34 Bible Verses about Abstinence as a discipline

And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel: You are not to take any fat, of ox or sheep or goat, for food. And the fat of that which comes to a natural death, and the fat of that which is attacked by beasts, may be used for other purposes, but not in any way for food.read more.
For anyone who takes as food the fat of any beast of which men make an offering by fire to the Lord, will be cut off from his people. And you are not to take for food any blood, of bird or of beast, in any of your houses. Whoever takes any blood for food will be cut off from his people.

You are the children of the Lord your God: you are not to make cuts on your bodies or take off the hair on your brows in honour of the dead; For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth. No disgusting thing may be your food.read more.
These are the beasts which you may have for food: the ox, the sheep, and the goat; The hart, the gazelle, and the roe, the mountain goat and the pygarg and the antelope and the mountain sheep. Any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again, may be used for food. But even among these, there are some which may not be used for food: such as the camel, the hare, and the coney, which are unclean to you, because, though their food comes back, the horn of their feet is not parted in two. And the pig is unclean to you, because though it has a division in the horn of its foot, its food does not come back; their flesh may not be used for food or their dead bodies touched by you. And of the things living in the waters, you may take all those who have wings for swimming with and skins formed of thin plates. But any which have no skin-plates or wings for swimming, you may not take; they are unclean for you. All clean birds may be used for food. But these birds you may not take: the eagle and the gier-eagle and the ospray; The falcon and the kite, and birds of that sort; Every raven, and all birds of that sort; And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk and birds of that sort; The little owl and the great owl and the water-hen; And the pelican and the vulture and the cormorant; The stork and the heron and birds of that sort, and the hoopoe and the bat. Every winged thing which goes flat on the earth is unclean to you and may not be used as food. But all clean birds you may take. You may not have as food anything which has come to a natural death; the man from another country who is living with you may take it for food, or you may get a price for it from one of another nation; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk.

Now the day after, when they were on their journey and were near the town, Peter went up to the top of the house for prayer, about the sixth hour: And he was in need of food: but while they were getting it ready, a deep sleep came on him; And he saw the heavens opening, and a vessel coming down, like a great cloth let down on the earth,read more.
In which were all sorts of beasts and birds. And a voice came to him, saying, Come, Peter; take them for food. But Peter said, No, Lord; for I have never taken food which is common or unclean.

Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and made the people holy; and their clothing was washed. And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day: do not come near a woman.

And let this be an order to you for ever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day, you are to keep yourselves from pleasure and do no sort of work, those who are Israelites by birth and those from other lands who are living among you: For on this day your sin will be taken away and you will be clean: you will be made free from all your sins before the Lord. It is a special Sabbath for you, and you are to keep yourselves from pleasure; it is an order for ever.

And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, If a man or a woman takes an oath to keep himself separate and give himself to the Lord; He is to keep himself from wine and strong drink, and take no mixed wine or strong drink or any drink made from grapes, or any grapes, green or dry.read more.
All the time he is separate he may take nothing made from the grape-vine, from its seeds to its skin.

And the children of Israel are to keep the Sabbath holy, from generation to generation, by an eternal agreement. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he took his rest and had pleasure in it.

And on the tenth day of this seventh month there will be a holy meeting; keep yourselves from pleasure, and do no sort of work;

Now then take care to have no wine or strong drink and to take no unclean thing for food;

Then Ezra got up from before the house of God and went into the room of Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib; but when he came there, he took no food or drink, for he was sorrowing for the sin of those who had come back.

They said to me, The small band of Jews now living there in the land are in great trouble and shame: the wall of Jerusalem has been broken down, and its doorways burned with fire. Then, after hearing these words, for some days I gave myself up to weeping and sorrow, seated on the earth; and taking no food I made prayer to the God of heaven,

But even now, says the Lord, come back to me with all your heart, keeping from food, with weeping and with sorrow:

And the people of Nineveh had belief in God; and a time was fixed for going without food, and they put on haircloth, from the greatest to the least.

Now there were at Antioch, in the church there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, and Symeon who was named Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, a relation of Herod the king, and Saul. And while they were doing the Lord's work, and going without food, the Holy Spirit said, Let Barnabas and Saul be given to me for the special work for which they have been marked out by me.

