72 Bible Verses about Self Indulgence

among whom also we all formerly lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the mind, and we were children of wrath by nature, as also the rest of [them] were.

But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all [kinds of] covetousness. For apart from the law, sin [is] dead.

For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own stomach, and by smooth speech and flattery they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

For we also were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, enslaved to various desires and pleasures, spending our lives in wickedness and envy, despicable, hating one another.

But each one is tempted [when he] is dragged away and enticed by his own desires.

{For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, promising them freedom [although they] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also enslaved.

because everything [that is] in the world--the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance of material possessions--is not from the Father, but is from the world.

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but [is] earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where [there is] jealousy and selfish ambition, there [is] disorder and every evil practice.

He who is selfish seeks a craving; against all sound judgment he shows contempt.

idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, factions,

The former proclaim Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking to raise up affliction in my imprisonment.

And the dogs {have a greedy appetite}; they {are never satisfied}. And they are [the] shepherds! They do not have understanding. They all turn to their [own] way, each one for his [own] gain, {every one of them}. "Come, let me take wine, and let us carouse [with] intoxicating drink, and tomorrow will be like today, {very great indeed}."

And then when he hears the words of this oath, then {he will assure himself} in his heart, {saying}, '{Safety shall be mine even though I go in the stubbornness of my heart},' thereby destroying the well-watered [land] [along] with the parched.

From where [are] conflicts and from where [are] quarrels among you? [Is it] not from this, from your pleasures that wage war among your members? You desire and do not have; you murder and are filled with envy, and are not able to obtain; you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, in order that you may spend [it] on your pleasures.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, licentiousness,

And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where [are] the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them."

When Israel dwelled in Shittim, the people began to prostitute [themselves] with the daughters of Moab.

nor commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed sexual immorality, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day,

It happened {late one afternoon} [that] David got up from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king's house, and he saw a woman bathing on her roof. Now the woman {was very beautiful}. David sent and inquired about the woman, and [someone] said, "[Is] this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house.

When she brought them near to him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, "Come, lie with me, my sister!" Then Tamar said to him, "No, my brother! Do not force me, for such a thing has not been done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing! As for me, where should I take my disgrace? You will be as one of the fools in Israel. So please, speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you."read more.
But he [was] not willing to listen to her voice. He [was] stronger than she, and he forced her and lay with her.

[With] coverings I have adorned my couch, spreads of the linen of Egypt; I have perfumed my bed [with] myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take [our] fill of love making, until the morning let us delight in love.

[I am afraid] lest [when I] come again my God will humiliate me {in your presence}, and I will grieve over many of those who sinned previously and have not repented because of their impurity and sexual immorality and licentiousness that they have practiced.

having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children!

Your gold and silver have become corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you, and it will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages that were held back by you from the workers who reap your fields cry out, and the cries of the reapers have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived self-indulgently on the earth and have lived luxuriously. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

I saw among the spoil a beautiful robe from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and one bar of gold [that] weighed fifty shekels; I coveted them and took them. They [are] hidden in the ground inside my tent, and the silver [is] under it."

But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after gain, they took bribes, and they perverted justice.

"But there is nothing [in] your eyes and your heart {except} your unlawful gain, and on shedding the blood of the innocent, and on committing oppression and extortion."

"[Is it] a time for you yourselves to dwell in your houses that have been paneled [while] this house [is] desolate?"

whom it is necessary to silence, whoever are ruining whole families [by] teaching [things] which must not be [taught] for the sake of dishonest gain.

But look! Joy and gladness, the killing of oxen and the slaughtering of sheep, the eating of meat and the drinking of wine! "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

Do not be among drinkers of wine, among gluttonous eaters of {their meat}.

who, becoming callous, gave themselves over to licentiousness, for the pursuit of all uncleanness in greediness.

Because of this, God gave them over to degrading passions, for their females exchanged the natural relations for those contrary to nature, and likewise also the males, abandoning the natural relations with the female, were inflamed in their desire toward one another, males with males committing the shameless deed, and receiving in themselves the penalty that was necessary for their error. And just as they did not see fit {to recognize God}, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do the things [that are] not proper,read more.
being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greediness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malevolence. [They are] gossipers, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boasters, contrivers of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, faithless, unfeeling, unmerciful,

But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come, for people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, hardhearted, irreconcilable, slanderous, without self-control, savage, with no interest for what is good,read more.
traitors, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God,

And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will gather in there all my grain and possessions. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many possessions stored up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, celebrate!" ' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your life is demanded from you, and [the things] which you have prepared--whose will they be?'read more.
So [is] the one who stores up treasure for himself, and who is not rich toward God!"

A man of want [is] he who loves pleasure; he who loves wine and oil will not become rich.

For [the] price of a woman, a prostitute, [is the] price of a loaf of bread, but the {woman belonging to a man} hunts precious life.

