What Does the Bible Say About Breaking Bad Habits?

Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV / 55 helpful votes

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Romans 12:1-2 ESV / 40 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 39 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 37 helpful votes

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 29 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

James 1:12 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

James 5:16 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Proverbs 28:13 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Psalm 1:2 ESV / 14 helpful votes

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

1 John 2:15-17 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

Romans 12:2 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

1 John 2:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Hebrews 10:17 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

Galatians 6:9 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

Romans 6:1-23 ESV / 9 helpful votes

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ...

2 Peter 1:2 ESV / 8 helpful votes

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Joshua 1:8 ESV / 8 helpful votes

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

John 3:16 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

1 John 5:3 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

1 Peter 5:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

1 John 4:10 ESV / 5 helpful votes

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 3:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

1 John 1:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

2 Peter 3:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

2 Peter 1:1-21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ...

1 Peter 2:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

1 Timothy 4:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— ...

Ephesians 4:22-32 ESV / 4 helpful votes

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ...

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Romans 14:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

Romans 5:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Romans 3:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

Acts 17:30 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

Acts 2:38 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 26:74 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed.

Proverbs 21:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.

Proverbs 4:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Exodus 20:1-26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ...

Revelation 2:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.

1 John 4:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

1 John 2:1-29 ESV / 3 helpful votes

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ...

1 John 1:8-2:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 1:8-10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 Peter 4:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;

1 Peter 4:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

James 4:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 1:22-25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

James 1:1-27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ...

Hebrews 9:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

2 Timothy 3:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

That the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

1 Timothy 5:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)

1 Timothy 3:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.

Colossians 2:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

Ephesians 4:27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And give no opportunity to the devil.

Galatians 5:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Romans 10:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Romans 7:1-25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ...

Romans 2:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;

Romans 1:1-32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, ...

Acts 22:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

Acts 11:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose,

Acts 8:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

John 14:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 3:1-36 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ...

Luke 19:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Luke 14:26-33 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ...

Luke 6:46 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

Mark 16:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Mark 14:71 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.”

Matthew 12:43-45 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

Matthew 6:34 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Matthew 4:1-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ...

Isaiah 5:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Proverbs 19:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

Proverbs 16:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips.

Psalm 119:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 26:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.

Psalm 17:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Leviticus 17:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Genesis 12:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

2 Peter 1:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

1 Peter 2:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

Colossians 2:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Colossians 1:1-29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, ...

Ephesians 6:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Ephesians 5:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Romans 8:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Isaiah 64:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Isaiah 53:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Proverbs 15:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

Proverbs 14:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do they not go astray who devise evil? Those who devise good meet steadfast love and faithfulness.

Proverbs 11:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

Psalm 103:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Psalm 91:1-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, ...

Ruth 1:1-22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. ...

Exodus 20:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

Exodus 12:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.

2 Corinthians 8:5 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Acts 11:2 ESV / 1 helpful vote

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying,

2 Kings 1:1-18 ESV / 1 helpful vote

After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel. Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.” But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Now therefore thus says the Lord, You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’” So Elijah went. The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, “Why have you returned?” ...

Bible Verses about Breaking Bad Habits