38 Bible Verses about ethics, incentives towards

For judges and magistrates are to be feared not by right-doers but by wrong-doers. You desire--do you not? --to have no reason to fear your ruler. Well, do the thing that is right, and then he will commend you. For he is God's servant for your benefit. But if you do what is wrong, be afraid. He does not wear the sword to no purpose: he is God's servant--an administrator to inflict punishment upon evil-doers.

I exhort then, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men; including kings and all who are in high station, in order that we may live peaceful and tranquil lives with all godliness and gravity. This is right, and is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour,read more.
who is willing for all mankind to be saved and come to a full knowledge of the truth.

Submit, for the Lord's sake, to every authority set up by man, whether it be to the Emperor as supreme ruler, or to provincial Governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers and the encouragement of those who do what is right.

"For if you forgive others their offences, your Heavenly Father will forgive you also; but if you do not forgive others their offences, neither will your Father forgive yours.

"Blessed are the compassionate, for they shall receive compassion.

for your own judgement will be dealt--and your own measure meted--to yourselves.

"In the same way my Heavenly Father will deal with you, if you do not all of you forgive one another from your hearts."

For he who shows no mercy will have judgement given against him without mercy; but mercy triumphs over judgement.

"Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay the tithe on mint, dill, and cumin, while you have neglected the weightier requirements of the Law--just judgement, mercy, and faithful dealing. These things you ought to have done, and yet you ought not to have left the others undone.

"But alas for you Pharisees! for you pay tithes on your mint and rue and every kind of garden vegetable, and are indifferent to justice and the love of God. These are the things you ought to have attended to, while not neglecting the others.

They profess to know God; but in their actions they disown Him, and are detestable and disobedient men, and for any good work are utterly useless.

And beware of grieving the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you have been sealed in preparation for the day of Redemption.

He who sows in the field of his lower nature, will from that nature reap destruction; but he who sows to serve the Spirit will from the Spirit reap the Life of the Ages.

Do you not know that unrighteous men will not inherit God's Kingdom? Cherish no delusion here. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor any who are guilty of unnatural crime,

For we must all of us appear before Christ's judgement-seat in our true characters, in order that each may then receive an award for his actions in this life, in accordance with what he has done, whether it be good or whether it be worthless.

Therefore put to death your earthward inclinations--fornication, impurity, sensual passion, unholy desire, and all greed, for that is a form of idolatry. It is on account of these very sins that God's anger is coming,

but may rather be restored. Persistently strive for peace with all men, and for that growth in holiness apart from which no one will see the Lord.

There was a time when you were nothing but darkness. Now, as Christians, you are Light itself.

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

and that He died for all in order that the living may no longer live to themselves, but to Him who died for them and rose again.

Do not speak falsehoods to one another, for you have stripped off the old self with its doings, and have clothed yourselves with the new self which is being remoulded into full knowledge so as to become like Him who created it.

Therefore be imitators of God, as His dear children. And live and act lovingly, as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up to death on our behalf as an offering and sacrifice to God, yielding a fragrant odor.

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.

I am not saying this by way of command, but to test by the standard of other men's earnestness the genuineness of your love also. For you know the condescending goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ--how for your sakes He became poor, though He was rich, in order that you through His poverty might grow rich.

who gave Himself for us to purchase our freedom from all iniquity, and purify for Himself a people who should be specially His own, zealous for doing good works.

We know what love is--through Christ's having laid down His life on our behalf; and in the same way we ought to lay down our lives for our brother men.

And do not forget to be kind and liberal; for with sacrifices of that sort God is greatly pleased.

And for this reason also we make it our ambition, whether at home or in exile, to please Him perfectly.

Children be obedient to your parents in everything; for that is right for Christians.

For our preaching was not grounded on a delusion, nor prompted by mingled motives, nor was there fraud in it. But as God tested and approved us before entrusting us with His Good News, so in what we say we are seeking not to please men but to please God, who tests and approves our motives.

Moreover, brethren, as you learnt from our lips the lives which you ought to live, and do live, so as to please God, we beg and exhort you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live them more and more truly.

and whatever we ask for we obtain from Him, because we obey His commands and do the things which are pleasing in His sight.

and To love Him with all one's heart, with all one's understanding, and with all one's strength, and to love one's fellow man no less than oneself, is far better than all our whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices."

The religious service which is pure and stainless in the sight of our God and Father is to visit fatherless children and widowed women in their time of trouble, and to keep one's own self unspotted from the world.

"If any one loves me," replied Jesus, "he will obey my teaching; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

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

that it may not be apparent to men that you are fasting, but to your Father who is in secret; and your Father--He who sees in secret--will recompense you.

But when you entertain, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they have no means of requiting you, but there will be requital for you at the Resurrection of the righteous."