'Desire' in the Bible

Are you not conscious that you are the servants of him to whom you give yourselves to do his desire? if to sin, the end being death, or if to do the desire of God, the end being righteousness.

What then is to be said? is the law sin? in no way. But I would not have had knowledge of sin but for the law: for I would not have been conscious of desire if the law had not said, You may not have a desire for what is another's.

But sin, taking its chance through that which was ordered by the law, was working in me every form of desire: because without the law sin is dead.

For the strong desire of every living thing is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God.

For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by him who made it so, in hope

For I have a desire to take on myself the curse for my brothers, my family in the flesh:

So then, it is not by the desire or by the attempt of man, but by the mercy of God.

Brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is, that they may get salvation.

For I give witness of them that they have a strong desire for God, but not with knowledge.

For it is my desire, brothers, that this secret may be clear to you, so that you may not have pride in your knowledge, that Israel has been made hard in part, till all the Gentiles have come in;

And this, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not put to death, Do not take what is another's, Do not have desire for what is another's, and if there is any other order, it is covered by this word, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself.

But now, having no longer any place in these parts and having had for a number of years a great desire to come to you,

It is my desire to say a good word for Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae:

Now, it is my desire, brothers, that you will take note of those who are causing division and trouble among you, quite against the teaching which was given to you: and keep away from them.

For all have knowledge of how you do what you are ordered. For this reason I have joy in you, but it is my desire that you may be wise in what is good, and without knowledge of evil.

So that, as it is said in the holy Writings, Whoever has a desire for glory, let his glory be in the Lord.

So my desire is that you take me as your example.

What is your desire? is my coming to be with punishment, or is it to be in love and a gentle spirit?

But I had not in mind the sinners who are outside the church, or those who have a desire for and take the property of others, or those who give worship to images; for it is not possible to keep away from such people without going out of the world completely:

But the sense of my letter was that if a brother had the name of being one who went after the desires of the flesh, or had the desire for other people's property, or was in the way of using violent language, or being the worse for drink, or took by force what was not his, you might not keep company with such a one, or take food with him.

It is my desire that all men might be even as I am. But every man has the power of his special way of life given him by God, one in this way and one in that.

But if they have not self-control let them get married; for married life is better than the burning of desire.

But to the rest I say, and not the Lord; If a brother has a wife who is not a Christian, and it is her desire to go on living with him, let him not go away from her.

And if a woman has a husband who is not a Christian, and it is his desire to go on living with her, let her not go away from her husband.

But if the one who is not a Christian has a desire to go away, let it be so: the brother or the sister in such a position is not forced to do one thing or the other: but it is God's pleasure that we may be at peace with one another.

But it is my desire for you to be free from cares. The unmarried man gives his mind to the things of the Lord, how he may give pleasure to the Lord:

For it is my desire, my brothers, that you may keep in mind how all our fathers were under the cloud, and they all went through the sea;

What I say is that the things offered by the Gentiles are offered to evil spirits and not to God; and it is not my desire for you to have any part with evil spirits.

So it is my desire for you to be clear about this; that no one is able to say by the Spirit of God that Jesus is cursed; and no one is able to say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.

Now though it is my desire for you all to have the power of tongues, it would give me more pleasure to be hearing the prophet's word from you; for this is a greater thing than using tongues, if the sense is not given at the same time, for the good of the church.

And if they have a desire for knowledge about anything, let them put questions to their husbands privately: for talking in the church puts shame on a woman.

So then, my brothers, let it be your chief desire to be prophets; but let no one be stopped from using tongues.

For it is not my desire to see you now, on my way; because it is my hope to be with you for some time, if that is the Lord's pleasure.

But as for Apollos, the brother, I had a great desire for him to come to you with the brothers, but it was not his pleasure to come now; but he will come when he has a chance.

For it is our desire that you may not be without knowledge of our trouble which came on us in Asia, that the weight of it was very great, more than our power, so that it seemed that we had no hope even of life:

For which cause my desire is that you will make your love to him clear by your acts.

And for the same reason I sent you a letter so that I might be certain of your desire to do my orders in all things.

And not by his coming only, but by the comfort which he had in you, while he gave us word of your desire, your sorrow, your care for me; so that I was still more glad.

For you see what care was produced in you by this very sorrow of yours before God, what clearing of yourselves, what wrath against sin, what fear, what desire, what serious purpose, what punishment. In everything you have made it clear that you are free from sin in this business.

That I may not seem to have the desire of causing you fear by my letters.

But whoever has a desire for glory, let his glory be in the Lord.

For I have a very great care for you: because you have been married by me to one husband, and it is my desire to give you completely holy to Christ.

For if I had a desire to take credit to myself, it would not be foolish, for I would be saying what is true: but I will not, for fear that I might seem to any man more than he sees me to be, or has word from me that I am.

This is now the third time that I am ready to come to you; and I will not be a trouble to you: my desire is for you, not for your property: for it is not the children's business to make store for their fathers, but the fathers for the children.

For I have a fear that, when I come, you may not be answering to my desire, and that I may not be answering to yours; that there may be fighting, hate, angry feeling, divisions, evil talk about others, secrets, thoughts of pride, outbursts against authority;

Am I now using arguments to men, or God? or is it my desire to give men pleasure? if I was still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Only it was their desire that we would give thought to the poor; which very thing I had much in mind to do.

