What Does the Bible Say About Continence?

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ...

Matthew 19:12 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

1 Corinthians 7:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes

I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

1 Corinthians 7:32 ESV / 4 helpful votes

I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.

1 Corinthians 9:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Matthew 20:30 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

Matthew 19:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given.

Judges 11:38-39 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel

Judges 11:37 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.”

Genesis 17:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Genesis 17:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

2 Timothy 2:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Colossians 1:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Colossians 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Philippians 2:20-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Galatians 5:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

2 Corinthians 11:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.

1 Corinthians 12:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

1 Corinthians 10:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For “the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.”

1 Corinthians 7:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

1 Corinthians 7:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none,

1 Corinthians 7:29-32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.

1 Corinthians 7:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that.

1 Corinthians 7:25-40 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, ...

1 Corinthians 7:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

(but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

1 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.”

1 Corinthians 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes,

Romans 15:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”

John 19:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

John 19:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

John 16:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

Luke 12:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

Luke 10:41 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,

Mark 15:40 ESV / 2 helpful votes

There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.

Mark 6:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Matthew 22:30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Matthew 19:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ...

Jeremiah 16:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The word of the Lord came to me: “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.

Proverbs 5:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

A lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

Deuteronomy 25:5-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

Genesis 38:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother.

Genesis 38:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”

49 Bible Verses about Continence

1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:12 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:32 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 9:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 20:30 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Judges 11:38-39 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Judges 11:37 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 17:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 17:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Timothy 2:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 1:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Philippians 2:20-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Philippians 2:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 11:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 12:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 10:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:29-32 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:25-40 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 15:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 19:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 19:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 16:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 12:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 10:41 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 15:40 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 6:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 22:30 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jeremiah 16:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 5:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 25:5-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 38:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 38:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Suggest a Verse

Enter a Verse Reference (e.g., John 3:16-17)