100 Bible Verses about Putting God Before Worldy Pleasures

1 John 2:15-17 ESV / 10 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 of life—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.

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 1:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

Titus 2:12 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

1 John 2:15 ESV / 7 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.

John 14:6 ESV / 7 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.

Hebrews 12:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

Hebrews 11:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Colossians 3:1 ESV / 5 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.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Luke 12:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Luke 8:14 ESV / 5 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.

Matthew 13:1-58 ESV / 5 helpful votes

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, ...

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 5:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 3:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

1 Peter 2:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

James 4:4 ESV / 4 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.

Titus 3:3 ESV / 4 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.

2 Timothy 4:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

2 Timothy 3:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

2 Timothy 2:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

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,

Colossians 2:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—

Philippians 2:12 ESV / 4 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,

Ephesians 5:11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Ephesians 1:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

Romans 8:29 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

John 6:44 ESV / 4 helpful votes

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 4 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. 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.

John 3:16 ESV / 4 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.

John 1:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

John 1:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Matthew 16:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 4 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.

Psalm 119:1-176 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! ...

Revelation 3:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

Jude 1:4 ESV / 3 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.

1 John 5:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

1 John 3:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

1 John 3:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

2 Peter 3:18 ESV / 3 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 2:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

2 Peter 2:20-22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

2 Peter 2:1-22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ...

1 Peter 2:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 1:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

1 Peter 1:8-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

James 5:16 ESV / 3 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.

James 2:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

James 2:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

James 1:27 ESV / 3 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.

James 1:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Hebrews 13:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrews 12:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Titus 3:5 ESV / 3 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,

Titus 2:11-12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

Titus 1:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

2 Timothy 3:1-17 ESV / 3 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. ...

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV / 3 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.

1 Timothy 6:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

Colossians 3:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Colossians 1:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 3:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Philippians 3:18-19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

Philippians 2:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 2:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Galatians 5:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Galatians 2:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Galatians 1:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

2 Corinthians 11:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

2 Corinthians 10:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

2 Corinthians 7:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

2 Corinthians 4:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

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.

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV / 3 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,

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 2:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

Romans 12:1 ESV / 3 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.

Romans 10:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

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 6:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

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?

Romans 6:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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.

Romans 5:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Acts 17:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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.

Acts 4:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

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