25 Bible Verses about Abuse, Of Christian Freedom
Most Relevant Verses
Therefore, [since] we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, putting aside every weight and {the sin that so easily ensnares us}, let us run with patient endurance the race that has been set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the originator and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
If anyone should see his brother sinning a sin not [leading] to death, he should ask, and he will grant life to him, to those who sin not [leading] to death. ([There] is a sin [leading] to death; I do not say that he should ask about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and [there] is a sin not [leading] to death.) We know that everyone who is fathered by God does not sin, but the one fathered by God, he protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
What therefore shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, in order that grace may increase? May it never be! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? God, who inflicts wrath, [is] not unjust, [is he]? (I am speaking according to a human perspective.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if by my lying, the truth of God abounded to his glory, why am I also still condemned as a sinner?read more.
And [why] not (as we are slandered, and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil, in order that good may come [of it]? Their condemnation is just!
But if [while] seeking to be justified by Christ, [we] ourselves also have been found [to be] sinners, then [is] Christ an agent of sin? May it never be! For if I build up again these [things] which I destroyed, I show myself [to be] a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, in order that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ,read more.
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and that [life] I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not declare invalid the grace of God, for if righteousness [is] through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.
But watch out lest somehow this right of yours becomes a cause for stumbling to the weak. For if someone should see you who has knowledge reclining for a meal in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, [because it] is weak, be strengthened so that [he] eats the food sacrificed to idols? For the one who is weak--the brother for whom Christ died--is destroyed by your knowledge.read more.
Now [if you] sin in this way against the brothers and wound their conscience, which is weak, you sin against Christ.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not let your freedom [become] an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
[Live] as free [persons], and not using your freedom as a covering for evil, but as slaves of God.
It is reported everywhere [that there] is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind which [does] not [even exist] among the Gentiles, so that someone has the wife of [his] father. And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst?
All [things] are permitted for me, but not all [things] are profitable. All [things] are permitted for me, but I will not be controlled by anything. Food [is] for the stomach, and the stomach for food, but God will abolish {both of them}. Now the body [is] not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will raise us up by his power.read more.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Therefore, shall I take away the members of Christ [and] make [them] members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body [with her]? For it says, "The two will become one flesh." But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit [with him]. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit [who is] in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body.
But I have against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, the one who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives my slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. And I have given her time in order to repent, and she did not want to repent from her sexual immorality. Behold, I am throwing her into a sickbed and those who committed adultery with her into great affliction, unless they repent from her deeds.
Now a certain man {named} Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and he kept back for himself [some] of the proceeds, and [his] wife was aware of [it]. And he brought a certain part [and] placed [it] at the feet of the apostles.
Therefore, [when] you come together in the same [place], it is not to eat the Lord's supper. For [when you] eat [it], each one of you goes ahead to take his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunk. For do you not have houses for eating and drinking? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who do not have [anything]? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise [you]!
Therefore, [since] we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, putting aside every weight and {the sin that so easily ensnares us}, let us run with patient endurance the race that has been set before us,
If we say that we do not have sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, so that he will forgive us [our] sins and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these [things] the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
and "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense," who stumble [because they] disobey the word to which also they were consigned.
And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. The one who says "I have come to know him," and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this person.
Pursue love, and strive for spiritual [gifts], but especially that you may prophesy. For the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God, because no one understands, but by the Spirit he speaks mysteries. But the one who prophesies speaks to people edification and encouragement and consolation.read more.
The one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. Now I want you all to speak with tongues, but even more that you may prophesy. The one who prophesies [is] greater than the one who speaks with tongues, unless he interprets, in order that the church may receive edification. But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with tongues, how do I benefit you, unless I speak to you either with a revelation or with knowledge or with a prophecy or with a teaching? Likewise, the inanimate things which produce a sound, whether flute or lyre, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the lyre? For indeed, if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare for battle? And so you through the tongue, unless you produce a clear message, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. There are probably so many kinds of languages in the world, and none without meaning. Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a barbarian to the one who is speaking, and the one who is speaking [will be] a barbarian in my [judgment]. In this way also you, since you are zealous of spiritual [gifts], seek for the edification of the church, in order that you may abound. Therefore the one who speaks in a tongue must pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive. {Therefore what should I do}? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will also sing praise with my mind. For otherwise, if you praise in [your] spirit, how will the one who fills the place of the outsider say the "amen" at your thanksgiving, because he does not know what you are saying? For indeed you are giving thanks well, but the other person is not edified. I give thanks to God [that] I speak with tongues more than all of you, but in the church I prefer to speak five words with my mind, in order that I may instruct other [people], than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, do not become children in [your] understanding, but with respect to wickedness be as a child, and in [your] understanding be mature.
Now concerning food sacrificed to idols, we know that "we all have knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he has not yet known as it is necessary to know. But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him.read more.
Therefore, concerning the eating of food sacrificed to idols, we know that "an idol [is] nothing in the world" and that "[there is] no God except one." For even if after all [there] are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, just as [there] are many gods and many lords, yet to us [there is] one God, the Father, from whom [are] all [things], and we [are] for him, and [there is] one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom [are] all [things], and we [are] through him. But this knowledge [is] not in everyone. But some, being accustomed until now to the idol, eat [this food] as food sacrificed to idols, and their conscience, [because it] is weak, is defiled. But food does not bring us close to God. For neither if we eat do we have more, nor if we do not eat do we lack. But watch out lest somehow this right of yours becomes a cause for stumbling to the weak. For if someone should see you who has knowledge reclining for a meal in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, [because it] is weak, be strengthened so that [he] eats the food sacrificed to idols? For the one who is weak--the brother for whom Christ died--is destroyed by your knowledge. Now [if you] sin in this way against the brothers and wound their conscience, which is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to sin, I will never eat meat {forever}, in order that I may not cause my brother to sin.
But I have a few [things] against you: that you have there those who hold fast to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat food sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.
