100 Bible Verses about Temperate

Proverbs 20:1 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

Proverbs 31:4 ESV / 10 helpful votes

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink,

Titus 2:3 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,

1 Corinthians 6:10 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Peter 2:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Corinthians 9:25 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

Titus 2:2-6 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

Titus 2:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

1 Timothy 3:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

Isaiah 28:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Titus 1:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

Ephesians 5:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Isaiah 5:22 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 5 helpful votes

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

1 Peter 4:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

1 Peter 2:25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Hebrews 9:26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

1 Timothy 3:11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things.

1 Timothy 3:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.

1 Timothy 3:1-16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? ...

Philippians 1:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

Galatians 5:22-24 ESV / 4 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. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV / 4 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,

Matthew 7:1-29 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. ...

Daniel 1:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.

Proverbs 23:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

Psalm 119:2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,

Numbers 22:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But God's anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him.

Leviticus 10:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.

Revelation 5:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

1 John 4:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1 John 3:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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.

1 John 2:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

1 Peter 3:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Hebrews 2:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

Hebrews 2:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

Titus 1:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

Titus 1:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:1-3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,

2 Timothy 1:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

1 Timothy 5:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)

1 Timothy 5:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband,

1 Timothy 5:1-2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But test everything; hold fast what is good.

Colossians 3:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Ephesians 5:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ...

Galatians 5:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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.

Galatians 5:16-17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

John 8:44 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Luke 12:45 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,

Matthew 16:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Ezekiel 44:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court.

1 Peter 5:8-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

1 Peter 2:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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.

1 Corinthians 8:7-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. ...

1 Corinthians 3:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Romans 16:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,

Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ...

Romans 8:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 5:1-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ...

Acts 20:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

Acts 20:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

Acts 20:1-38 ESV / 2 helpful votes

After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece. There he spent three months, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. These went on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas, ...

Acts 2:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;

John 10:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 6:70 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”

Luke 10:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Luke 2:22-24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

Matthew 23:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.

Matthew 19:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

Matthew 16:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

Matthew 16:1-28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed. When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. ...

Matthew 13:39 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

Matthew 12:33-35 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.

Matthew 9:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Matthew 7:15-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ...

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Hosea 7:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers.

Hosea 4:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.

Hosea 4:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Daniel 5:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.

Daniel 1:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king.

Jeremiah 35:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father's command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me.

Jeremiah 3:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.

Isaiah 65:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.

Isaiah 65:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants' sake, and not destroy them all.

Isaiah 43:6-7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Isaiah 28:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!

Isaiah 24:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.

Isaiah 11:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

Isaiah 5:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!

Isaiah 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Ecclesiastes 2:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

Proverbs 31:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

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