For the drunkard and gluttonous, they will become poor, and [with] rags, drowsiness will clothe them

And after not many days, the younger son gathered everything [and] went on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his wealth [by] living wastefully. And [after] he had spent everything, there was a severe famine throughout that country, and he began to be in need. And he went [and] hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to tend pigs.read more.
And he was longing to fill his stomach with the carob pods that the pigs were eating, and no one was giving [anything] to him.

But the one who lives for sensual pleasure is dead [even though she] lives.

but to those [who act] from selfish ambition and who disobey the truth, but who obey unrighteousness, wrath and anger.

Why should you be intoxicated, my child, by a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a foreigner? For before the eyes of Yahweh [are] {human ways}, and all his paths he examines.

whose end [is] destruction, whose God [is] the stomach, and [whose] glory [is] in their shame, the ones who think on earthly things.

At the end of twelve months he was walking on the [roof of] {the royal palace} of Babylon. And the king answered and said, "Is this not the great Babylon which I have built as a royal palace by the strength of my own power, and for the glory of my own majesty?" [While] the words [were] still in the mouth of the king, a voice from heaven came, [saying], 'To you, King Nebuchadnezzar, [it] is declared that the kingdom has departed from you,read more.
and you will be driven away from {human society} and your dwelling [will be] with the animals of the field and they will cause you to graze [the] grass like oxen, and seven times will pass over you, until you acknowledge that the Most High [is] sovereign over the kingdom of humankind and that he gives it to whom he wills.'

Hear this word, [you] cows of Bashan who [live] on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the powerless, who crush the poor, who say to their husbands, "Bring [something] so that we may drink!" My Lord Yahweh has sworn by his holiness that, "Behold, the days are coming upon you {when they} will take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishing hooks.

[Alas for] those who lie on beds of ivory and lounge on their couches, and those eating young rams from [the] sheep and goats, and bull-calves from the middle of [the] animal stall. [Alas for those] who sing to the tune of the harp; like David they improvise on instruments of music. [Alas for those] who drink from sprinkling bowls of wine and anoint themselves with the best of olive oils and are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.read more.
Therefore, they shall now go into exile at the head of the exiles and the feast of lounging shall pass away.

And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many possessions stored up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, celebrate!" ' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your life is demanded from you, and [the things] which you have prepared--whose will they be?'

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees--hypocrites!--because you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence!

And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may approve what [is] the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.

"Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch," which [things] are all [meant] for destruction by consuming according to human commandments and teachings, which [things] {although they have}, to be sure, an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and unsparing treatment of the body, {do not have any value} against the indulgence of the flesh.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and do not make provision for the desires of the flesh.

Now those {who belong to Christ} have crucified the flesh together with its feelings and its desires.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us in order that, denying impiety and worldly desires, we may live self-controlled and righteously and godly in the present age,

For those who are [living] according to the flesh are intent on the things of the flesh, but those [who are living] according to the Spirit [are intent on] the things of the Spirit.

But I say, live by the Spirit, and you will never carry out the desire of the flesh.

Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to [dishonest] gain.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former desires [you used to conform to] in your ignorance,

in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for the will of God.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: [that] you abstain from sexual immorality; [that] each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, just as also the Gentiles who do not know God;

Do not tire [in order] to become rich; out of your understanding, [may you] desist

And everyone who competes exercises self-control in all [things]. Thus those [do so] in order that they may receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable [one]. Therefore I run in this way, not as [running] aimlessly; I box in this way, not as beating the air. But I discipline my body and subjugate [it], lest somehow [after] preaching to others, myself should become disqualified.

Now the end of all [things] draws near. Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for [your] prayers.

and with knowledge, self-control, and with self-control, patient endurance, and with patient endurance, godliness,

Therefore put to death {what is earthly in you}: sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustful passion, evil desire, and greediness, which is idolatry,

Now {Daniel resolved} that he would not defile himself with the fine food of the king, and with {the wine that he drank}, and [so] he requested from the commander of the court officials [permission so] that he would not defile himself.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw [it] from you! For it is better for you that one of your members be destroyed than your whole body be thrown into hell.

Dear friends, I urge [you] as foreigners and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires which wage war against your soul,

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not let your freedom [become] an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

All [things] are permitted, but not all [things] are profitable. All [things] are permitted, but not all [things] build up. Let no one seek {his own good} but the [good] of the other.

[Do] nothing according to selfish ambition or according to empty conceit, but in humility considering one another better than yourselves, each of you not looking out for {your own interests}, but also each of you [for] {the interests} of others.

If [there] is a poor [person] among you from [among] one of your brothers in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, you shall not harden your heart, and you shall not shut your hand toward {your brother who is poor}. But you shall certainly open your hand for him, and {you shall willingly lend} [to] him enough to meet his need, {whatever it is}.

And Zacchaeus stopped [and] said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I am giving to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone, I am paying [it] back four times [as much]!"