100 Bible Verses about Pleasure

Proverbs 21:17 ESV / 176 helpful votes

Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.

Psalm 16:11 ESV / 134 helpful votes

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV / 116 helpful votes

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 95 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 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV / 78 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. 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, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Luke 8:14 ESV / 75 helpful votes

And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 ESV / 75 helpful votes

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. ...

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 74 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.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 63 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.

1 Timothy 5:6 ESV / 55 helpful votes

But she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.

1 Timothy 6:17 ESV / 47 helpful votes

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

1 Thessalonians 4:4 ESV / 44 helpful votes

That each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

Romans 13:12-14 ESV / 44 helpful votes

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 36 helpful votes

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 34 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.

1 Corinthians 10:7 ESV / 32 helpful votes

Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

1 John 1:9 ESV / 28 helpful votes

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

Romans 12:1 ESV / 28 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.

2 Timothy 3:4 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

Ephesians 5:3 ESV / 24 helpful votes

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 23 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 Peter 4:3-4 ESV / 22 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. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;

2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV / 21 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Ezekiel 18:23 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

Ecclesiastes 2:1 ESV / 18 helpful votes

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.

Psalm 149:4 ESV / 18 helpful votes

For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.

Ezekiel 33:11 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

James 1:27 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Ezekiel 18:32 ESV / 16 helpful votes

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

Ephesians 1:5 ESV / 15 helpful votes

He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 14 helpful votes

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Isaiah 47:8 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”:

Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV / 14 helpful votes

And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Philippians 2:13 ESV / 13 helpful votes

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

Matthew 7:21-23 ESV / 13 helpful votes

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Micah 6:8 ESV / 13 helpful votes

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Psalm 37:4 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Titus 3:3 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Ephesians 1:11 ESV / 12 helpful votes

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Galatians 5:19 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

Luke 12:32 ESV / 12 helpful votes

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 12 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.

Isaiah 58:1-14 ESV / 12 helpful votes

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? ...

Psalm 147:11 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

Psalm 5:4 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.

1 Chronicles 29:17 ESV / 12 helpful votes

I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.

Jude 1:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 11 helpful votes

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

James 5:16 ESV / 11 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.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

Galatians 5:14 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Romans 5:8 ESV / 11 helpful votes

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 11 helpful votes

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

Matthew 25:31-46 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ...

Matthew 7:12 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Jeremiah 2:7 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Ecclesiastes 5:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.

Leviticus 20:10 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 11 helpful votes

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

John 3:17 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

2 Peter 2:13 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.

James 5:5 ESV / 9 helpful votes

You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Ephesians 1:9 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

Isaiah 1:11 ESV / 9 helpful votes

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ...

Proverbs 15:13 ESV / 9 helpful votes

A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.

Psalm 147:10 ESV / 9 helpful votes

His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,

Leviticus 18:6-18 ESV / 9 helpful votes

“None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is your father's nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether brought up in the family or in another home. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. ...

1 Corinthians 15:10 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Romans 6:23 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 8 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Proverbs 5:1-23 ESV / 8 helpful votes

My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; ...

Psalm 16:1-11 ESV / 8 helpful votes

A Miktam of David. Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. ...

Job 22:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right, or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

Job 21:21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?

Esther 1:8 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And drinking was according to this edict: “There is no compulsion.” For the king had given orders to all the staff of his palace to do as each man desired.

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

James 2:8 ESV / 7 helpful votes

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.

Hebrews 11:25 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

1 Corinthians 7:9 ESV / 7 helpful votes

But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Romans 13:9 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Romans 2:1-4 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Mark 12:31 ESV / 7 helpful votes

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 10:11-12 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Matthew 5:27-28 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Proverbs 29:11 ESV / 7 helpful votes

A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

Psalm 104:1-35 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire. He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. ...

Job 21:25 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity.

Nehemiah 9:37 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress.

Genesis 18:12 ESV / 7 helpful votes

So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”

1 Thessalonians 4:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.

John 10:10 ESV / 6 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Luke 16:18 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Proverbs 18:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

Proverbs 16:13 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Righteous lips are the delight of a king, and he loves him who speaks what is right.

Psalm 148:1-14 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. ...

Hebrews 6:1-20 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, ...

Proverbs 10:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding.

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