90 Bible Verses about Worldly Desires

1 John 2:15-16 ESV / 51 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.

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 41 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.

Titus 2:12 ESV / 36 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 2:16 ESV / 34 helpful votes

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.

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 29 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 2:5 ESV / 23 helpful votes

You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Galatians 5:16 ESV / 23 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 22 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 2:9 ESV / 17 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.

Titus 2:11-12 ESV / 14 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,

Matthew 4:4 ESV / 14 helpful votes

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

2 Timothy 2:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes

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

1 John 2:17 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 2:3 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV / 10 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.

2 Corinthians 2:11 ESV / 10 helpful votes

So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

John 14:6 ESV / 10 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.

2 Peter 3:18 ESV / 9 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.

Acts 16:31 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Acts 5:32 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

1 John 2:15-17 ESV / 8 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.

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 8 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.

1 Peter 2:11 ESV / 7 helpful votes

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

Romans 6:12-14 ESV / 7 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. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Revelation 21:1-27 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ...

Revelation 2:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

Revelation 2:20-21 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 5 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.

Revelation 16:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.

Revelation 3:5 ESV / 4 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.

Revelation 2:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

1 John 5:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

2 Peter 3:11-14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

Ephesians 2:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

John 17:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Mark 4:18-19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Matthew 19:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

Revelation 21:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Revelation 3:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.

2 Peter 1:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 1:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

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.

Acts 15:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Matthew 20:1-16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. ...

Matthew 7:21-23 ESV / 3 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.’

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 3 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.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Hebrews 10:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 5:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

Hebrews 4:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Titus 2:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 2 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.

2 Timothy 2:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 2 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.

Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV / 2 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.

Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

Galatians 6:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

Galatians 4:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV / 2 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 6:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

1 Corinthians 7:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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.

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 2 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.

Romans 12:1-2 ESV / 2 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.

Romans 6:17-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Romans 6:16 ESV / 2 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 2:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Romans 1:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

Romans 1:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Acts 20:35 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

John 17:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

John 15:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

John 15:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

John 14:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

John 8:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 3:36 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 3:16 ESV / 2 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 / 2 helpful votes

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

Matthew 23:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Matthew 19:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Matthew 10:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Isaiah 14:12-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.

Isaiah 9:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Psalm 119:130 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.

Leviticus 22:3-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Say to them, ‘If any one of all your offspring throughout your generations approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord. None of the offspring of Aaron who has a leprous disease or a discharge may eat of the holy things until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead or a man who has had an emission of semen, and whoever touches a swarming thing by which he may be made unclean or a person from whom he may take uncleanness, whatever his uncleanness may be— the person who touches such a thing shall be unclean until the evening and shall not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water. When the sun goes down he shall be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because they are his food. ...

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