Bible Verses about Self-control
| Like a city breached, without walls, is one who lacks self-control. | A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls. |
| For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. | For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. |
| For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. | In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. |
| One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one whose temper is controlled than one who captures a city. | Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city. |
| By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. | But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! |
| You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. | Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. |
| Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. | The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. |
| No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. | The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. |
| So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. | So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. |
| Fools show their anger at once, but the prudent ignore an insult. | A fool is quick-tempered, but a wise person stays calm when insulted. |
| A fool gives full vent to anger, but the wise quietly holds it back. | Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back. |
| For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly. | For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God. |
| But I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. | I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. |
| Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. | Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. |
| Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. | All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. |
| For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. | For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. |
| Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. | Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil. |
| Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive a full reward. | Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. |
| I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin? | I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman. |
| Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. | Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control. |
| For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God. | God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. |
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Bible verse of the day
Who is this King of glory?The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory. Selah