38 Bible Verses about ethics, incentives towards

Magistrates are no terror to an honest man, though they are to a bad man. If you want to avoid being alarmed at the government-authorities, lead an honest life and you will be commended for it; the magistrate is God's servant for your benefit. But if you do wrong, you may well be alarmed; a magistrate does not wield the power of the sword for nothing, he is God's servant for the infliction of divine vengeance upon evil-doers.

Well, my very first counsel is that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgiving, are to be offered for all men ??2 for kings and all in authority, that we may lead a tranquil life in all piety and gravity; it is good to pray thus, it is acceptable to our Saviour, to the God who desires all men to be saved and to attain the knowledge of the Truth.

Submit for the Lord's sake to any human authority; submit to the emperor as supreme, and to governors as deputed by him for the punishment of wrongdoers and the encouragement of honest people ??15 for it is the will of God that by your honest lives you should silence the ignorant charges of foolish persons.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, then your heavenly Father will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men, your Father will not forgive your trespasses either.

Blessed are the merciful! they will find mercy.

for as you judge so you will be judged, and the measure you deal out to others will be dealt out to yourselves.

My heavenly Father will do the same to you unless you each forgive your brother from the heart."

for the judgment will be merciless to the man who has shown no mercy ??whereas the merciful life will triumph in the face of judgment.

Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and omit the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness; these latter you ought to have practised ??without omit ting the former.

But woe to you Pharisees! you tithe mint and rue and every vegetable, but justice and the love of God you disregard; these latter you ought to have practised ??without omitting the former.

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, and useless for good work of any kind.

And do not vex God's holy Spirit, by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption.

he who sows for his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, and he who sows for the Spirit will reap life eternal from the Spirit.

What! do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Realm of God? Make no mistake about it; neither the immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor catamites nor sodomites

for we have all to appear without disguise before the tribunal of Christ, each to be requited for what he has done with his body, well or ill.

So put to death those members that are on earth: sexual vice, impurity, appetite, evil desire, and lust (which is idolatry), things that bring down the anger of God on the sons of disobedience.

Aim at peace with all ??and at that consecration without which no one will ever see the Lord;

For while once upon a time you were darkness, now in the Lord you are light; lead the life of those who are children of the light

Never! How can we live in sin any longer, when we died to sin?

and that he died for all in order to have the living live no longer for themselves but for him who died and rose for them.

Tell no lies to one another; you have stripped off the old nature with its practices, and put on the new nature which is renewed in the likeness of its Creator for the knowledge of him.

Copy God, then, as his beloved children, and lead lives of love, just as Christ loved you and gave himself up for you to be a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Well then, my brothers, I appeal to you by all the mercy of God to dedicate your bodies as a living sacrifice, consecrated and acceptable to God; that is your cult, a spiritual rite.

I am not issuing any orders, only using the zeal of others to prove how sterling your own love is. (You know how gracious our Lord Jesus Christ was; rich though he was, he became poor for the sake of you, that by his poverty you might be rich.)

who gave himself up for us to redeem us from all iniquity and secure himself a clean people with a zest for good works.

We know what love is by this, that He laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for the brotherhood.

Do not forget beneficence and charity, either; these are the kind of sacrifices that are acceptable to God.

Hence also I am eager to satisfy him, whether in the body or away from it;

Children, obey your parents at every point, for this pleases the Lord right well.

For the appeal we make does not spring from any delusion or from impure motives ??it does not work by cunning; no, God has attested our fitness to be entrusted with the gospel, and so we tell the gospel not to satisfy men but to satisfy the God who tests our hearts.

Finally, brothers, we beg and beseech you in the Lord Jesus to follow our instructions about the way you are to live so as to satisfy God; you are leading that life, but you are to excel in it still further.

and we get from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.

Also, to love him with the whole heart, with the whole understanding, and with the whole strength, and to love one's neighbour as oneself ??that is far more than all holocausts and sacrifices."

Pure, unsoiled religion in the judgment of God the Father means this: to care for orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself from the stain of the world.

Jesus answered, "If anyone loves me he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up our abode with him.

The conqueror shall obtain this, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son;

so that your fast may be seen not by men but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you.

No, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. Then you will be blessed; for as they have no means of repaying you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."