Aristotle’s Four States of Man
I thought that I would share with you an idea that I plan to use in my sermon tomorrow morning. This is Aristotle’s 4 states of man, which describe where a person is in their battle against wickedness.
- Perfect temperance: Reason rules over passion, and the fight is won
- Unbridled lust: Passion rules over reason and the fight is lost
- Incontinence: Reason fights, but passion prevails. The battle is on, but at the moment, reason is losing
- Self Control: passion fights, but reason prevails. The battle is on, but at the moment reason is winning.
The first is what we should all seek to attain, even though we know that we will certainly never reach perfection in this life. Hopefully, we avoid the second at all costs. However, we can look around us and see that there are plenty of people who have that very attitude toward sin. It seems that they are trying to be as wicked as humanly possible! Typically, we will find ourselves bouncing back and forth between the last two possibilities. The battle is certainly raging, and sometimes we are winning the battle, but sometimes we are losing the battle. Our goal should be to spend as much time as possible in the last category. We need to grow to the point that we can control our own desires, and have reason win out over the passions of life and lust!
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