32 Bible Verses about Self Control

The Spirit, on the other hand, brings a harvest of love, joy, peace; patience towards others, kindness, benevolence; good faith, meekness, self-restraint.

For the grace of God has displayed itself with healing power to all mankind, training us to renounce ungodliness and all the pleasures of this world, and to live sober, upright, and pious lives at the present time,

A minister then must be a man of irreproachable character, true to his one wife, temperate, sober-minded, well-behaved, hospitable to strangers, and with a gift for teaching;

but hospitable to strangers, a lover of goodness, sober-minded, upright, saintly, self-controlled;

Exhort aged men to be temperate, grave, sober-minded, robust in their faith, their love and their patience.

But for this very reason--adding, on your part, all earnestness-- along with your faith, manifest also a noble character: along with a noble character, knowledge; along with knowledge, self-control; along with self-control, power of endurance; along with power of endurance, godliness; along with godliness, brotherly affection; and along with brotherly affection, love.read more.
If these things exist in you, and continually increase, they prevent your being either idle or unfruitful in advancing towards a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the man in whom they are lacking is blind and cannot see distant objects, in that he has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his old sins.

That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air, but I hit hard and straight at my own body and lead it off into slavery, lest possibly, after I have been a herald to others, I should myself be rejected.

If, however, a father thinks he is acting unbecomingly towards his still unmarried daughter if she be past the bloom of her youth, and so the matter is urgent, let him do what she desires; he commits no sin; she and her suitor should be allowed to marry. But if a father stands firm in his resolve, being free from all external constraint and having a legal right to act as he pleases, and in his own mind has come to the decision to keep his daughter unmarried, he will do well. So that he who gives his daughter in marriage does well, and yet he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

For this is God's will--your purity of life, that you abstain from fornication; that each man among you shall know how to procure a wife who shall be his own in purity and honour; that you be not overmastered by lustful cravings, like the Gentiles who have no knowledge of God;read more.
and that in this matter there be no encroaching on the rights of a brother Christian and no overreaching him. For the Lord is an avenger in all such cases, as we have already taught you and solemnly warned you. God has not called us to an unclean life, but to one of purity.

Therefore gird up your minds and fix your hopes calmly and unfalteringly upon the boon that is soon to be yours, at the re-appearing of Jesus Christ.

So then let us not sleep, like the rest of the world, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who drink freely, drink at night. But let us, belonging--as we do--to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

But the end of all things is now close at hand: therefore be sober-minded and temperate, so that you may give yourselves to prayer.

Curb every passion, and be on the alert. Your great accuser, the Devil, is going about like a roaring lion to see whom he can devour.

You know this, my dearly-loved brethren. But let every one be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to be angry.

Do not be eager, my brethren, for many among you to become teachers; for you know that we teachers shall undergo severer judgement. For we often stumble and fall, all of us. If there is any one who never stumbles in speech, that man has reached maturity of character and is able to curb his whole nature. Remember that we put the horses' bit into their mouths to make them obey us, and so we turn their whole bodies round.read more.
So too with ships, great as they are, and often driven along by strong gales, yet they can be steered with a very small rudder in whichever direction the caprice of the man at the helm chooses. In the same way the tongue is an insignificant part of the body, but it is immensely boastful. Remember how a mere spark may set a vast forest in flames. And the tongue is a fire. That world of iniquity, the tongue, is placed within us spotting and soiling our whole nature, and setting the whole round of our lives on fire, being itself set on fire by Gehenna. For brute nature under all its forms--beasts and birds, reptiles and fishes--can be subjected and kept in subjection by human nature. But the tongue no man or woman is able to tame. It is an ever-busy mischief, and is full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth there proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be. In a fountain, are fresh water and bitter sent forth from the same opening? Can a fig-tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine yield figs? No; and neither can salt water yield sweet.

But I tell you not to resist a wicked man, but if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well. If any one wishes to go to law with you and to deprive you of your under garment, let him take your outer one also.

"But to you who are listening to me I say, Love your enemies; seek the welfare of those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who revile you. To him who gives you a blow on one side of the face offer the other side also; and to him who is robbing you of your outer garment refuse not the under one also.

