Top 18 Bible Verses About Abstinence

5 Stories From The Bible About Abstinence

Here are 5 stories from the Bible that relate to abstinence.

No Sexual Immorality

God’s will is not hidden. It’s not some mysterious thing you need to seek out and find.  God’s will is clearly revealed in Scripture, and fewer things are more clearly revealed than the command to abstain from sexual immorality.  The Apostle Paul says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4).  Our bodies are not our own anyway…they belong to God. They are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

No Adultery

The Bible is clear that there should be no sex outside of marriage.  It doesn’t matter if someone loses benefits or it’s because of financial considerations that a couple lives together unmarried.  The Bible says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).  It’s black and white; sex outside of marriage is called adultery and all adulterers, “God will judge.”

Flee Immorality

It’s wise to run from temptation.  If we sit and ponder it, our fleshly desires can overtake us.  The best advice is to “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18).  How can we join ourselves with a “prostitute” (1 Corinthians 6:16) when the Spirit of God lives in us!?

Pursue Righteousness

If you are fleeing temptation, especially sexual immorality, then you are pursuing righteousness…and the righteousness of God is found only in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).  If we’re pursuing righteousness, then we’ll be fleeing sexual immorality, “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22).   Surely we would not be “members of a prostitute” (2 Corinthians 6:15).

Sinning Against God

When Joseph had the opportunity to commit sexual immorality, no one else would have known about it since the house that he was in charge of was empty, but Joseph would have known about it….and God would have known about it, so when Potiphar’s wife tried to commit adultery with Joseph, he told her, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God” (Genesis 39:9b).  He is exactly right.  It would have been first and foremost a sin against God, but also a sin against his owner, Potiphar, and to his wife.  Of course, Joseph resisted and ended up in prison for it, but his abstinence proved his loyalty and obedience to God.  As a result, God would later make him second in command in the whole of Egypt.

God knows our hearts.  He knows the natural desires that we have, and that it’s so easy for us to give into the temptation and sin, but God has not left us helpless.  He can strengthen us (Philippians 4:13) and empower us with His Word and His Spirit.  What we must do is to “Flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18a).