1. Living for Jesus means we have died to sin. Romans 6 is a beautiful description of a Christian who chooses daily to consider himself dead to sin and alive to Christ (verses 6–8). Being dead to sin means we no longer consider sinning against God a viable option. The decision was made when we bowed at the cross and were born again by grace through faith. Though we will still stumble at times, sin no longer masters us. Just as a corpse does not lust, covet, or gossip, those who are dead to sin do not heed temptation (Galatians 2:20).
2. Living for Jesus means we have only one God. This is the first commandment (Exodus 20:3), yet people can and do make gods out of anything. John Calvin rightly stated, “The human heart is an idol factory.” We recognize our false gods by asking ourselves a question: What is it that I am unwilling to lay on the altar? Whatever we refuse to give to God becomes our god. Living for Jesus means we continually search our hearts for idols that steal our time and affection away from total devotion to Him (2 Corinthians 11:3).
3. Living for Jesus means we diligently study His Word. Second Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” Correctly handling God’s Word is vital for one who wants to avoid deception and live as salt and light in this world (Matthew 5:13–16). Unless we know the heart of God, we will violate His standards and lead others to do the same. We discover His heart when we pursue the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) and apply it regularly to our lives.
4. Living for Jesus means we use our gifts to serve God and others. We strive to live as Jesus lived. We study Him in the Scriptures and pattern our lives after His (1 Corinthians 11:1). He was kind, so we imitate His kindness. He gave unselfishly, so we set aside our preferences and devote our time, resources, and energy to His purposes (1 Corinthians 10:31). People who live for Jesus discover their spiritual gifts and utilize them to impact their world (1 Corinthians 12:7–11). Living for Jesus means we find our greatest fulfillment in serving Him. Pleasing Him is our reward (2 Corinthians 5:9).
To speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
Colossians 1:10 ESV / 20 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Ephesians 5:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV / 11 helpful votes
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 11 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. ...
Colossians 2:17 ESV / 10 helpful votes
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Hebrews 10:26-27 ESV / 8 helpful votes
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Philippians 4:8 ESV / 8 helpful votes
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Proverbs 26:18-19 ESV / 8 helpful votes
Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I am only joking!”
Matthew 28:19 ESV / 7 helpful votes
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Jude 1:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV / 6 helpful votes
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Romans 6:14 ESV / 6 helpful votes
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Proverbs 31:1-31 ESV / 6 helpful votes
The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. ...
Romans 2:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes
For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Acts 17:1-34 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. ...
John 13:35 ESV / 5 helpful votes
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
1 John 2:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
2 Timothy 2:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes
And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil,
2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV / 4 helpful votes
To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
1 Corinthians 13:4-6 ESV / 4 helpful votes
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1 Corinthians 7:1-40 ESV / 4 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. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ...
Romans 12:2 ESV / 4 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.
John 13:1-38 ESV / 4 helpful votes
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ...
John 1:1-51 ESV / 4 helpful votes
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ...
Revelation 17:1-18 ESV / 3 helpful votes
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.” ...
1 Peter 1:1-25 ESV / 3 helpful votes
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ...
1 Corinthians 1:1-31 ESV / 3 helpful votes
Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 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: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— ...
Luke 2:1-52 ESV / 3 helpful votes
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. ...
Genesis 2:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”