Scripture warns that love can be misdirected and shows a number of examples. Passages gathered in the Dictionary of Bible Themes © 1999 Martin H. Manser, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and for the gospel will save it.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
If your brother is distressed by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother, for whom Christ died.
We who are strong ought to bear with the shortcomings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
Haman entered, and the king asked him, "What should be done for the man whom the king is delighted to honor?" Now Haman thought to himself, "Whom would the king be delighted to honor more than me?"
Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.
the king exclaimed, "Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built by the might of my power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?"
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king, and do not stand in the place of great men; for it is better that he says to you, "Come up here!" than that you should be demoted in the presence of the prince. Even what you have seen with your own eyes,
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
Some time later, Absalom provided for himself a chariot with horses and fifty men to run ahead of him.
At that time Adonijah, David's son by Haggith, began to exalt himself, saying, "I will be king!" And he acquired chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run ahead of him.
You said in your heart: "I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.
Why am I seeing this? They are terrified, they are retreating; their warriors are defeated, they flee in haste without looking back; terror is on every side!" declares the LORD.
"Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord GOD says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, 'I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.' Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god.
"What do you want?" He inquired. She answered, "Declare that in Your kingdom one of these two sons of mine may sit at Your right hand, and the other at Your left."
They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of 'Rabbi' by which they are addressed.
"Beware of the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, and they love the greetings in the marketplaces, the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.
A dispute also arose among the disciples as to which of them would be considered the greatest.
He will oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship. So he will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.
I have written to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not accept our instruction.
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.
What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
A soldier refrains from entangling himself in civilian affairs, in order to please the one who enlisted him.
It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.
For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.
But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first one said, 'I have bought a field, and I need to go see it. Please excuse me.'
because Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.
Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
Place no trust in extortion, or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
A faithful man will abound with blessings, but one eager to be rich will not go unpunished.
He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is futile.
And He said to them, "Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath."
Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, "Look, my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman, while not accepting what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him."
Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, "Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us."
When the young man heard this, he went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.
But the man was saddened by these words and went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.
and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you?" And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus.
Judas did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money bag, he used to take from what was put into it.
When the girl's owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the marketplace.
At the same time, he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe. So he sent for Paul frequently and talked with him.
They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.
He who loves transgression loves strife; he who builds his gate high invites destruction.
Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them.
Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.
(Surely there was never one like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the LORD, incited by his wife Jezebel.
This is what the LORD says about this people: "Truly they love to wander; they have not restrained their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; He will now remember their guilt and call their sins to account."
You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones.
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. Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.
Fear the LORD your God, serve Him only, and take your oaths in His name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.
"You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.
be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, "How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise."
Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man's skill and imagination.
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!"
And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. Thus they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed after various gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and provoked the LORD to anger,
They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and themselves became worthless, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.
As they drank the wine, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols.
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.