47 Bible Verses about Self Indulgence

And it was among them that we all once lived our lives, indulging the cravings of our earthly nature, and carrying out the desires prompted by that earthly nature and by our own thoughts. Our very nature exposed us to the Divine Wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But sin took advantage of the Commandment to arouse in me every form of covetousness, for where there is no consciousness of Law sin shows no sign of life.

For such persons are not serving Christ, our Master, but are slaves to their own appetites; and, by their smooth words and flattery, they deceive simple-minded people.

There was, you remember, a time when we ourselves were foolish, disobedient, misled, slaves to all kinds of passions and vices, living in a spirit of malice and envy, detested ourselves and hating one another.

A man is in every case tempted by his own passions--allured and enticed by them.

With boastful and foolish talk, they appeal to the passions of man's lower nature, and, by their profligacy, entice those who are just escaping from the men who live such misguided lives. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to corrupt habits; for a man is the slave of anything to which he gives way.

for all that the world can offer--the gratification of the earthly nature, the gratification of the eye, the pretentious life--belongs, not to the Father, but to the world.

But, while you harbor envy and bitterness and a spirit of rivalry in your hearts, do not boast or lie to the detriment of the Truth. That is not the wisdom which comes from above; no, it is earthly, animal, devilish. For, where envy and rivalry exist, there you will also find disorder and all kinds of base actions.

Idolatry, sorcery, quarrels, strife, jealousy, outbursts of passion, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,

The former spread the news of the Christ in a factious spirit, and not sincerely, thinking to add to the pain of my chains.

What is the cause of the fighting and quarreling that goes on among you? Is not it to be found in the desires which are always at war within you? You crave, yet do not obtain. You murder and rage, yet cannot gain your end. You quarrel and fight. You do not obtain, because you do not ask. You ask, yet do not receive, because you ask for a wrong purpose--to spend what you get upon your pleasures.

The sins of our earthly nature are unmistakable. They are sins like these--unchastity, impurity, indecency,

Nor let us act immorally, as some of them acted, with the result that twenty-three thousand of them fell dead in a single day.

I am afraid lest, on my next visit, my God may humble me in regard to you, and that I may have to mourn over many who have long been sinning, and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality, in which they have indulged.

They have eyes only for adulteresses, eyes never tired of sin; they entice weak souls; their minds are trained to covet; they live under a curse.

Your gold and silver are rusted; and the rust on them shall be evidence against you, and shall eat into your very flesh. It was fire, so to speak, that you stored up for yourselves in these last days. I tell you, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have been fraudulently keeping back, are crying out against you, and the outcries of your reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts! You have lived on earth a life of extravagance and luxury; you have indulged your fancies in a time of bloodshed.

whose mouths ought to be stopped; for they upset whole households by teaching what they ought not to teach, merely to make questionable gains.

Lost to all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, in order to practice every kind of impurity without restraint.

That, I say, is why God abandoned them to degrading passions. Even the women among them perverted the natural use of their bodies to the unnatural; While the men, disregarding that for which women were intended by nature, were consumed with passion for one another. Men indulged in vile practices with men, and incurred in their own persons the inevitable penalty for their perverseness. Then, as they would not keep God before their minds, God abandoned them to depraved thoughts, so that they did all kinds of shameful things.read more.
They reveled in every form of wickedness, evil, greed, vice. Their lives were full of envy, murder, quarreling, treachery, malice. They became back-biters, slanderers, impious, insolent, boastful. They devised new sins. They disobeyed their parents. They were undiscerning, untrustworthy, without natural affection or pity.

Be sure of this, that in the last days difficult times will come. Men will be selfish, mercenary, boastful, haughty, and blasphemous; disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, impure, incapable of affection, merciless, slanderous, wanting in self-control, brutal, careless of the right,read more.
treacherous, reckless, and puffed up with pride; they will love pleasure more than they love God;

This is what I will do,' he said; 'I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them; And I will say to myself, Now you have plenty of good things put by for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.' But God said to the man 'Fool! This very night your life is being demanded; and as for all you have prepared--who will have it?'read more.
So it is with those who lay by wealth for themselves and are not rich to the glory of God."

