18 Bible Verses about Abstinence as a discipline

The next day, while those men were traveling on and not far from the town, Peter went up on the housetop about noon to pray. But he got very hungry and wanted something to eat. While they were getting it ready, he fell into a trance and saw the sky opened, and something like a great sheet coming down, lowered to the earth by the four corners,read more.
which contained all kinds of four-footed animals, reptiles, and wild birds. A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill something and eat it." But Peter said, "Never by any means, sir, for I have never eaten anything common, or not ceremonially cleansed."

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who is called Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen who was an intimate friend of the governor, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them."

Then Jesus was guided by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He at last felt hungry.

Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and for forty days He was led about in the desert under the Spirit's guidance, while He was being tempted by the devil. During that time He ate nothing, and so at the end of it He felt hungry.

Then John's disciples went up to Him, and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees practice fasting, but your disciples do not?" Jesus said to them, "The wedding guests cannot mourn, can they, as long as they have the bridegroom with them? But a time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast. So some people came and asked Him, "Why do John's disciples and the Pharisees' disciples practice fasting, but yours never do?" Jesus answered them, "The wedding guests cannot fast, can they, while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But a time is coming when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

After that they said to Him, "John's disciples rigidly practice fasting and offering up prayers; so do the Pharisees, but your disciples keep right on eating and drinking." But Jesus said to them, "You cannot make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But a time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; at that time they will fast."

There was also a prophetess there, Hannah, a daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was very old; from girlhood she had lived seven years with a husband, and now had been a widow eighty years. She never left the temple, but continued to worship all day and all night with fastings and prayers.

and for three days he could not see, and he did not eat or drink anything.

The man who keeps a certain day keeps it for the Lord. The man who eats anything does it for the Lord too, for he gives God thanks. The man who refuses to eat anything does it for the Lord too, and gives God thanks.

Then Jesus said to His disciples: "If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must say 'No' to self, put his cross on his shoulders, and keep on following me.

Then He called the people to Him along with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must say, 'No' to self, put the cross on his shoulders, and keep on following me.

Then He said to them all, "If anyone chooses to be my disciple, he must say 'No' to self, put the cross on his shoulders daily, and continue to follow me.

Let us live becomingly for people who are in the light of day, not in carousing and drunkenness, nor in sexual immorality and licentiousness, nor in quarreling and jealousy.

So I give it as my opinion, we ought not to put difficulties in the way of the heathen who turn to God, but we should write them to abstain from everything that is contaminated by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from tasting blood.

The right thing to do is not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything else, that makes your brother stumble.

"Also whenever you fast, you must not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they put on a gloomy countenance, to let people see them fasting. I solemnly say to you, they already have their reward.

The Pharisee stood and said this self-centered prayer, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast two days in the week. I pay a tithe on everything I get.'