What Does the Bible Say About Lusting?

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 82 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.

Galatians 5:16 ESV / 53 helpful votes

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Galatians 5:17 ESV / 32 helpful votes

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Job 31:1 ESV / 29 helpful votes

“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 27 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.

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 26 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.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 24 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.

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV / 17 helpful votes

“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

James 5:16 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 1:14 ESV / 13 helpful votes

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Hebrews 10:22 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

1 Timothy 4:1 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,

Galatians 5:24 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

1 John 2:1-29 ESV / 10 helpful votes

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ...

James 2:11 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 7 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Proverbs 23:33 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things.

1 John 3:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Acts 2:38 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 8:34 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

Judges 8:23-27 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.

James 4:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Titus 2:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

To be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

1 Timothy 2:1-15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ...

Galatians 5:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Romans 12:1 ESV / 5 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.

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

1 Timothy 2:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,

Galatians 5:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Romans 1:26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;

Leviticus 20:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

1 Peter 2:1-25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ...

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— ...

Galatians 5:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

1 Corinthians 11:1-34 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. ...

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 2:1-16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. ...

John 17:1-26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. ...

Proverbs 1:1-33 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, ...

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Genesis 38:8-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.

47 Bible Verses about Lusting

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 82 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:16 ESV / 53 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 37 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:17 ESV / 32 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Job 31:1 ESV / 29 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 27 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 26 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 24 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:13 ESV / 17 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 5:16 ESV / 14 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 1:14 ESV / 13 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 10:22 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 3:23 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Timothy 4:1 ESV / 11 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:24 ESV / 11 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 2:1-29 ESV / 10 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 2:11 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 23:33 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 3:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 2:38 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 8:34 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Judges 8:23-27 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 4:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Titus 2:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Timothy 2:1-15 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 12:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Timothy 2:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 1:26 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 20:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 2:1-25 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 5:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 11:1-34 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 2:1-16 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 17:1-26 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 1:1-33 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 38:8-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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