Is it better to be loved or feared? This question has baffled philosophers, politicians, and businessmen alike for centuries. It’s a simple question with a complicated answer. If we have no ethics then anything goes; if we are ethical then we should be loved for being ethical but feared for breaking the rules.
Ethics in the Bible are the principles of doing right and wrong that exist within scripture. Scriptures in the Bible contain numerous prescriptions or laws that should be used to guide one’s actions. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Learn more from our list of Bible verses about ethics below.
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Bible Verses On Ethics In Business
Bible verses about ethics are beneficial for a variety of reasons. Not only can they give insight into the thoughts and feelings of God, but they also help us understand how to live our lives in relation to others and in relation to Him.
The Bible is rich with ethical teachings, including verses on topics such as stealing and adultery. Learn what the Bible has to say about ethics, or even how God views ethics.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV / 127 helpful votes
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 103 helpful votes
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
Romans 13:8-10 ESV / 99 helpful votes
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 86 helpful votes
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 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; …
Psalm 25:21 ESV / 85 helpful votes
May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
Proverbs 11:1 ESV / 84 helpful votes
A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.
Matthew 7:12 ESV / 81 helpful votes
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
John 13:34-35 ESV / 65 helpful votes
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
James 1:12-15 ESV / 54 helpful votes
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 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.
Colossians 3:23 ESV / 54 helpful votes
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
Romans 6:1-23 ESV / 54 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. …
Bible Verses On Ethical Leadership
Bible Verses About Ethics. The Bible teaches us to love God with all of our heart and soul, so it should be no surprise that it also tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. The following teachings on ethics from the Bible are a great way to start learning more about proper behavior and how to treat others
Acts 2:38 ESV / 54 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.
Leviticus 19:18 ESV / 48 helpful votes
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Romans 2:1 ESV / 47 helpful votes
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
Leviticus 19:13 ESV / 45 helpful votes
“You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
Romans 12:2 ESV / 44 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.
Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 44 helpful votes
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Luke 6:31 ESV / 43 helpful votes
And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
Colossians 3:17 ESV / 42 helpful votes
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Luke 16:10 ESV / 39 helpful votes
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
Mark 12:28-31 ESV / 38 helpful votes
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Leviticus 19:11 ESV / 36 helpful votes
“You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another.
Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 34 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
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.
Bible Verses About Christian Ethics
Bible verses about ethics make it clear that we should all be shining examples to others around us. Study these Bible references on ethics, and leave a positive impact on your community by following what you learn.
Proverbs 11:3 ESV / 34 helpful votes
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV / 33 helpful votes
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Leviticus 25:39 ESV / 33 helpful votes
“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave:
Genesis 2:15 ESV / 32 helpful votes
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Philippians 4:8 ESV / 31 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 19:1 ESV / 30 helpful votes
Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.
Matthew 6:24 ESV / 29 helpful votes
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
2 Peter 1:3 ESV / 28 helpful votes
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
Luke 10:25-28 ESV / 28 helpful votes
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
Leviticus 19:35-36 ESV / 27 helpful votes
“You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Mark 7:20-22 ESV / 26 helpful votes
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
Proverbs 20:23 ESV / 26 helpful votes
Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good.
Leviticus 19:2 ESV / 26 helpful votes
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
Exodus 20:1-17 ESV / 26 helpful votes
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, …
Genesis 1:27 ESV / 26 helpful votes
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Romans 12:1-2 ESV / 25 helpful votes
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 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.
Acts 5:29 ESV / 25 helpful votes
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
Ezekiel 16:49-50 ESV / 25 helpful votes
Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.
James 2:8 ESV / 24 helpful votes
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
Matthew 7:21 ESV / 24 helpful votes
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Proverbs 19:17 ESV / 24 helpful votes
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
Deuteronomy 23:17 ESV / 24 helpful votes
“None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute.
Luke 10:29-37 ESV / 23 helpful votes
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. …
Luke 10:10-13 ESV / 23 helpful votes
But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
Matthew 5:27-28 ESV / 23 helpful votes
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Isaiah 1:1-31 ESV / 23 helpful votes
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. …
Proverbs 14:12 ESV / 23 helpful votes
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Exodus 20:13 ESV / 23 helpful votes
“You shall not murder.
Ephesians 6:5-9 ESV / 22 helpful votes
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.
John 16:13 ESV / 22 helpful votes
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Jeremiah 31:33 ESV / 22 helpful votes
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Proverbs 14:23 ESV / 22 helpful votes
In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.
Bible Verses About Personal Ethics
Scripture is filled with verses about ethics, integrity, and morality. This Bible verse for guidance on ethical behavior is one of the most striking examples: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 22 helpful votes
A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. …
James 1:27 ESV / 21 helpful votes
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Romans 13:1-7 ESV / 21 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 1:26-2:1 ESV / 21 helpful votes
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, …
Romans 1:25 ESV / 21 helpful votes
Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
John 3:16 ESV / 21 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.
Micah 6:8 ESV / 21 helpful votes
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Genesis 1:26-28 ESV / 21 helpful votes
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 20 helpful votes
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV / 20 helpful votes
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
Matthew 22:36-40 ESV / 20 helpful votes
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV / 20 helpful votes
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV / 19 helpful votes
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
Romans 12:1-21 ESV / 19 helpful votes
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 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. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. …
Mark 8:36 ESV / 19 helpful votes
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
Matthew 5:22 ESV / 19 helpful votes
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Proverbs 16:8 ESV / 19 helpful votes
Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.
Deuteronomy 4:2 ESV / 19 helpful votes
You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.
Leviticus 18:19-23 ESV / 19 helpful votes
“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife and so make yourself unclean with her. You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.
1 John 3:17 ESV / 18 helpful votes
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV / 18 helpful votes
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, …
1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV / 18 helpful votes
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Luke 16:15 ESV / 18 helpful votes
And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Mark 2:27 ESV / 18 helpful votes
And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Matthew 4:8-10 ESV / 18 helpful votes
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”
Genesis 3:17-19 ESV / 18 helpful votes
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”