67 Bible Verses about ethics, incentives towards

For rulers are not a source of fear to the good works, but to the evil. And do thou desire not to fear the office of authority? Do what is good, and thou will have praise from it. For he is a helper of God to thee for what is good. But if thou do what is evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is a helper of God, vengeful for wrath to the man who commits evil.

Thou shall make judges and officers for thee in all thy gates, which LORD thy God gives thee, according to thy tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

according to the tenor of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shall do. Thou shall not turn aside from the sentence, which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor And the man who does presumptuously, in not hearkening to the priest who stands to minister there before LORD thy God, or to the judge, even that man shall die, and thou shall put away the evil from Israel.

If there be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and [they] judge them, then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the iniquitous.

Judge the poor man and the orphan. Do justice to the afflicted and destitute man. Rescue the poor and needy man. Deliver from the hand of the wicked man.

I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men, for kings and all those who are in prominence, so that we may live a quiet and peaceful life in all piety and propriety. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,read more.
who wants all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of truth.

Therefore because of the Lord, ye should submit to every human establishment, whether to a king as being supreme, or to governors as being sent by him for vengeance of evil-doers and praise of well-doers.

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Why have thou despised the word of LORD, to do that which is evil in his sight? Thou have smitten Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be thy wife, and have slain him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house, because thou have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

Blessed are the merciful, because they will obtain mercy.

For by what criticism ye criticize, ye will be criticized, and by what measure ye measure, it will be measured to you.

So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if ye do not forgive each man his brother, from your hearts, their trespasses.

For the judgment is merciless to him who did no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Ye do not fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies--I cannot bear iniquity and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They are a trouble to me. I am weary of bearing them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood.

And they come to thee as the people come, and they sit before thee as my people. And they hear thy words, but do not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.

Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh [month], even these seventy years, did ye at all fast to me, even to me?

Woe to you, scholars and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye tithe the mint and the anise and the cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law--justice and mercy and faith. These things must be done, and not neglecting t

But woe to you Pharisees! Because ye tithe mint and rue and every plant, and pass by justice and the love of God. It is necessary to do these things, and not to neglect those things.

They profess to know God, but in their works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and worthless for every good work.

But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you so that he will not hear.

Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, LORD will not hear.

They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek LORD, but they shall not find him. He has withdrawn himself from them.

Then they shall cry to LORD, but he will not answer them. Yea, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in which ye are sealed for a day of redemption.

Because he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

But it shall come to pass, if thou will not hearken to the voice of LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

Thy rulers are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They judge not the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come to them. Therefore says the Lord, LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies.

Or know ye not that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not led astray. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate men, nor homosexuals,

For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of the Christ, so that each man may receive back about the things that he did through the body, whether good or bad.

Put to death therefore your body-parts on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of which the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience,

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord.

For ye were once darkness, but now light in Lord. Walk as children of light

May it not happen! How will we who died to sin, still live in it?

And he died for all so that those who live would no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them, and was raised.

Do not lie to each other, having stripped off the old man with his practices, and having put on the new man, being renewed in knowledge according to an image of him who created him,

Become ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as also the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma.

I am LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, your reasonable service.

I speak not from commandment, but because of the zeal of others, also examining the genuineness of your love. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich he became poor for your sakes, so that by that man's poverty ye might become rich.

who gave himself for us, so that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to himself a special people, a zealot of good works.

By this we know love, because that man laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

But do not forget benevolence and fellowship, for God is well pleased with such sacrifices.

Therefore also we aspire, whether at home or away from home, to be well-pleasing to him.

Children, obey the parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing in Lord.

For our exhortation is not from error, nor from uncleanness, nor in deception, but as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the good-news, thus we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who proves our hearts.

Finally therefore, brothers, we ask you, and summon in Lord Jesus, that just as ye received from us how ye ought to walk and to please God, that ye may abound more.

and whatever we may ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do things pleasing in his sight.

Who shall ascend into the hill of LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands, and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to LORD than sacrifice.

For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.

Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to a hungry man, and that thou bring the poor who are cast out to thy house, when thou see a naked man, that thou cover him, and that thou not hide thyself from thine own flesh?

And to love him from the whole heart, and from the whole understanding, and from the whole soul, and from the whole strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.

Pure religion and undefiled from God and the Father is this, to go help the orphaned and the widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Jesus answered and said to him, If any man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make a dwelling with him.

And now, Israel, what does LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

LORD, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart, he who does no slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor,read more.
in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear LORD, he that swears to his own hurt, and changes not, he who puts not his money out to interest, nor takes a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be God to him, and he will be a son to me.

Thou shall follow that which is altogether just, that thou may live, and inherit the land which LORD thy God gives thee.

and all these blessings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee, if thou shall hearken to the voice of LORD thy God:

And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. And whatever he does shall prosper.

For LORD God is a sun and a shield. LORD will give grace and glory. He will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly.

Thus says LORD, Keep ye justice, and do righteousness. For my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.

Then thou shall call, and LORD will answer, thou shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. If thou take the yoke away from the midst of thee, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly, and if thou draw out thy soul to a hungry man, and satisfy an afflicted soul, then thy light shall rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noonday. And LORD will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in dry places, and make strong thy bones. And thou shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.read more.
And those who shall be of thee shall build the old waste places. Thou shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shall be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, [and] the holy of LORD honorable, and shall honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, no then thou shall delight thyself in LORD, and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of LORD has spoken it.

so that thou may not appear fasting to men, but to thy Father in secret. And thy Father, who sees in secret, will reward thee.

But when thou make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and thou will be blessed, because they do not have to recompense thee, for it will be recompensed to thee at the resurrection of the righteous.