A few days later the younger son got together all that he had, and went away into a distant land; and there he squandered his inheritance by leading a dissolute life. After he has spent all that he had, there was a severe famine through all that country, and he began to be in actual want. So he went and engaged himself to one of the people of that country, who sent him into his fields to tend pigs.read more.
He even longed to satisfy his hunger with the bean-pods on which the pigs were feeding; and no one gave him anything.

But the life of a widow who is devoted to pleasure is a living death.

While as to those who are factious, and disobedient to Truth but obedient to Evil, wrath and anger, distress and despair,

The end of such men is Ruin; for their appetites are their God, and they glory in their shame; their minds are given up to earthly things.

And I will say to myself, Now you have plenty of good things put by for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.' But God said to the man 'Fool! This very night your life is being demanded; and as for all you have prepared--who will have it?'

Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are filled with the results of greed and self-indulgence.

Do not conform to the fashion of this world; but be transformed by the complete change that has come over your minds, so that you may discern what God's will is--all that is good, acceptable, and perfect.

To such ordinances as 'Do not handle, or taste, or touch'? For all the things referred to in them cease to exist when used. You are following mere human directions and instructions. Such prohibitions appear reasonable where there is a desire for self-imposed service, and so-called 'humility,' and harsh treatment of the body, but are of no real value against the indulgence of our earthly nature.

No! Arm yourselves with the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and spend no thought on your earthly nature, to satisfy its cravings.

And those who belong to Jesus, the Christ, have already crucified their earthly nature, with its passions and its cravings.

For the loving-kindness of God has been revealed, bringing Salvation for all; leading us to renounce irreligious ways and worldly ambitions, and to live discreet, upright, and religious lives here in this present world,

They who follow their earthly nature are earthly-minded, while they who follow the Spirit are spiritually minded.

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.

Be like obedient children; do not let your lives be shaped by the passions which once swayed you in the days of your ignorance,

and so will live the rest of his earthly life guided, not by human passions, but by the will of God.

For this is God's purpose--that you should be pure; abstaining from all immorality; Each of you recognizing the duty of taking one woman for his wife, purely and honorably, And not for the mere gratification of his passions, like the Gentiles who know nothing of God;

Every athlete exercises self-restraint in everything; they, indeed, for a crown that fades, we for one that is unfading. I, therefore, run with no uncertain aim. I box-not like a man hitting the air. No, I bruise my body and make it my slave, lest I, who have called others to the contest, should myself be rejected.

But the end of all things is near. Therefore exercise self-restraint and be calm, that you may be able to pray.

knowledge by self-control, self-control by endurance, endurance by piety,

Therefore destroy all that is earthly in you--immorality, uncleanness, passions, evil desires, and that greed which is idolatry.

I, however, say to you that any one who looks at a woman with an impure intention has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye is a snare to you, take it out and throw it away. It would be best for you to lose one part of your body, and not to have the whole of it thrown into the Pit.

Dear friends, I urge you, as pilgrims and strangers upon earth, to refrain from indulging the cravings of your earthly nature, for they make war upon the soul.

Remember, Brothers, to you the Call came to give you freedom. Only do not make your freedom an opportunity for self-indulgence, but serve one another in a loving spirit.

Everything is allowable! Yes, but everything is not profitable. Everything is allowable! Yes, but everything does not build up character. A man must not study his own interests, but the interests of others.

Nothing should be done in a factious spirit or from vanity, but each of you should with all humility regard others as of more account than himself, And one and all should consider, not only their own interests, but also the interests of others.

But Zacchaeus stood forward and said to the Master: "Listen, Master! I will give half my property to the poor, and, if I have defrauded any one of anything, I will give him back four times as much."