21 Bible Verses about Backsliding

But Jesus said, No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is good enough for the kingdom of God.

And so a lion from the woods will put them to death, a wolf of the waste land will make them waste, a leopard will keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out from them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number of their sins and the increase of their wrongdoing.

For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will be put to death by their swords: because you have gone back from the way of the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.

But your sins have come between you and your God, and by your evil doings his face has been veiled from you, so that he will give you no answer.

So runners went with letters from the king and his chiefs through all Israel and Judah, by the order of the king, saying, O children of Israel, come back again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may come again to that small band of you which has been kept safe out of the hands of the kings of Assyria.

Come back to him who has been so deeply sinned against by the children of Israel.

Go, and give out these words to the north, and say, Come back, O Israel, though you have been turned away from me, says the Lord; my face will not be against you in wrath: for I am full of mercy, says the Lord, I will not be angry for ever.

Come back, O children who are turned away, says the Lord; for I am a husband to you, and I will take you, one from a town and two from a family, and will make you come to Zion;

Come back, you children who have been turned away, and I will take away your desire for wandering. See, we have come to you, for you are the Lord our God.

You were going on well; who was the cause of your not giving ear to what is true?

But I have a fear, that in some way, as Eve was tricked by the deceit of the snake, your minds may be turned away from their simple and holy love for Christ.

O foolish Galatians, by what strange powers have you been tricked, to whom it was made clear that Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross? Give me an answer to this one question, Did the Spirit come to you through the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? having made a start in the Spirit, will you now be made complete in the flesh?

You are cut off from Christ, you who would have righteousness by the law; you are turned away from grace.

Is Ephraim my dear son? is he the child of my delight? for whenever I say things against him, I still keep him in my memory: so my heart is troubled for him; I will certainly have mercy on him, says the Lord.

Go, and give out these words to the north, and say, Come back, O Israel, though you have been turned away from me, says the Lord; my face will not be against you in wrath: for I am full of mercy, says the Lord, I will not be angry for ever.

If my people, on whom my name is named, make themselves low and come to me in prayer, searching for me and turning from their evil ways; then I will give ear from heaven, overlooking their sin, and will give life again to their land.

It may be that the people of Judah, hearing of all the evil which it is my purpose to do to them, will be turned, every man from his evil ways; so that they may have my forgiveness for their evil-doing and their sin.

O nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime, a generation of evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have gone away from the Lord, they have no respect for the Holy One of Israel, their hearts are turned back from him.

He whose heart is turned away will have the reward of his ways in full measure; but a good man will have the reward of his doings.

Though our sins give witness against us, do something, O Lord, for the honour of your name: for again and again we have been turned away from you, we have done evil against you.

My people are given up to sinning against me; though their voice goes up on high, no one will be lifting them up.

But they were hard-hearted, and went against your authority, turning their backs on your law, and putting to death your prophets, who gave witness against them with the purpose of turning them back again to you, and they did much to make you angry.

Even now they are turned away from the rule I gave them, and have made themselves a metal ox and given worship to it and offerings, saying, This is your god, O Israel, who took you up out of the land of Egypt.

And the Lord said to me, Israel in her turning away is seen to be more upright than false Judah.

For Israel is uncontrolled, like a cow which may not be controlled; now will the Lord give them food like a lamb in a wide place.

For our evil doings are increased before you, and our sins give witness against us: for our evil doings are with us, and we have knowledge of our sins: We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him, turning away from our God, our words have been uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit. And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places, and upright behaviour may not come into the town.

Only be conscious of your sin, the evil you have done against the Lord your God; you have gone with strange men under every branching tree, giving no attention to my voice, says the Lord.

Though our sins give witness against us, do something, O Lord, for the honour of your name: for again and again we have been turned away from you, we have done evil against you. O you hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble, why are you like one who is strange in the land, and like a traveller putting up his tent for a night? Why are you like a man surprised, like a man of war who is not able to give help? but you, O Lord, are with us, and we are named by your name; do not go away from us.

Take us back again, O God; let us see the shining of your face, and let us be safe.

Come back to us, O God of our salvation, and be angry with us no longer.

Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.

I will give ear to the voice of the Lord; for he will say words of peace to his people and to his saints; but let them not go back to their foolish ways.

So let him who seems to himself to be safe go in fear of a fall.

