It is written in the Bible in 2 Peter 1:5-6, "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." Temperance" means self control, the ability to control your behaviour even when others try to hide brutal over you.
Imagine you were cruising with your car, and a careless driver bumped your car, instead of apologizing, he got abusive. What would you do? Would you pour invective at him? Some may even get down from their car to engage in a brawl.
No! That's not for the Christian way. Regardless of the situation, restrain yourself from any form of dispute. This doesn't mean you're weak, rather, you're simply living out your true nature-the believers nature and majestic life in you.
As a Christian, you can't afford to live carelessly, you must be able to hold yourself in from doing or saying things that could cast dent on your Christian character. Consciously build yourself to take it easy in all things.
An athlete who is chasing a new record at the games, for example, can't afford to live carelessly before the games, because it'll affect his performance. There are things he'd have to endure to keep fit. He may not enjoy some of those things, but because his eyes is on the prize, he'd have to endure them. This is the picture the word creates for us in exhorting that you add temperance to your faith.
It's not fair to do whatever you feel like doing always, control yourself . If you couldn't do it, God wouldn't have commanded you to. Self control is in your spirit, and to be turn on when the need arises. Someone without self control is like a building without walls, which anything can enter at any time. Don't be that way. Fortify yourself, your spirit, against the rival, and the way to do that is to have rule over your spirit: self control.
