46 Bible Verses about ethics, and grace

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts--murder, adultery, unchastity, theft, perjury, slander.

For it is from within, out of the hearts of men, that there come evil thoughts--unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, Greed, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, haughtiness, folly;

We know that the Law is spiritual, but I am earthly-sold into slavery to Sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I am so far from habitually doing what I want to do, that I find myself doing the very thing that I hate.

Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened.

For all have sinned, and all fall short of God's glorious ideal,

But the words of Scripture represent the whole world as being in bondage to sin, so that the promised blessing, dependent, as it is, upon faith in Jesus Christ, may be given to those who have faith in him.

If we say that there is no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves, and the Truth has no place in us.

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always been obedient in the past, so now work out your own Salvation with anxious care, not only when I am with you, but all the more now that I am absent.

You, then, must become perfect--as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Not every one who says to me 'Master! Master!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven.

"Why ask me about goodness?" answered Jesus. "There is but One who is good. If you want to enter the Life, keep the commandments."

I can but speak as men do because of the weakness of your earthly nature. Once you offered every part of your bodies to the service of impurity, and of wickedness, which leads to further wickedness. Now, in the same way, offer them to the service of Righteousness, which leads to holiness.

With these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that pollutes either body or spirit, and, in deepest reverence for God, aim at perfect holiness.

But do you, Servant of God, avoid all this. Aim at righteousness, piety, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.

Yes, and for this very reason do your best to supplement your faith by goodness, goodness by knowledge, knowledge by self-control, self-control by endurance, endurance by piety, piety by brotherly affection, and brotherly affection by love.

Therefore, dear friends, in expectation of these things, make every effort to be found by him spotless, blameless, and at peace.

And every one who has this hope with regard to Christ tries to make himself pure--as Christ is pure.

What are we to say, then? That Law and sin are the same thing? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, I should not have learned what sin is, had not it been for Law. If the Law did not say 'Thou shalt not covet,' I should not know what it is to covet.

And as for us, it is not the Spirit of the World that we have received, but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may realize the blessings given to us by him. And we speak of these gifts, not in language taught by human philosophy, but in language taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things in spiritual words. The merely intellectual man rejects the teaching of the Spirit of God; for to him it is mere folly; he cannot grasp it, because it is to be understood only by spiritual insight.

This is what I have to say--Let your steps be guided by the Spirit, and then you will never gratify the cravings of your earthly nature.

If you love me, you will lay my commands to heart, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you always--the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot receive this Spirit, because it does not see him or recognize him, but you recognize him, because he is always with you, and is within you.

What Law could not do, in so far as our earthly nature weakened its action, God did, by sending his own Son, with a nature resembling our sinful nature, to atone for sin. He condemned sin in that earthly nature, So that the requirements of the Law might be satisfied in us who live now in obedience, not to our earthly nature, but to the Spirit. They who follow their earthly nature are earthly-minded, while they who follow the Spirit are spiritually minded.

But the fruit produced by the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindliness, generosity, trustfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law!

But, Brothers, whom the Lord loves, it is our duty always to thank God about you, for, from the first, God chose you for Salvation through the purifying influence of the Spirit, and your belief in the Truth.

and who were chosen in accordance with the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the consecration of the Spirit, to learn obedience, and to be purified by the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ, from Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ. May blessing and peace be yours in ever-increasing measure.

For his divine power has given us everything that is needful for a life of piety, as we advance in the knowledge of him who called us by a glorious manifestation of his goodness.

I am the Vine, you are the branches. He that remains united to me, while I remain united to him--he bears fruit plentifully; for you can do nothing apart from me.

No temptation has come upon you that is not common to all mankind. God will not fail you, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength; but, when he sends the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, so that you may have strength to endure.

Put on the full armor of God, so that you may be able to stand your ground against the stratagems of the Devil.

Remember it is God who, in his kindness, is at work within you, enabling you both to will and to work.

For the Spirit which God gave us was not a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of power, love, and self-control.

The fact that he himself suffered under temptation enables him to help those who are tempted.

No; the gift that God gives is for a nobler end; and that is why it is said--'God is opposed to the haughty, but gives help to the humble.'

Miserable man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body that is bringing me to this Death? Thank God, there is deliverance through Jesus Christ, our Lord! Well then, for myself, with my reason I serve the Law of God, but with my earthly nature the Law of Sin.

And God himself will strengthen you to the end, so that at the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ you may be found blameless.

And that you must clothe yourselves in that new nature which was created to resemble God, with the righteousness and holiness springing from the Truth.

And clothe yourselves with that new self, which, as it gains in knowledge, is being constantly renewed 'in resemblance to him who made it.'

For of this I am confident, that he who began a good work in you will complete it in readiness for the Day of Jesus Christ.

And so make your hearts strong, and your lives pure beyond reproach, in the sight of our God and Father, at the Coming of our Lord Jesus, with all his Holy Ones.

Dear friends, we are God's Children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that, when it is revealed, we shall be like Christ; because we shall see him as he is.

For those whom God chose from the first he also destined from the first to be transformed into likeness to his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest among many Brothers.

And all of us, with faces from which the veil is lifted, seeing, as if reflected in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into his likeness, from glory to glory, as it is given by the Lord, the Spirit.

but we look for 'new heavens and a new earth,' where righteousness shall have its home, in fulfillment of the promise of God.

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom all that hinders and those who live in sin, And 'will throw them into the fiery furnace,' where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine, like the sun, in the Kingdom of their Father. Let him who has ears hear.

But as for cowards, unbelievers, the degraded, murderers, the impure, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars--their place will be in the burning lake of fire and sulphur. That is the Second Death.'

Outside will be the filthy, the sorcerers, the impure, the murderers, the idolaters, and all who love the false and live it.'