100 Bible Verses about Overcoming The Flesh

Galatians 5:16 ESV / 108 helpful votes

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

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 90 helpful votes

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Romans 8:7 ESV / 87 helpful votes

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.

Galatians 5:24 ESV / 79 helpful votes

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Romans 8:6 ESV / 78 helpful votes

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV / 68 helpful votes

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 63 helpful votes

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 5:17 ESV / 57 helpful votes

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.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 50 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 8:13 ESV / 50 helpful votes

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Romans 13:14 ESV / 45 helpful votes

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Romans 7:18 ESV / 45 helpful votes

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

Colossians 3:1 ESV / 37 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Ephesians 6:12 ESV / 28 helpful votes

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Romans 8:8 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 25 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Acts 2:38 ESV / 24 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 ESV / 23 helpful votes

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, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God;

Galatians 5:16-17 ESV / 23 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.

1 Timothy 4:3 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

Romans 8:37 ESV / 19 helpful votes

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

1 Peter 4:1 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

Galatians 5:25 ESV / 18 helpful votes

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 18 helpful votes

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Romans 6:6 ESV / 18 helpful votes

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 14 helpful votes

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

2 Timothy 2:22 ESV / 14 helpful votes

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Galatians 6:8 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Romans 6:3 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

John 1:14 ESV / 14 helpful votes

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Romans 8:1-14 ESV / 13 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 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 set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

John 4:24 ESV / 13 helpful votes

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 3:6 ESV / 13 helpful votes

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Revelation 19:10 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

1 John 5:5 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Philippians 1:6 ESV / 12 helpful votes

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:4-6 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Romans 14:17 ESV / 12 helpful votes

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 7:1-25 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ...

Matthew 26:41 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

1 John 4:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

1 John 2:16 ESV / 11 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.

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 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 5:13 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

1 John 5:4 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Hebrews 9:10 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

Colossians 2:12 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

John 15:5 ESV / 10 helpful votes

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Matthew 5:29 ESV / 10 helpful votes

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Numbers 28:11 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“At the beginnings of your months, you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord: two bulls from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish;

1 Peter 2:21 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Romans 6:4 ESV / 9 helpful votes

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Colossians 2:23 ESV / 8 helpful votes

These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 8 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 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 set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

Revelation 3:21 ESV / 7 helpful votes

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Revelation 3:5 ESV / 7 helpful votes

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

James 4:7 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Ephesians 4:22 ESV / 7 helpful votes

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

Galatians 6:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:2 ESV / 7 helpful votes

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

Romans 8:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 24:1-51 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. ...

Psalm 34:19 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

1 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Galatians 5:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

Romans 8:2 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

John 16:33 ESV / 6 helpful votes

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 3:16-17 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Isaiah 58:1-8 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? ...

Leviticus 18:29-30 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people. So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you, and never to make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.”

Revelation 3:14 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.

Revelation 3:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

1 John 4:1-21 ESV / 5 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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. ...

1 Peter 5:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

Galatians 5:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

1 Corinthians 15:57 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

1 Corinthians 7:1-2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

Romans 8:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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 set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Romans 6:1-23 ESV / 5 helpful votes

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ...

John 1:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Matthew 6:16-18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Leviticus 18:1-30 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord. ...

Leviticus 7:10-27 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And every grain offering, mixed with oil or dry, shall be shared equally among all the sons of Aaron. “And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings that one may offer to the Lord. If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the thanksgiving sacrifice unleavened loaves mixed with oil, unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and loaves of fine flour well mixed with oil. With the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving he shall bring his offering with loaves of leavened bread. And from it he shall offer one loaf from each offering, as a gift to the Lord. It shall belong to the priest who throws the blood of the peace offerings. ...

James 1:14-15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:1-25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ...

Colossians 2:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

Ephesians 5:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

2 Corinthians 10:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

1 Corinthians 8:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

Romans 13:1-14:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ...

Romans 8:1-2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Romans 7:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

Romans 6:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

John 6:56 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

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