48 Bible Verses about Self Denial

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If any one desires to follow me, let him renounce self and take up his cross, and so be my follower.

Dear friends, I entreat you as pilgrims and foreigners not to indulge the cravings of your lower natures: for all such cravings wage war upon the soul.

having determined to endure ill-treatment along with the people of God rather than enjoy the short-lived pleasures of sin;

For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; no wine or fermented drink shall he ever drink; but he will be filled with the Holy Spirit from the very hour of his birth.

For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon!'

Then calling to Him the crowd and also His disciples, He said to them, "If any one is desirous of following me, let him ignore self and take up his cross, and so be my follower.

And He said to all, "If any one is desirous of following me, let him ignore self and take up his cross day by day, and so be my follower.

His reply was, "What can you mean by thus breaking my heart with your grief? Why, as for me, I am ready not only to go to Jerusalem and be put in chains, but even to die there for the sake of the Lord Jesus."

Yet all that was gain to me--for Christ's sake I have reckoned it loss.

If therefore your eye, even the right eye, is a snare to you, tear it out and away with it; it is better for you that one member should be destroyed rather than that your whole body should be thrown into Gehenna.

let Thy kingdom come; let Thy will be done, as in Heaven so on earth;

Passing on thence Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the Toll Office, and said to him, "Follow me." And he arose, and followed Him.

Again He went out to the shore of the Lake, and the whole multitude kept coming to Him, and He taught them. And as He passed by, He saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the Toll Office, and said to him, "Follow me." So he rose and followed Him.

After this He went out and noticed a tax-gatherer, Levi by name, sitting at the Toll office; and He said to him, "Follow me." He rose, left everything, and followed Him.

If your hand should cause you to sin, cut it off: it would be better for you to enter into Life maimed, than remain in possession of both your hands and go away into Gehenna, into the fire which cannot be put out.

"If you desire to be perfect," replied Jesus, "go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have wealth in Heaven; and come, follow me."

Then Peter said to Jesus, "See, *we* have forsaken everything and followed you; what then will be *our* reward?"

"Remember," said Peter to Him, "that we forsook everything and have become your followers."

Then Peter said, "See, we have given up our homes and have followed you."

And whoever has forsaken houses, or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children or lands, for my sake, shall receive many times as much and shall have as his inheritance the Life of the Ages.

"In solemn truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "that there is no one who has forsaken house or brothers or sisters, or mother or father, or children or lands, for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, but will receive a hundred times as much now in this present life--houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, lands--and persecution with them--and in the coming age the Life of the Ages.

Then, after bringing their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

Just as no one of you who does not detach himself from all that belongs to him can be a disciple of mine.

"But take heed to yourselves, lest your souls be weighed down with self-indulgence and drunkenness or the anxieties of this life, and that day come upon you, suddenly, like a falling trap;

But even the sacrifice of my life I count as nothing, if only I may perfect my earthly course, and be faithful to the duty which the Lord Jesus has entrusted to me of proclaiming, as of supreme importance, the Good News of God's grace.

No, indeed; how shall we who have died to sin, live in it any longer?

For if you so live, death is near; but if, through being under the sway of the spirit, you are putting your old bodily habits to death, you will live.

I plead with you therefore, brethren, by the compassionsof God, to present all your faculties to Him as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to Him. This with you will be an act of reasonable worship.

On the contrary, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for gratifying your earthly cravings.

Everything is allowable to me, but not everything is profitable. Everything is allowable to me, but to nothing will I become a slave.

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, 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.

They not only did this, as we had expected, but first of all in obedience to God's will they gave their own selves to the Lord and to us.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me; and the life which I now live in the body I live through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up to death on my behalf.

This then is what I mean. Let your lives be guided by the Spirit, and then you will certainly not indulge the cravings of your lower natures.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

If therefore a man keeps himself clear of these latter, he himself will be for specially honourable use, consecrated, fit for the Master's service, and fully equipped for every good work.

training us to renounce ungodliness and all the pleasures of this world, and to live sober, upright, and pious lives at the present time, in expectation of the fulfilment of our blessed hope--the Appearing in glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ;

Submit therefore to God: resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.

that in future you may spend the rest of your earthly lives, governed not by human passions, but by the will of God.

each fixing his attention, not simply on his own interests, but on those of others also.

The right course is to forego eating meat or drinking wine or doing anything that tends to your brother's fall.

As for us who are strong, our duty is to bear with the weaknesses of those who are not strong, and not seek our own pleasure.

Therefore if what I eat causes my brother to fall, never again to the end of my days will I touch any kind of animal food, for fear I should cause my brother to fall.

Therefore put to death your earthward inclinations--fornication, impurity, sensual passion, unholy desire, and all greed, for that is a form of idolatry.

Every one who serves as a soldier keeps himself from becoming entangled in the world's business--so that he may satisfy the officer who enlisted him.

Let no one be for ever seeking his own good, but let each seek that of his fellow man.

He must grow greater, but I must grow less.