My desire for you, brothers, is that you may be as I am, because I am as you are. You have done me no wrong;

Their interest in you is not good; but their desire is that you may be shut out, so that you may go after them.

Truly my desire is to be present with you now, using a changed voice; for I am troubled about you.

Say, you whose desire it is to be under the law, do you not give ear to the law?

My desire is that they who give you trouble might even be cut off themselves.

Now the works of the flesh are clear, which are these: evil desire, unclean things, wrong use of the senses,

Worship of images, use of strange powers, hates, fighting, desire for what another has, angry feelings, attempts to get the better of others, divisions, false teachings,

Those who have the desire to seem important in the flesh, put force on you to undergo circumcision; only that they may not be attacked because of the cross of Christ.

Who having no more power of feeling, have given themselves up to evil passions, to do all unclean things with overmuch desire.

Let it then be your desire to be like God, as well-loved children;

But evil acts of the flesh and all unclean things, or desire for others' property, let it not even be named among you, as is right for saints;

Being certain of this, that no man who gives way to the passions of the flesh, no unclean person, or one who has desire for the property of others, or who gives worship to images, has any heritage in the kingdom of Christ and God.

I am in a hard position between the two, having a desire to go away and be with Christ, which is very much better:

For it is my desire to give you news of the great fight I am making for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh;

Even so, being full of loving desire for you, we took delight in giving you not only God's good news, but even our lives, because you were dear to us.

But we, my brothers, being away from you for a short time, in body but not in heart, had all the more desire to see your face;

At last our desire to have news of you was so strong that, while we ourselves were waiting at Athens,

And, truly, you are lovers of all the brothers in Macedonia; but it is our desire that your love may be increased still more;

But it is our desire, brothers, that you may be certain about those who are sleeping; so that you may have no need for sorrow, as others have who are without hope.

And our desire is that you will keep control over those whose lives are not well ordered, giving comfort to the feeble-hearted, supporting those with little strength, and putting up with much from all.

Now as to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our meeting with him, it is our desire, my brothers,

It was my desire, when I went on into Macedonia, that you might make a stop at Ephesus, to give orders to certain men not to put forward a different teaching,

My desire is, first of all, that you will make requests and prayers and give praise for all men;

Whose desire is that all men may have salvation and come to the knowledge of what is true.

It is my desire, then, that in every place men may give themselves to prayer, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or argument.

This is a true saying, A man desiring the position of a Bishop has a desire for a good work.

But to the younger widows say No: for when their love is turned away from Christ, they have a desire to be married;

So it is my desire that the younger widows may be married and have children, controlling their families, and giving the Evil One no chance to say anything against them,

But those who have a desire for wealth are falling into danger, and are taken as in a net by a number of foolish and damaging desires, through which men are overtaken by death and destruction.

This is a true saying; and it is my desire that you may give certain witness about these things, so that those who have had faith in God may give attention to good works. These things are good and of profit to men;

Though my desire was to keep him with me, to be my servant in the chains of the good news, in your place:

Being certain that you will do my desire, I am writing to you, in the knowledge that you will do even more than I say.

Because of this, let us have a strong desire to come into that rest, and let no one go after the example of those who went against God's orders.

And it is our desire that you may all keep the same high purpose in certain hope to the end:

So that when it was God's desire to make it specially clear to those who by his word were to have the heritage, that his purpose was fixed, he made it more certain with an oath;

So that when he comes into the world, he says, You had no desire for offerings, but you made a body ready for me;

After saying, You had no desire for offerings, for burned offerings or offerings for sin (which are made by the law) and you had no pleasure in them,

But now their desire is for a better country, that is to say, for one in heaven; and so it is no shame to God to be named their God; for he has made ready a town for them.

By faith Moses, when he became a man, had no desire to be named the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

Women had their dead given back to them living; others let themselves be cruelly attacked, having no desire to go free, so that they might have a better life to come;

Let your desire be for peace with all men, and to be made holy, without which no man may see the Lord;

But every man is tested when he is turned out of the right way by the attraction of his desire.

Then when its time comes, desire gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is of full growth, gives birth to death.

But if you have bitter envy in your heart and the desire to get the better of others, have no pride in this, talking falsely against what is true.

For where envy is, and the desire to get the better of others, there is no order, but every sort of evil-doing.

You are burning with desire, and have not your desire, so you put men to death; you are full of envy, and you are not able to get your desire, so you are fighting and making war; you have not your desire, because you do not make request for it.

Or does it seem to you that it is for nothing that the holy Writings say, The spirit which God put into our hearts has a strong desire for us?

And it was made clear to those prophets that they were God's servants not for themselves but for you, to give you word of the things which have now come to your ears from the preachers of the good news through the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; things which even angels have a desire to see.

Be full of desire for the true milk of the word, as babies at their mothers' breasts, so that you may go on to salvation;

If anyone has anything to say, let it be as the words of God; if anyone has the desire to be the servant of others, let him do it in the strength which is given by God; so that in all things God may have the glory through Jesus Christ, whose are the glory and the power for ever.

And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them.

Having eyes full of evil desire, never having enough of sin; turning feeble souls out of the true way; they are children of cursing, whose hearts are well used to bitter envy;

Because everything in the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world.