54. 1Co_9:25

1 Corinthians 9:25

1 Corinthians 9:25, “Temperate.” The Greek word enkratīa is by Donnegan rendered “self-command, self-control, temperance, mastery over the passions;” Robinson and others, New Testament Lexicons, “self-control, continence, temperance.” See Acts 24:25, Galatians 5:23, and 2 Peter 1:6. In the text, it is the power of self-control, or continence, as one striving for the mastery. Dr. Whitby says, “Observing a strict abstinence.” Dr. Bloomfield, “extreme temperance and even abstinence.” Horace says of the competitor for the Olympic games, “He abstains from Venus and Bacchus.” Dr. Clarke states that the regimen included both quantity and quality, carefully abstaining from all things that might render them less able for the combat. The best modern trainers prohibit the use of beer, wine, and spirits. The apostle, having thus illustrated, by reference to the competitors of the Olympic games, his idea of temperance, to wit, total abstinence, adds, as an encouragement, “They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.” Here is no warrant for moderate drinking, or for those fashionable circles of festivity where the sparkling wines sear the conscience, deaden spirituality, and unfit the Christian professor for that conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil, the tri-partite alliance which he must overcome, or for ever perish. See Galatians 5:19-23, and notes on Acts 24:25.