53 Bible Verses about Self Control

Most Relevant Verses

Proverbs 1:1-5

The proverbs of David's son Solomon, king of Israel. These proverbs are for gaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring the discipline that produces wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and upright living;read more.
for giving prudence to the naive, and knowledge and discretion to the young. Let the wise listen and increase their learning; let the person of understanding receive guidance

Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.

Titus 2:11-12

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It trains us to renounce ungodly living and worldly passions so that we might live sensible, honest, and godly lives in the present age

2 Peter 1:5-9

For this very reason, you must make every effort to supplement your faith with moral character, your moral character with knowledge, your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with endurance, your endurance with godliness, your godliness with brotherly kindness, and your brotherly kindness with love. read more.
For if you possess these qualities, and if they continue to increase among you, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. For the person who lacks these qualities is blind and shortsighted, and has forgotten the cleansing that he has received from his past sins.

1 Corinthians 9:26-27

That is the way I run, with a clear goal in mind. That is the way I fight, not like someone shadow boxing. No, I keep on disciplining my body, making it serve me so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 7:36-38

If a man thinks he is not behaving properly toward his virgin, and if his passion is so strong that he feels he ought to marry her, let him do what he wants; he isn't sinning. Let them get married. However, if a man stands firm in his resolve, feels no necessity, and has made up his mind to keep her a virgin, he will be acting appropriately. So then the man who marries the virgin acts appropriately, but the man who refrains from marriage does even better.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-7

For it is God's will that you be sanctified: You must abstain from sexual immorality. Each of you must know how to control his own body in a holy and honorable manner, not with passion and lust like the gentiles who do not know God. read more.
Furthermore, you must never take advantage of or exploit a brother in this regard, because the Lord avenges all these things, just as we already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to be holy.

1 Thessalonians 5:6-8

Therefore, let's not fall asleep like others do, but let's stay awake and be sober. For people who go to sleep, go to sleep at night; and people who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let's be sober. We must put on the breastplate of faith and love, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

Psalm 17:3

When you probe my heart, and examine me at night; when you refine me, you will find nothing wrong, for I have determined that I will not transgress with my mouth.

James 3:1-12

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more severely than others. For all of us make many mistakes. If someone does not make any mistakes when he speaks, he is perfect and able to control his whole body. Now if we put bits into horses' mouths to make them obey us, we can guide their whole bodies as well. read more.
And look at ships! They are so big that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are steered by a tiny rudder wherever the helmsman directs. In the same way, the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it can boast of great achievements. A huge forest can be set on fire by a little flame. The tongue is a fire, a world of evil. Placed among the parts of our bodies, the tongue contaminates the whole body and sets on fire the course of life, and is itself set on fire by hell. For all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be or have been tamed by humans, but no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil filled with deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in God's likeness. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. It should not be like this, my brothers! A spring cannot pour both fresh and brackish water from the same opening, can it? My brothers, a fig tree cannot produce olives, nor a grapevine figs, can it? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Matthew 5:39-40

But I tell you not to resist an evildoer. On the contrary, whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat as well.

Luke 6:27-29

"But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who insult you. If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other one as well, and if someone takes your coat, don't keep back your shirt, either.

1 Peter 2:18-23

You household servants must submit yourselves to your masters out of respect, not only to those who are kind and fair, but also to those who are unjust. For it is a fine thing if, when moved by your conscience to please God, you suffer patiently when wronged. What good does it do if, when you sin, you patiently receive punishment for it? But if you suffer for doing good and receive it patiently, you have God's approval. read more.
This is, in fact, what you were called to do, because: The Messiah also suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his steps. "He never sinned, and he never told a lie." When he was insulted, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he did not threaten. It was his habit to commit the matter to the one who judges fairly.

Genesis 39:7-12

Now Joseph was well built and good looking. That's why, sometime later, Joseph's master's wife looked straight at Joseph and propositioned him: "Come on! Let's have a little sex!" But he refused, telling his master's wife, "Look! My master doesn't have to worry about anything in the house with me in charge, and he has entrusted everything into my care. No one has more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld nothing from me, except you, and that's because you're his wife. So how can I commit such a horrible evil? How can I sin against God?"read more.
She kept on talking to him like this day after day, but he wouldn't listen to her. Not only would he refuse to have sex with her, he refused even to stay around her. One day, though, he went into the house to do his work. None of the household servants were inside, so she grabbed Joseph by his outer garment and demanded "Let's have some sex!"

1 Samuel 24:1-7

When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, "Look, David is in the wilderness of En-gedi." Saul took 3,000 of his best troops from all over Israel, and he went to look for David and his men in the direction of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. He came to the sheepfolds beside the road. There was a cave there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave.read more.
David's men told him, "Look, today is the day about which the LORD spoke to you when he said, "I'll give your enemy into your hand.' Do to him whatever you want!" David rose and stealthily cut off the corner of Saul's robe. Afterwards, David's conscience bothered him because he had cut off the corner of Saul's robe. He told his men, "God forbid that I should do this thing to your majesty, the LORD's anointed, by stretching out my hand against him, since he's the LORD's anointed." David restrained his men with his words and did not allow them to rebel against Saul. Saul got up from the cave and started off.

