100 Bible Verses about Flesh Wars Against Spirit

Galatians 5:17 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:16 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Romans 8:13 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Romans 8:5 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Galatians 6:8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Romans 8:14 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Romans 7:18 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

John 3:6 ESV / 6 helpful votes

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Ephesians 6:12 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Galatians 5:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Galatians 5:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Romans 8:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 7:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Matthew 26:41 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

1 Peter 2:11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Ephesians 6:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Ephesians 3:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

Galatians 5:25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

2 Corinthians 10:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

Romans 8:12-14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Romans 8:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.

Romans 6:12-13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

John 6:63 ESV / 4 helpful votes

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

1 Timothy 6:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 2:12-13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Ephesians 6:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Galatians 5:24-25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Galatians 5:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Galatians 5:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Galatians 5:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

Galatians 5:1-26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. ...

Galatians 4:1-31 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. ...

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 3 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.

Romans 13:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Romans 8:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

Romans 8:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Romans 8:6-8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Romans 8:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

John 16:33 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:12-13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

John 16:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor 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. ...

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Zechariah 4:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Psalm 119:133 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

2 Peter 1:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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.

James 4:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

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.

Titus 3:5-7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:5-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

1 Thessalonians 5:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ...

Philippians 2:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Ephesians 6:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

Ephesians 6:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Ephesians 6:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,

Ephesians 3:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you,

Ephesians 2:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Galatians 6:7-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:1-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. ...

Galatians 5:22-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ...

Galatians 5:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Galatians 5:15-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Galatians 5:13-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Galatians 5:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

Galatians 5:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

Galatians 5:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

Galatians 4:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Galatians 4:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.

Galatians 3:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 2 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 15:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Romans 8:37 ESV / 2 helpful votes

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Romans 8:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Romans 8:11-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Romans 8:5-7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.

Romans 8:4-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Romans 8:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Romans 7:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Romans 7:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Romans 7:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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 7:1-25 ESV / 2 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 6:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

Romans 6:3-11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. ...

Romans 6:3-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. ...

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