For I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.… For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.
LEVITICUS 11:44–45, RSV
Say to all the assembly of the Israelites, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
LEVITICUS 19:2, AMP
Since you have … learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness—righteous, holy, and true.
EPHESIANS 4:22–24, NLT
But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God—who chose you to be his children—is holy. For he himself has said, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
1 PETER 1:15–16, NLT
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
ROMANS 8:6, RSV
It’s critical to recognize visual sexual impurity as foreplay. If viewing sensual things merely provides a flutter of appreciation for a woman’s beauty, it would be no different than viewing the awesome power of a thunderstorm racing over the Iowa cornfields. There would be no sin and no problem.
But if it is foreplay, and you are getting sexual gratification, then it defiles your body and your relationships. And it’s certain that you’ll be paying a cost that you may not even be aware of.
—adapted from Every Young Man’s Battle
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
GALATIANS 6:7–8, NIV
Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.
GALATIANS 6:7, MSG
As I have observed, those who plow evil
and those who sow trouble reap it.
JOB 4:8, NIV
They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no head;
it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it up.
HOSEA 8:7, NIV
What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
ROMANS 6:21, NIV
You can buy an hour with a whore for a loaf of bread,
but a wanton woman may well eat you alive.
Can you build a fire in your lap
and not burn your pants?
Can you walk barefoot on hot coals
and not get blisters?
It’s the same when you have sex …
Touch her and you’ll pay for it. No excuses.
PROVERBS 6:26–29, MSG
The LORD hates people with twisted hearts, but he delights in those who have integrity.
You can be sure that evil people will be punished, but the children of the godly will go free.
PROVERBS 11:20–21, NLT
Don’t you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes … none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9–10, NLT
The authorities are sent by God to help you. But if you are doing something wrong, of course you should be afraid, for you will be punished. The authorities are established by God for that very purpose, to punish those who do wrong.
ROMANS 13:4, NLT
But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
ROMANS 2:5, RSV
But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned against me and have chosen to practice idolatry. They do not say from the heart, “Let us live in awe of the LORD our God, for he gives us rain each spring and fall, assuring us of plentiful harvests.” Your wickedness has deprived you of these wonderful blessings. Your sin has robbed you of all these good things.
JEREMIAH 5:23–25, NLT
I will not answer when they cry for help. Even though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me. For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. That is why they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way. They must experience the full terror of the path they have chosen.
PROVERBS 1:28–31, NLT
So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again … that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
GALATIANS 5:16–21, NLT
A lot of us talk a good game about purity while sitting on the bench (or sitting in church), but when given the chance to play, we keep our eyes on the babes in the stands, not on the pitcher holding the ball.
If you aren’t trustworthy in handling fleshly passions, how can you be trusted to handle things of greater value?
—adapted from Every Young Man’s Battle
Be careful with this freedom of yours. Do not cause a brother or sister with a weaker conscience to stumble.
1 CORINTHIANS 8:9, NLT
For you have been called to live in freedom—not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love.
GALATIANS 5:13, NLT
In this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.
1 THESSALONIANS 4:6, NIV
Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God.
1 PETER 2:16, RSV
You may say, “I am allowed to do anything.” But I reply, “Not everything is good for you.” And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12, NLT
You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is helpful. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:23, NLT
It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.
GALATIANS 5:19–21, MSG
James, a respected teen in his youth group, refused to promise to stay sexually pure when pressed to do so. “There are too many unforeseen situations out there for me to make such a promise,” he said. Translation: “I want to keep my options open.”
James has stopped short. Have you?
—adapted from Every Young Man’s Battle
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
ROMANS 8:5, NKJV
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
ROMANS 6:12, RSV
I want you to promise, O women of Jerusalem, not to awaken love until the time is right.
SONG OF SOLOMON 8:4, NLT
A spiritual battle for purity is going on in every heart and soul. The costs are real. Obedience is hard, requiring humility and meekness, very rare elements indeed.
—Every Young Man’s Battle
Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) … that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
EPHESIANS 2:3–5,7, RSV
So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God).
COLOSSIANS 3:5, AMP
Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
2 TIMOTHY 2:22, NASB
But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.
1 TIMOTHY 6:11, NASB
As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature.
2 PETER 1:3–4, NLT
You can feel a new light and lightness in your soul when you turn from sexual sin. Along with inner peace comes an outer peace that will affect your daily life.
—adapted from Every Man’s Battle
To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted.
TITUS 1:15, RSV
You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
ISAIAH 26:3, NIV
You’ve got a decision to make. You can’t visually feed on the same films as your school chums and expect to stay sexually pure. Do you want sexual purity and deeper intimacy with God that follows, or do you want to be one of the gang, squeezing in purity only when it’s convenient?
—adapted from Every Young Man’s Battle
Be careful. If you’re thinking, “Oh, I would never behave like that”—let this be a warning to you. For you too may fall into sin.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:12, TLB
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.
ROMANS 8:5–6, NIV
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
ROMANS 12:2, RSV
I will maintain my innocence without wavering. My conscience is clear for as long as I live.
JOB 27:6, NLT
Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.”
ACTS 23:1, NASB
I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit.
ROMANS 9:1, RSV
But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
1 TIMOTHY 1:5, NASB
We are so glad that we can say with utter honesty that in all our dealings we have been pure and sincere, quietly depending upon the Lord for his help, and not on our own skills. And that is even more true, if possible, about the way we have acted toward you.
2 CORINTHIANS 1:12, TLB
But if you’re breaking the rules right and left, watch out. The police aren’t there just to be admired in their uniforms. God also has an interest in keeping order, and he uses them to do it. That’s why you must live responsibly—not just to avoid punishment but also because it’s the right way to live.
ROMANS 13:4–5, MSG
Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.
ROMANS 13:5, NIV