Then Jesus was sent by the Spirit into the waste land to be tested by the Evil One. And after going without food for forty days and forty nights, he was in need of it.

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, came back from the Jordan, and was guided by the Spirit in the waste land For forty days, being tested by the Evil One. And he had no food in those days; and when they came to an end, he was in need of food.

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees frequently go without food, but your disciples do not? And Jesus said to them, Will the friends of the newly-married man be sad as long as he is with them? But the days will come when he will be taken away from them, and then will they go without food.

And John's disciples and the Pharisees were taking no food: and they came and said to him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees go without food, but your disciples do not? And Jesus said to them, Will the friends of a newly-married man go without food while he is with them? as long as they have him with them they will not go without food. But the days will come when the husband will be taken away from them, and then they will go without food.

And they said to him, The disciples of John frequently go without food, and make prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees; but your disciples take food and drink. And Jesus said, Are you able to make the friends of the newly-married man go without food when he is with them? But the days will come when he will be taken away from them, and then they will go without food.

And there was one, Anna, a woman prophet, the daughter of Phanuel, of the family of Asher (she was very old, and after seven years of married life She had been a widow for eighty-four years); she was in the Temple at all times, worshipping with prayers and going without food, night and day.

And for three days he was not able to see, and he took no food or drink.

He who keeps the day, keeps it to the Lord; and he who takes food, takes it as to the Lord, for he gives praise to God; and he who does not take food, to the Lord he takes it not, and gives praise to God.

And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day: do not come near a woman.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him give up all, and take up his cross, and come after me.

And turning to the mass of people with his disciples, he said to them, If any man has the desire to come after me, let him give up all other desires, and take up his cross and come after me.

And he said to them all, If any man has a desire to come after me, let him give up all, and take up his cross every day, and come after me.

With right behaviour as in the day; not in pleasure-making and drinking, not in bad company and unclean behaviour, not in fighting and envy.

For this reason my decision is, that we do not put trouble in the way of those who from among the Gentiles are turned to God; But that we give them orders to keep themselves from things offered to false gods, and from the evil desires of the body, and from the flesh of animals put to death in ways against the law, and from blood.

It is better not to take meat or wine or to do anything which might be a cause of trouble to your brother.

And when you go without food, be not sad-faced as the false-hearted are. For they go about with changed looks, so that men may see that they are going without food. Truly I say to you, They have their reward.

They say, Why have we kept ourselves from food, and you do not see it? why have we kept ourselves from pleasure, and you take no note of it? If, in the days when you keep from food, you take the chance to do your business, and get in your debts; If keeping from food makes you quickly angry, ready for fighting and giving blows with evil hands; your holy days are not such as to make your voice come to my ears on high. Have I given orders for such a day as this? a day for keeping yourselves from pleasure? is it only a question of the bent head, of putting on haircloth, and being seated in the dust? is this what seems to you a holy day, well-pleasing to the Lord?read more.
Is not this the holy day for which I have given orders: to let loose those who have wrongly been made prisoners, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the crushed go free, and every yoke be broken? Is it not to give your bread to those in need, and to let the poor who have no resting-place come into your house? to put a robe on the unclothed one when you see him, and not to keep your eyes shut for fear of seeing his flesh?

This is what the Lord has said about this people: Even so they have been glad to go from the right way; they have not kept their feet from wandering, so the Lord has no pleasure in them; now he will keep their wrongdoing in mind and send punishment for their sins. And the Lord said to me, Make no prayer for this people for their good. When they go without food, I will not give ear to their cry; when they give burned offerings and meal offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: but I will put an end to them by the sword and by need of food and by disease.

Now they of Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech to make a request for grace from the Lord, And to say to the priests of the house of the Lord of armies and to the prophets, Am I to go on weeping in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done in past years? Then the word of the Lord of armies came to me, sayingread more.
Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, When you went without food and gave yourselves to grief in the fifth and the seventh months for these seventy years, did you ever do it because of me? And when you are feasting and drinking, are you not doing it only for yourselves?

The Pharisee, taking up his position, said to himself these words: God, I give you praise because I am not like other men, who take more than their right, who are evil-doers, who are untrue to their wives, or even like this tax-farmer. Twice in the week I go without food; I give a tenth of all I have.