Household servants, be submissive to your masters, and show them the utmost respect--not only if they are kind and thoughtful, but also if they are unreasonable. For it is an acceptable thing with God, if, from a sense of duty to Him, a man patiently submits to wrong, when treated unjustly. If you do wrong and receive a blow for it, what credit is there in your bearing it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you bear it patiently, this is an acceptable thing with God.read more.
And it is to this you were called; because Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you an example so that you should follow in His steps. He never sinned, and no deceitful language was ever heard from His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not answer with reviling; when He suffered He uttered no threats, but left His wrongs in the hands of the righteous Judge.

But He remained silent, and gave no reply. A second time the High Priest questioned Him. "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" he said.

Then the Governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium, and called together the whole battalion to make sport of Him. Stripping off His garments, they put on Him a general's short crimson cloak. They twisted a wreath of thorny twigs and put it on His head, and they put a sceptre of cane in His right hand, and kneeling to Him they shouted in mockery, "Long live the King of the Jews!"read more.
Then they spat upon Him, and taking the cane they repeatedly struck Him on the head with it.

Homes we have none. Wearily we toil, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we bear it patiently; when slandered, we try to conciliate. We have come to be regarded as the mere dirt and filth of the world--the refuse of the universe, even to this hour.

Do you not know that in the foot-race the runners all run, but that only one gets the prize? You must run like him, in order to win with certainty. But every competitor in an athletic contest practices abstemiousness in all directions. They indeed do this for the sake of securing a perishable wreath, but we for the sake of securing one that will not perish. That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air,read more.
but I hit hard and straight at my own body and lead it off into slavery, lest possibly, after I have been a herald to others, I should myself be rejected.

But when he dealt with the subjects of justice, self-control, and the judgement which was soon to come, Felix became alarmed and said, "For the present leave me, and when I can find a convenient opportunity I will send for you."

For this reason, in accordance with their own depraved cravings, God gave them up to uncleanness, allowing them to dishonour their bodies among themselves with impurity. For they had bartered the reality of God for what is unreal, and had offered divine honours and religious service to created things, rather than to the Creator--He who is for ever blessed. Amen. This then is the reason why God gave them up to vile passions. For not only did the women among them exchange the natural use of their bodies for one which is contrary to nature, but the men also,read more.
in just the same way--neglecting that for which nature intends women--burned with passion towards one another, men practising shameful vice with men, and receiving in their own selves the reward which necessarily followed their misconduct. And just as they had refused to continue to have a full knowledge of God, so it was to utterly worthless minds that God gave them up, for them to do things which should not be done. Their hearts overflowed with all sorts of dishonesty, mischief, greed, malice. They were full of envy and murder, and were quarrelsome, crafty, and spiteful. They were secret backbiters, open slanderers; hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of sin, disobedient to parents, destitute of common sense, faithless to their promises, without natural affection, without human pity.

Do not refuse one another, unless perhaps it is just for a time and by mutual consent, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and may then associate again; lest the Adversary begin to tempt you because of your deficiency in self-control.

If, however, they cannot maintain self-control, by all means let them marry; for marriage is better than the fever of passion.

These rules have indeed an appearance of wisdom where self-imposed worship exists, and an affectation of humility and an ascetic severity. But not one of them is of any value in combating the indulgence of our lower natures.

But these men, like brute beasts, created (with their natural instincts) being doomed to receive a requital for their guilt. They reckon it pleasure to feast daintily in broad daylight. They are spots and blemishes, while feeding luxuriously at their love-feasts, and banqueting with you. Their very eyes are full of adultery--being eyes which never cease from sin. These men set traps to catch unstedfast souls, their own hearts being well trained in greed. They are fore-doomed to God's curse!

Let not Sin therefore reign as king in your mortal bodies, causing you to be in subjection to their cravings;

The Spirit, on the other hand, brings a harvest of love, joy, peace; patience towards others, kindness, benevolence;

All this shall be the heritage of him who overcomes, and I will be his God and he shall be one of My sons.

and the spirits of Prophets yield submission to Prophets.