1 Samuel 26:7-12

David and Abishai went to the army at night, and Saul was lying there asleep in the encampment. His spear was stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army were lying all around him. Abishai told David, "Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Let me run the spear through him into the ground with a single blow. I won't need to strike him twice!" David told Abishai, "Don't destroy him. Who can raise his hand to strike the LORD's anointed and remain innocent? read more.
As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him down, or his time will come to die, or he will go into battle and perish. The LORD forbid that I should raise my hand against the LORD's anointed. Now take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water, and let's go." So David took the spear and the jug of water at Saul's head, and they left. No one saw, and no one knew, because no one was awake. They were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen over them.

2 Samuel 16:9-10

At this point, Zeruiah's son Abishai asked the king, "Why should this dead dog be cursing your majesty the king? May I have permission to go over and cut off his head?" But the king responded, "What do I have in common with you sons of Zeruiah? If he continues to curse and if the LORD has told him, "Curse David!' then who are you to be demanding to know "Why have you done this?'"

Matthew 27:27-30

Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the imperial headquarters and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. Twisting some thorns into a victor's crown, they placed it on his head and put a stick in his right hand. They knelt down in front of him and began making fun of him, saying, "Long live the king of the Jews!" read more.
Then they spit on him and took the stick and hit him repeatedly on his head.

1 Corinthians 4:12-13

We wear ourselves out from working with our own hands. When insulted, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we answer with kind words. Even now we have become the filth of the world, the scum of the universe.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

You know that in a race all the runners run but only one wins the prize, don't you? You must run in such a way that you may be victorious. Everyone who enters an athletic contest practices self-control in everything. They do it to win a wreath that withers away, but we run to win a prize that never fades. That is the way I run, with a clear goal in mind. That is the way I fight, not like someone shadow boxing. read more.
No, I keep on disciplining my body, making it serve me so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.

Jeremiah 14:10

This is what the LORD says to these people: "Yes, they do love to wander, and they haven't restrained their feet. So the LORD won't accept them now. He will remember their iniquity and punish their sin."

1 Samuel 18:10-11

The next day, while David was playing the lyre as he had before, the evil spirit from the LORD attacked Saul, and he began to rave inside the house with a spear in his hand. Saul hurled it, thinking, "I'll pin David to the wall." But David escaped from him twice.

2 Samuel 13:7-14

So David sent for Tamar back at the palace, telling her, "Please go to your brother Amnon's home and prepare some food for him." Tamar went to her brother Amnon's home, where he was lying down. She brought along some dough, kneaded it, prepared some cakes especially for him, baked them, and emptied the baking skillet just for him, but he refused to eat.read more.
"Send everybody out of here," Amnon said. So everyone left the room. Amnon told Tamar, "Bring the food into my private bedroom, so I can eat it with you personally." So Tamar took the cakes she had prepared and brought them into the private bedroom for her brother Amnon. But as soon as she brought them near him to eat, he overpowered her and told her, "Come here and have sex with me, my sister!" "No, my brother!" she kept telling him. "Don't humiliate me like this! This just isn't done in Israel! Don't do this utterly foolish thing! And what about me? Where will I go to escape this disgrace? And as for you, you'll be known as one of Israel's greatest fools! So please talk to the king, because he won't withhold me from you!" But he was unwilling to listen to what she was saying. Since he was stronger than she was, he forced her into having sex with him.

Psalm 106:32-33

They provoked wrath at the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered on account of them. For they rebelled against him, so that he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips.

Proverbs 6:1-3

My son, if you guarantee a loan for your neighbor, if you have agreed to a deal with a stranger, trapped by your own words, and caught by your own words, then do this, my son, and deliver yourself, because you have come under your neighbor's control. Go, humble yourself! Plead passionately with your neighbor!

Romans 1:24-31

For this reason, God delivered them to sexual impurity as they followed the lusts of their hearts and dishonored their bodies with one another. They exchanged God's truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God delivered them to degrading passions as their females exchanged their natural sexual function for one that is unnatural. read more.
In the same way, their males also abandoned their natural sexual function toward females and burned with lust toward one another. Males committed indecent acts with males, and received within themselves the appropriate penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, because they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God fully, God delivered them to degraded minds to perform acts that should not be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, haughty, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless.

1 Corinthians 7:5

Do not withhold yourselves from each other unless you agree to do so just for a set time, in order to devote yourselves to prayer. Then you should come together again so that Satan does not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

2 Peter 2:12-14

These people, like irrational animals, are mere creatures of instinct that are born to be caught and killed. They insult what they don't understand, and like animals they, too, will be destroyed, suffering harm as punishment for their wrongdoing. They take pleasure in wild parties in broad daylight. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceitful pleasures while they eat with you. With eyes full of adultery, they cannot get enough of sin. They seduce unsteady souls and have had their hearts expertly trained in greed. They are doomed to a curse.

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