What Does the Bible Say About Bad Thoughts?

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 149 helpful votes

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 114 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 109 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 ESV / 108 helpful votes

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Psalm 19:14 ESV / 88 helpful votes

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 83 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Matthew 9:4 ESV / 81 helpful votes

But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 76 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Joshua 1:8 ESV / 62 helpful votes

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Psalm 119:15 ESV / 50 helpful votes

I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

Revelation 21:4 ESV / 49 helpful votes

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

2 Peter 2:9 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 ESV / 33 helpful votes

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Psalm 119:97 ESV / 33 helpful votes

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

John 8:34 ESV / 32 helpful votes

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

James 3:1-18 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! ...

Matthew 6:1-34 ESV / 23 helpful votes

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ...

Romans 12:1-2 ESV / 22 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Psalm 22:1-31 ESV / 21 helpful votes

To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. ...

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 20 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV / 20 helpful votes

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

1 Peter 5:9 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV / 16 helpful votes

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

1 John 3:1-2 ESV / 14 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

John 15:1-27 ESV / 14 helpful votes

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ...

2 Peter 2:4 ESV / 13 helpful votes

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

John 6:63 ESV / 12 helpful votes

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Matthew 5:30 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Proverbs 5:18-19 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

Psalm 77:11 ESV / 11 helpful votes

I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

Psalm 1:2 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Matthew 21:12-13 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

John 2:13-22 ESV / 8 helpful votes

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ...

Luke 10:17-19 ESV / 8 helpful votes

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

Hebrews 10:19-20 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

John 3:16-17 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Revelation 20:1-15 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. ...

Luke 7:1-50 ESV / 6 helpful votes

After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” ...

Isaiah 66:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory,

Ephesians 6:1-24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, ...

Proverbs 17:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

43 Bible Verses about Bad Thoughts

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 149 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 1:9 ESV / 114 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 12:2 ESV / 109 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 ESV / 108 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 19:14 ESV / 88 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 83 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 9:4 ESV / 81 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 76 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Joshua 1:8 ESV / 62 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 119:15 ESV / 50 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 21:4 ESV / 49 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Peter 2:9 ESV / 38 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 ESV / 33 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 119:97 ESV / 33 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 8:34 ESV / 32 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 3:1-18 ESV / 28 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 6:1-34 ESV / 23 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 12:1-2 ESV / 22 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 22:1-31 ESV / 21 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 20 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV / 20 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 5:9 ESV / 18 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV / 16 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 15 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 3:1-2 ESV / 14 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 14 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 15:1-27 ESV / 14 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Peter 2:4 ESV / 13 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 6:63 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:30 ESV / 11 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 5:18-19 ESV / 11 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 77:11 ESV / 11 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 1:2 ESV / 10 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 21:12-13 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 2:13-22 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 10:17-19 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 10:19-20 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 3:16-17 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 20:1-15 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 7:1-50 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 66:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 6:1-24 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 17:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Suggest a Verse

Enter a Verse Reference (e.g., John 3:16-17)