Receive, Yet Restrain

According to God’s design I celebrate pleasure and welcome comfort (I Timothy 4:3-4).  Nonetheless, it is impossible that my human pleasure and comfort will not need to be restrained. 

Ephesians 4:19  “… being past feeling, have given themselves over to [excess, absence of restraint]¹ to work all uncleanness with greediness.”

I Peter 4:3-4  “the will of the Gentiles – when we walked in [excess, absence of restraint]1 ^{….   …}they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation² ….”

Jude 4  “For certain men … turn the grace of our God into [excess, absence of restraint]¹  ….”

1 The Greek word used here, according to Vine’s Expository Dictionary,  “denotes excess” and “absence of restraint ….”

^{2 “}Dissipation”  means wasteful or squandering and is the word used in the  NKJV, NASB, and the NIV of I Peter 4:4.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words,  W.E. Vine, MacDonald Publishing Co.,, McLean, VA, p. 650

 

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