8 Bible Verses about Backsliding, Christian Examples
Most Relevant Verses
The two angels entered Sodom at sunset while Lot was sitting in the gate area of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up, greeted them, bowed low with his face to the ground, and said, "Look, my lords! Please come inside your servant's house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and be on your way." But they responded, "No, we would rather spend the night in the town square." But Lot kept urging them strongly, so they turned aside and entered his house. He prepared a festival and baked unleavened flat bread for them, and they ate.read more.
Before they could lie down, all the men of Sodom and its outskirts, both young and old, surrounded the house. They called out to Lot and asked, "Where are the men who came to visit you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!" Lot went outside to them, shut the door behind him, and said, "I urge you, my brothers, don't do such a wicked thing. Look here, I have two daughters who are virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them whatever you wish, only don't do anything to these men, because they're here under my protection." But they replied, "Get out of the way! This man came here as a foreigner, and now he's acting like a judge! So we're going to deal more harshly with you than with them." Then they pushed hard against the man (that is, against Lot), intending to break down the door. But the angels inside reached out, dragged Lot back into the house with them, shut the door, and blinded the men who were at the entrance of the house, from the least important to the greatest, so they were unable to find the doorway. "Do you have anyone else here in the city?" the angels asked Lot. "A son-in-law? Sons? Daughters? Get them out of this place, because we're going to destroy it. Their outcry has come to the attention of the LORD, so he sent us here to destroy it!" Lot then went out and told his sons-in-law (they had married his daughters), "Get out of here! The LORD is going to destroy this city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. As dawn was breaking, the angels pressured Lot. "Get going!" they told him. "Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be engulfed by the devastation that's coming to this city." But Lot kept lingering in the city, so the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters (because of the LORD's compassion for him!), brought them out of the city, and left them outside. Then one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back or stop anywhere on the plain. Escape to the hills, or you'll be swept away!" "No! Please, my lords!" Lot pleaded with them. "Your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me your gracious love in how you have dealt with me by keeping me alive. I cannot escape to the hills, because I'm afraid the disaster will overtake me, and I'll die. Look, there is a town nearby where I can flee, and it's a small one. Let me escape there! It's a small one, isn't it? That way I'll stay alive!" "All right," the angel replied to Lot, "I'll agree with your request! I won't overthrow the town that you mentioned. Hurry up and flee there, because I cannot do anything until you get to that town." Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.
One spring day, during the time of year when kings go off to war, David sent out Joab, along with his personal staff and all of Israel's army. They utterly destroyed the Ammonites and then attacked Rabbah while David remained in Jerusalem. Late one afternoon about dusk, David got up from his couch and was walking around on the roof of the royal palace. From there he watched a woman taking a bath, and she was very beautiful to look at. David sent word to inquire about her, and someone told him, "This is Eliam's daughter Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, isn't it?" read more.
So David sent some messengers, took her from her home, and she went to him, and he had sex with her. (She had been consecrating herself following her menstrual separation.) Then she returned to her home. The woman conceived, and she sent this message to David: "I'm pregnant."
Have mercy, God, according to your gracious love, according to your unlimited compassion, erase my transgressions. Wash me from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression; my sin remains continuously before me.read more.
Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what was evil in your sight. As a result, you are just in your pronouncement and clear in your judgment. Indeed, in iniquity I was brought forth; in sin my mother conceived me. Indeed, you are pleased with truth in the inner person, and you will teach me wisdom in my innermost parts. Purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me know joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your countenance from my sins and erase the record of my iniquities. God, create a pure heart in me, and renew a right attitude within me. Do not cast me from your presence; do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and let a willing attitude control me. Then I will teach transgressors about your ways, and sinners will turn to you. Deliver me from the guilt of shedding blood, God, God of my salvation. Then my tongue will sing about your righteousness. Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. Indeed, you do not delight in sacrifices, or I would give them, nor do you desire burnt offerings. True sacrifice to God is a broken spirit. A broken and chastened heart, God, you will not despise. Show favor to Zion in your good pleasure; and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will be pleased with right sacrifices, with burnt offerings, and with whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar. To the Director: A Davidic instruction about Doeg, the Edomite, when he went to Saul and told him, "David went to the house of Abimelech."
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of the Messiah and, instead, are following a different gospel,
But now that you know God, or rather have been known by God, how can you turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt basic principles? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again? You are observing days, months, seasons, and years. I am afraid for you! I don't want my work for you to have been wasted!
It is actually reported that sexual immorality exists among you, and of a kind that is not found even among the gentiles. A man is actually living with his father's wife! And you are being arrogant instead of being filled with grief and seeing to it that the man who did this is removed from among you. Even though I am away from you physically, I am with you in spirit. I have already passed judgment on the man who did this, as though I were present with you. read more.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are gathered together (and I am there in spirit), and the power of our Lord Jesus is there, too, turn this man over to Satan for the destruction of his body, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. You know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough, don't you? Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough, since you are to be free from yeast. For the Messiah, our Passover, has been sacrificed. So let's keep celebrating the festival, neither with old yeast nor with yeast that is evil and wicked, but with yeast-free bread that is both sincere and true. I wrote to you in my letter to stop associating with people who are sexually immoral not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, greedy, robbers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you to stop associating with any so-called brother if he is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunk, or a robber. You must even stop eating with someone like that. After all, is it my business to judge outsiders? You are to judge those who are in the community, aren't you? God will judge outsiders. "Expel that wicked man."
