Colossians 3:5 says: “put to death…passion” (ESV).
Amidst so many today telling us to pursue passion (even in the church), God tells us to “put to death passion” (Col. 3:5)
So I got curious…
In the New Testament, in the ESV, there are 27 occurrences of the English word “passion”. Guess how many use it in a positive sense? Zero.
It seems this should challenge us to be careful of a theology that teaches us to “pursue our passions”…or at the least, be careful of re-defining a term (“passion”) that is used in a negative sense biblically.
It seems a better theology would be:
“live…the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” (1 Pet. 4:2).
To be sure…
I think “passion” / “desire” is not inherently negative. I think the uses in the New Testament are of sinful passions. But I do think it is more of a neutral term that can be swayed by sin/Satan/the world. Thus, we shouldn’t trust our “passions”. We follow God’s will (whether we are passionate about it or not), and as we do so, I believe our desires will start matching His desires more and more. – Psalm 37:4
fmi360 
Very good.