19 Bible Verses About the 7 Deadly Sins

Proverbs 6:16-19

“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.”

Reflection: The item that matches the later list most directly is haughty eyes, which is pride. The others are a lying tongue, violence against the innocent, a scheming heart, feet quick to do evil, false witness and sowing discord among brothers. Two of the seven concern false speech, and the last concerns division in a community, and neither appears on the later list.

Galatians 5:19-21

“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.”

Reflection: Paul sets the works of the flesh against the fruit of the Spirit, which follows in verses 22-23. His list includes sexual immorality, fits of anger, envy and drunkenness, so it touches lust, wrath, envy and gluttony, and it ends with “and things like these,” leaving the list open. The passage opens with the remedy in verse 16, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh,” and closes in verse 26 by returning to envy: “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

Proverbs 16:18

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Reflection: The proverb gives a sequence, pride first and the fall after it, without saying who brings the fall about. The next verse sets the proud against the lowly: “It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud.”

James 4:6

“But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’”

Reflection: James is writing about quarrels, which he traces to “your passions” at war within (James 4:1). The quoted line answers the problem with grace given to the humble, and verse 10 draws the command from it: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” First Peter 5:5 quotes the same line when telling a church to clothe themselves “with humility toward one another.”

Daniel 4:37

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”

Reflection: These are the closing words of Nebuchadnezzar’s own account of his pride and its cure. Walking on his palace roof, he had said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power” (Daniel 4:30), and a voice from heaven announced that he would be driven out to eat grass like an ox until he knew “that the Most High rules the kingdom of men.” When his reason returned, he praised God, and this verse is the conclusion he draws.

Proverbs 14:30

“A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.”

Reflection: The proverb describes envy by what it does to the body: a tranquil heart gives life, and envy rots the bones. Verse 29, just before it, sets the one who is “slow to anger” and has “great understanding” against the one whose “hasty temper exalts folly.”

James 3:16

“For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”

Reflection: James contrasts two kinds of wisdom. “Bitter jealousy and selfish ambition” belong to a wisdom he calls “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (James 3:15), and the wisdom from above is “pure, then peaceable, gentle” (3:17). The next chapter follows envy into open conflict: “You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (4:2).

Ephesians 4:26-27

“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”

Reflection: Paul permits anger here but limits it: it must not become sin, and it must not last past sundown. A few verses later he goes further: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you” (Ephesians 4:31), and verse 32 names what replaces them, being kind and “forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Romans 12:19

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”

Reflection: The verse addresses anger that wants revenge. Paul hands vengeance to God, and the verses around it say what the wronged person does instead: “Repay no one evil for evil” (Romans 12:17), feed a hungry enemy (12:20), and “overcome evil with good” (12:21).

Colossians 3:8

“But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.”

Reflection: Colossians gives two lists a few verses apart. Verse 5 tells believers to put to death “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry,” and verse 8 adds anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk. The reason follows in verses 9-10: they have “put off the old self” and “put on the new self.”

Proverbs 6:6-8

“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.”

Reflection: The ant works with no chief, officer or ruler over her, storing food in summer for later. The next verses turn to the sluggard directly: “How long will you lie there, O sluggard?” and warn that “a little sleep, a little slumber” brings poverty “like a robber” (Proverbs 6:9-11).

2 Thessalonians 3:10

“For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”

Reflection: Paul is dealing with members of the Thessalonian church who were “walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies” (2 Thessalonians 3:11). He points to his own example, working “night and day” so as not to be a burden (3:8). The rule is about those “not willing” to work, and he tells them to “do their work quietly and to earn their own living” (3:12).

Hebrews 6:12

“So that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Reflection: Here sluggishness concerns faith rather than work. The writer wants readers to keep up their earnestness “to have the full assurance of hope until the end” (Hebrews 6:11). The Greek word, nothros, is the one Hebrews 5:11 uses for becoming “dull of hearing.”

Luke 12:15

“And he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’”

Reflection: A man in the crowd asked Jesus to make his brother divide an inheritance, and Jesus refused to act as judge between them before giving this warning. The parable that follows tells of a rich man who builds bigger barns and plans to “relax, eat, drink, be merry,” and God says to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you.” Jesus ends it: “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).

Ecclesiastes 5:10

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.”

Reflection: The Preacher says the love of money cannot be satisfied by more money. The next two verses add that when goods increase, so do those who eat them, and that “the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep,” while the laborer sleeps sweetly “whether he eats little or much” (Ecclesiastes 5:12).

1 Timothy 6:10

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”

Reflection: Paul names the love of money, the craving for it, as “a root of all kinds of evils,” and its result is wandering from the faith. The verses before it set out the alternative: “godliness with contentment is great gain,” and “if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Timothy 6:6, 8). Verse 9 warns that “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare.”

Proverbs 23:20-21

“Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.”

Reflection: A father addresses his son (Proverbs 23:19) and warns him away from two kinds of company, drunkards and gluttonous eaters of meat. The consequence given is practical: both “will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.”

Matthew 5:28

“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Reflection: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins with the commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” and then places the sin in the heart and the look. The next two verses tell the hearer to tear out a right eye or cut off a right hand that causes sin, since it is better to lose one member “than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29).

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Reflection: Paul is answering Corinthian slogans such as “All things are lawful for me” and “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food” (1 Corinthians 6:12-13). His reply is that “the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord,” and that a man joined to a prostitute “becomes one body with her.” The command to flee rests on two facts about the body: it is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and it was bought with a price.