Happy is the man in whom is the fear of the Lord at all times; but he whose heart is hard will come into trouble.

The man whose heart is unmoved you will keep in peace, because his hope is in you. Let your hope be in the Lord for ever: for the Lord Jah is an unchanging Rock.

He whose heart is turned away will have the reward of his ways in full measure; but a good man will have the reward of his doings.

The evil you yourselves have done will be your punishment, your errors will be your judge: be certain then, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing to give up the Lord your God, and no longer to be moved by fear of me, says the Lord, the Lord of armies.

Anyone causing the upright to go wandering in an evil way, will himself go down into the hole he has made; but the upright will have good things for their heritage.

But whoever is a cause of trouble to one of these little ones who have faith in me, it would be better for him to have a great stone fixed to his neck, and to come to his end in the deep sea.

Brothers, if a man is taken in any wrongdoing, you who are of the Spirit will put such a one right in a spirit of love; keeping watch on yourself, for fear that you yourself may be tested.

My brothers, if one of you has gone out of the way of the true faith and another has made him see his error, Be certain that he through whom a sinner has been turned from the error of his way, keeps a soul from death and is the cause of forgiveness for sins without number.

But the upright man will be living by his faith; and if he goes back, my soul will have no pleasure in him.

For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first.

Why do these people of Jerusalem go back, for ever turning away? they will not give up their deceit, they will not come back.

Though our sins give witness against us, do something, O Lord, for the honour of your name: for again and again we have been turned away from you, we have done evil against you.

From the days of your fathers you have been turned away from my rules and have not kept them. Come back to me, and I will come back to you, says the Lord of armies. But you say, How are we to come back? Will a man keep back from God what is right? But you have kept back what is mine. But you say, What have we kept back from you? Tenths and offerings. You are cursed with a curse; for you have kept back from me what is mine, even all this nation. read more.
Let your tenths come into the store-house so that there may be food in my house, and put me to the test by doing so, says the Lord of armies, and see if I do not make the windows of heaven open and send down such a blessing on you that there is no room for it.

Even if he has a fall he will not be without help: for the hand of the Lord is supporting him.

For an upright man, after falling seven times, will get up again: but trouble is the downfall of the evil.

My people are given up to sinning against me; though their voice goes up on high, no one will be lifting them up.

For an upright man, after falling seven times, will get up again: but trouble is the downfall of the evil.

Come back, you children who have been turned away, and I will take away your desire for wandering. See, we have come to you, for you are the Lord our God.

I will put right their errors; freely will my love be given to them, for my wrath is turned away from him.

But Jesus said, No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is good enough for the kingdom of God.

I am surprised that you are being so quickly turned away from him whose word came to you in the grace of Christ, to good news of a different sort;

Their hearts were turned back and untrue like their fathers; they were turned to one side like a twisted bow.

When this came to God's ears he was very angry, and gave up Israel completely;

But he said before them all that it was false, saying, I have no knowledge of what you say. And when he had gone out into the doorway, another saw him and says to those who were there, This man was with Jesus the Nazarene. And again he said with an oath, I have no knowledge of the man. read more.
And after a little time those who were near came and said to Peter, Truly you are one of them; because your talk is witness against you. Then with curses and oaths he said, I have no knowledge of the man. And straight away there came the cry of a cock.

It is no longer my pleasure for Saul to be king; for he is turned back from going in my ways, and has not done my orders. And Samuel was very sad, crying to the Lord in prayer all night.

But I have this against you, that you are turned away from your first love.

He whose heart is turned away will have the reward of his ways in full measure; but a good man will have the reward of his doings.

Pride goes before destruction, and a stiff spirit before a fall.

But I have this against you, that you are turned away from your first love.

And because wrongdoing will be increased, the love of most people will become cold.

But now that you have come to have knowledge of God, or more truly, God has knowledge of you, how is it that you go back again to the poor and feeble first things, desiring to be servants to them again?

The evil you yourselves have done will be your punishment, your errors will be your judge: be certain then, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing to give up the Lord your God, and no longer to be moved by fear of me, says the Lord, the Lord of armies.

And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had twice come to him in a vision;

I will go back to my place till they are made waste; in their trouble they will go after me early and will make search for me.

For if you go back, joining yourselves to the rest of these nations who are still among you, getting married to them and living with them and they with you: Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.