38 Bible Verses about ethics, incentives towards

The man who does right has nothing to fear from the magistrates, as the wrongdoer has. If you want to have no fear of the authorities, do right, and they will commend you for it, for they are God's agents to do you good. But if you do wrong you may well be afraid, for they do not carry swords for nothing. They are God's servants, to execute his wrath upon wrongdoers.

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for all men, for emperors and all who are in authority, so that we may live tranquil, quiet lives, with perfect piety and probity. It is right to do this, and it pleases God our Savior,read more.
who wants all men to be saved and to come to know the truth.

Submit to all human authority, for the Master's sake; to the emperor, as supreme, and to governors, as sent by him to punish evil-doers, and to encourage those who do right.

For if you forgive others when they offend you, your heavenly Father will forgive you too. But if you do not forgive others when they offend you, your heavenly Father will not forgive you for your offenses.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy!

For you will be judged by the standard you judge by, and men will pay you back with the same measure you have used with them.

That is what my heavenly Father will do to you, if you do not each forgive your brothers from your hearts!"

For the merciless will be mercilessly judged; but mercy will triumph over judgment.

"Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you pay tithes on mint, dill, and cummin, and you have let the weightier matters of the Law go??ustice, mercy, and integrity. But you should have observed these, without overlooking the others.

But alas for you Pharisees! For you pay tithes on mint, rue, and every tiny herb, and disregard justice and the love of God. But you should have observed these, without neglecting the others.

They profess to know God, but they disown him by what they do; they are detestable, disobedient men, worthless for any good purpose.

You must not offend God's holy Spirit, with which you have been marked for the Day of Redemption.

The man who sows to gratify his physical cravings will reap destruction from them, and the man who sows to benefit the spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not have any share in God's kingdom? Do not let anyone mislead you. People who are immoral or idolaters or adulterers or sensual or given to unnatural vice

For we must all appear in our true characters before the tribunal of the Christ, each to be repaid with good or evil for the life he has lived in the body.

So treat as dead your physical nature, as far as immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed are concerned; for it is really idolatry. It is on account of these things that God's anger is coming.

Try to be at peace with everyone, and strive for that consecration without which no one can see the Lord.

For once you were sheer darkness, but now, as Christians, you are light itself. You must live like children of light,

Certainly not! When we have died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?

and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.

You must not lie to one another. For you have stripped off your old self with its ways and have put on that new self newly made in the likeness of its Creator, to know him fully.

So follow God's example, like his dear children, and lead loving lives, just as Christ loved you and gave himself for you, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by this mercy of God, to offer your bodies in a living sacrifice that will be holy and acceptable to God; that is your rational worship.

I do not mean this as a command. I only want to test the genuineness of your love by the devotion of others. You know how gracious the Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, in order that by his poverty you might become rich.

He gave himself for us, to free us from all wickedness and purify for himself a people of his own, eager to do right.

We know what love means from the fact that he laid down his life for us; so we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

But do not forget to be helpful and generous, for that is the kind of sacrifice that pleases God.

So whether I am at home or away from it, it is my ambition to please him.

Children, always obey your parents, for that is commendable in Christians.

For our appeal does not rest on a delusion, nor spring from any impure motive; there is no fraud about it. God has thought us fit to be intrusted with the good news, and so we tell it, making no effort to please men, but to please God, who tests our hearts.

Now, brothers, we ask and entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to live as you learned from us that you must live, to please God??s indeed you are doing, only do it more and more.

and we obtain from him whatever we ask for, because we are obeying his commands and doing the things that please him.

and to love him with one's whole heart, one's whole understanding, and one's whole strength, and to love one's neighbor as one's self is far more than all these burnt-offerings and sacrifices."

A religious observance that is pure and stainless in the sight of God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their trouble, and keep one's self unstained by the world.

Jesus answered, "Anyone who loves me will observe my teaching, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and live with him.

He who is victorious will possess all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

so that no one may see that you are fasting, except your Father who is unseen, and your Father who sees what is secret, will reward you.

But when you give an entertainment, invite people who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. Then you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the upright."