What if self-control isn’t mainly about saying no, but about keeping Christ at the center of what we desire?
Money has a way of revealing what our hearts are chasing. Our spending, saving, giving, and borrowing decisions often tell a deeper story about what we love, what we fear, and what we believe will satisfy us. That’s why biblical temperance is about far more than discipline or willpower.
In our continuing series on the cardinal virtues and how Christian character shapes the way we handle money, author and theologian Pierce Taylor Hibbs joined the show to help us consider temperance, or self-control.
He is a Senior Writer at Westminster Theological Seminary and the author of The Book of Giving: How the God Who Gives Can Make Us Givers. Today, he reminds us that self-control is not merely a human achievement. It is a gift of the Spirit that helps us enjoy God’s gifts without letting them take God’s place.
Self-Control Is a Heart Issue
When many people hear the word “self-control,” they think of willpower. They imagine discipline, restraint, or simply saying no to whatever they want in the moment.
But Scripture gives us a deeper picture.
Self-control is not merely a personality trait some people have and others lack. It is not gained by sheer determination. Instead, self-control is closely connected to the heart. A lack of self-control often reveals disordered desires—places where our hearts are chasing something other than God. The presence of self-control reveals a heart that is increasingly content in God and His promises.
That means temperance is not about rejecting every enjoyable thing in the world. It is about rightly ordering our loves. God must be first, and everything else must take its proper place beneath Him.
In other words, self-control is about keeping first things first.
A Gift of the Spirit
That truth should encourage us. If self-control were only a matter of willpower, many of us would have little hope. We have all experienced the frustration of trying harder, setting new goals, making new rules, and still falling back into the same habits.
But Galatians 5 tells us that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. It is something God produces in His people as we walk with Him.
That does not mean discipline is unimportant. Habits, boundaries, budgets, and accountability can all be helpful tools. But they are not the source of true self-control. The source is God Himself.
So when our desires are out of order, the first step is not merely to try harder. It is to turn to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to form in us what we cannot produce on our own. God has given us a new heart in Christ, and by His Spirit, He teaches us to desire what is good, lasting, and true.
Enjoying God’s Gifts Without Replacing Him
Temperance may involve restriction because our desires can easily become disordered. But restriction is not the goal. The goal is joy rightly ordered under Christ.
A simple example is something like coffee or sugar. There is nothing wrong with enjoying either. They can be good gifts from God. But if our world were to fall apart without them, that might reveal something about the state of our hearts.
The problem is not that we
