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What does the Bible say about abstinence?

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The Bible teaches that abstinence from sexual immorality is part of the holy, grateful life to which God calls his people, enabled by his grace and ordered toward love, purity, and faithfulness. First Thessalonians 4:3-4 names sanctification as abstaining from sexual immorality and exercising self-control. Hebrews 13:4 honors marriage and warns that God judges sexual sin, while 1 Corinthians 7:2 presents marriage as God’s rightful context for sexual union. Believers are urged to flee temptation (1 Corinthians 6:18), recognize that their bodies belong to the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), and follow Joseph’s example of refusing sin (Genesis 39:7-10). This obedience is not self-salvation, but the fruit of union with Christ and the Spirit’s renewing work.

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

  • 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4

    [3] For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, [4] that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

  • Hebrews 13:4

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

  • 1 Corinthians 7:2

    But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:18

    Flee sexual immorality! "Every sin that a man does is outside the body," but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

  • 2 Timothy 2:22

    Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

  • 1 Peter 2:11

    Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

  • 1 Corinthians 6:19

    Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own,

  • Genesis 39:7-10

    [7] It happened after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph; and she said, "Lie with me." [8] But he refused, and said to his master's wife, "Behold, my master doesn't know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand. [9] He isn't greater in this house than I, neither has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" [10] It happened that as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he didn't listen to her, to lie by her, or to be with her.

  • Colossians 3:5

    Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;

  • Galatians 5:19-21

    [19] Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, [20] idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, [21] envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

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