Amusements and Worldly Pleasures

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

Belong to the works of the flesh

• Galatians 5:19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;
• Galatians 5:21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Are transitory

• Job 21:12–13 singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute. They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.
• Hebrews 11:25 He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin.

Vain

• Ecclesiastes 2:11 Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Choke the word of God in the heart

• Luke 8:14 The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature.

Formed a part of idolatrous worship

• Exodus 32:4 He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
• Exodus 32:6 So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
• Exodus 32:19 As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain.
• 1 Corinthians 10:7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”
• Judges 16:23–25 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.” And when the people saw him, they praised their god, saying: “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy who destroy…

Lead to rejection of God

• Job 21:14–15 Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’

Poverty

• Proverbs 21:17 He who loves pleasure will become poor; the one who loves wine and oil will never be rich.

Disregard of the judgments and works of God

• Isaiah 5:12 At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.
• Amos 6:1–6 Woe to those at ease in Zion and those secure on Mount Samaria, the distinguished ones of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes. Cross over to Calneh and see; go from there to the great Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Is their te…

Terminate in sorrow

• Proverbs 14:13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in sorrow.

Lead to greater evil

• Job 1:5 And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
• Matthew 14:6–8 On Herod’s birthday, however, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give to her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

The wicked seek for happiness in

• Ecclesiastes 2:1 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good!” But it proved to be futile.
• Ecclesiastes 2:8 and I accumulated for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I gathered to myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men — many concubines.

Indulgence in is

A proof of folly

• Ecclesiastes 7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

A characteristic of the wicked

• Isaiah 47:8 So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’
• Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
• Ephesians 4:19 Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.
• 2 Timothy 3:4 traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
• Titus 3:3 For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures — living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
• 1 Peter 4:3 For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

A proof of spiritual death

• 1 Timothy 5:6 But she who lives for pleasure is dead even while she is still alive.

An abuse of riches

• James 5:1 Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.
• James 5:5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

Wisdom of abstaining from

• Ecclesiastes 7:2–3 It is better to enter a house of mourning than a house of feasting, since death is the end of every man, and the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart.

Shunned by the primitive saints

• 1 Peter 4:3 For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

Abstinence from, seems strange to the wicked

• 1 Peter 4:4 Because of this, they consider it strange of you not to plunge with them into the same flood of reckless indiscretion, and they heap abuse on you.

Denounced by God

• Isaiah 5:11–12 Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine. At their feasts are the lyre and harp, tambourines and flutes and wine. They disregard the actions of the LORD and fail to see the work of His hands.

Exclude from the kingdom of God

• Galatians 5:21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Punishment of

• Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.
• 2 Peter 2:13 The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.

Renunciation of, exemplified by Moses

• Hebrews 11:25 He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin.

See Dancing

See Games

See PLEASURE, WORLDLY

See Worldliness