34 Bible Verses about Abstinence as a discipline
Most Relevant Verses
And Jehovah spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You shall not eat any fat of ox, or of sheep, or of goat. And the fat of a dead body, and the fat of a thing torn, may be used in any other use. But you shall in no way eat it.read more.
For whoever eats the fat of the beast of which men offer an offering made by fire to Jehovah, even the soul that eats it shall be cut off from his people. And you shall not eat any blood, of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Any soul who eats any blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
You are the sons of Jehovah your God. You shall not cut yourselves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God, and Jehovah has chosen you to be a peculiar people to Himself, above all the nations that are on the earth. You shall not eat any hateful thing.read more.
These are the animals which you shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, the hart, and the gazelle, and the roe deer, and the wild goat, and the mountain goat, and the wild ox, and the mountain-sheep. And every animal that divides the hoof, and divides it into two hooves, and chews the cud among the animals, that you shall eat. But these you shall not eat, of those which chew the cud, or of those that divide the cloven hoof: the camel, and the hare, and the rock badger, for they chew the cud, but do not divide the hoof. They are unclean to you. And the swine, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you. You shall not eat of their flesh nor touch their dead body. These you shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales you shall eat. And whatever does not have fins and scales you shall not eat. It is unclean to you. You shall eat all clean birds. But you shall not eat of these: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey, and the hawk, and the falcon, and the vulture after its kind, and every raven after its kind, and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after its kind, the little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, and the pelican, and the owl, and the cormorant, and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat. And every creeping thing that flies is unclean to you. They shall not be eaten. You may eat all clean fowls. You shall not eat anything that dies of itself. You shall give it to the stranger that is in your gates, so that he may eat it. Or you may sell it to a stranger. For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
On the next day, as these went on the road, and drawing near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. And he became very hungry and desired to eat. But while they made ready, an ecstasy fell on him. And he saw the heaven opened and a certain vessel like a sheet coming down to him, being bound at the four corners and let down to the earth;read more.
in which were all the four-footed animals of the earth, and the wild beasts, and the reptiles, and the birds of the heaven. And a voice came to him, saying, Rise, Peter! Kill and eat! But Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.
And Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and sanctified the people. And they washed their clothes. And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day. Do not approach a woman.
And it shall be a statute forever to you: in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, the native and the alien who is staying among you. For on that day an atonement shall be made for you, to cleanse you, so that you may be clean from all your sins before Jehovah. It shall be a sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls, by a statute forever.
And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, When a man or a woman shall vow a vow, a vow of a Nazarite, to be separated to Jehovah, he shall separate from wine and strong drink and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink; neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried.read more.
All the days of his Nazariteship he shall eat nothing that is made of the grapevine, from grape seeds even to a stem.
Therefore the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever. For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.
And you shall have a holy convocation on the tenth of this seventh month. And you shall afflict your souls. You shall not do any work.
And now, please take heed, and do not drink wine nor strong drink, and do not eat any unclean thing.
Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the room of Johanan the son of Eliashib. And he went there, and he ate no bread nor drank water. For he mourned because of the sin of those who had been exiled.
And they said to me, The remnant left of the captivity there in the province is in great affliction and shame. And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire. And it happened when I heard these words, I sat down and wept. And I mourned for days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of Heaven.
Yet even now, says Jehovah, turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.
And the people of Nineveh believed God. And they called a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
And in Antioch some among the existing church were prophets and teachers. (such as Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, So, then, separate Barnabas and Saul to Me for the work to which I have called them.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterwards hungry.
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness forty days, being tempted by the Devil. And in those days He ate nothing. And they being ended, He afterward was hungry.
Then the disciples of John came to Him saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.
The disciples of John and those of the Pharisees were fasting. And they came and said to Him, Why do John's disciples and those of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the sons of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those days.
And they said to Him, Why do John's disciples fast often and make prayers, and also the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink? But He said to them, Can you make the sons of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those days.
And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in many days, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, serving God with fastings and prayers night and day.
He who regards the day regards it to the Lord; and he not regarding the day, does not regard it to the Lord. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and gives God thanks.
And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day. Do not approach a woman.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
And calling near the crowd with His disciples, He said to them, Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
And He said to all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in carousings and drinking; not in co-habitation and lustful acts; not in strife and envy.
Therefore my judgment is that we do not trouble those who have turned to God from among the nations, but that we write to them that they should abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.
And when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, of a sad face. For they disfigure their faces so that they may appear to men to fast. Truly I say to you, They have their reward.
They say, Why have we fasted, and You do not see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and You take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and crush all your laborers. Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness; you shall not fast as you do today, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and a day pleasing to Jehovah?read more.
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed ones go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to break your bread to the hungry, and that you should bring home the wandering poor? When will you see the naked and cover him; and you will not hide yourself from your own flesh?
So says Jehovah to this people; So they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet; therefore Jehovah does not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins. Then Jehovah said to me, Do not pray for this people for good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and a grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the plague.
And Sherezer and Regem-melech and his men had been sent to the house of God, to seek the favor of Jehovah, to speak to the priests who belong to the house of Jehovah of Hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, consecrating myself, as I have done these many years? And came the Word of Jehovah of Hosts to me, saying,read more.
Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, even those seventy years, did you truly fast to Me, even to Me? And when you ate, and when you drank, was it not for you the eaters, and for you, the drinkers?
The Pharisee stood and prayed within himself in this way: God, I thank You that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice on the Sabbath, I give tithes of all that I possess.
