderation is necessary.

So all in all I think that temperance is a virtue that Christians need to recapture and value. For too long we have ignored temperance as the weaker brother to exuberance. I think that perhaps we misjudged.

I know this is only loosely connected to the text, but I will let Wright pull us back as soon as I get to a scanner.

-Ethan