38 Bible Verses about Character

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Make your hands clean, you evil-doers; put away deceit from your hearts, you false in mind.

Having eyes full of evil desire, never having enough of sin; turning feeble souls out of the true way; they are children of cursing, whose hearts are well used to bitter envy;

A man went out to put in seed, and while he was doing it, some was dropped by the wayside and it was crushed under foot, and was taken by the birds of heaven. And some went on the rock, and when it came up it became dry and dead because it had no water. And some went among thorns, and the thorns came up with it and it had no room for growth. read more.
And some falling on good earth, came up and gave fruit a hundred times as much. And with these words he said in a loud voice, He who has ears, let him give ear. And his disciples put questions to him about the point of the story. And he said, To you is given knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to the others, they are given in stories, so that seeing, they may not see, and though they give hearing, the sense will not be clear to them. Now this is the point of the story: The seed is the word of God. Those by the side of the road are those who have given hearing; then the Evil One comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not have faith and get salvation. And those on the rock are those who with joy give hearing to the word; but having no root, they have faith for a time, and when the test comes they give up. And those which went among thorns are those who have given hearing, and go on their way, but they are overcome by cares and wealth and the pleasures of life, and they give no fruit. And those in the good earth are those who, having given ear to the word, keep it with a good and true heart, and in quiet strength give fruit.

Why do you go about so much for the purpose of changing your way? you will be shamed on account of Egypt, as you were shamed on account of Assyria.

O Ephraim, what am I to do to you? O Judah, what am I to do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew which goes early away.

And you will be hated by all men because of my name: but he who is strong to the end will have salvation.

And these are they who were planted on the good earth; such as give ear to the word, and take it into their hearts, and give fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundred times as much.

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will make songs, and give praise.

O God, my heart is fixed; I will make songs and melody, even with my glory.

He will have no fear of evil news; his heart is fixed, for his hope is in the Lord.

But when the time came to give Merab, Saul's daughter, to David, she was given to Adriel of Meholath.

But still they would not give ear to their judges, but went after other gods and gave them worship; quickly turning from the way in which their fathers had gone, keeping the orders of the Lord; but they did not do so.

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.

But whenever the judge was dead, they went back and did more evil than their fathers, going after other gods, to be their servants and their worshippers; giving up nothing of their sins and their hard-hearted ways.

So they went on increasing the power of the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong for three years; and for three years they went in the ways of David and Solomon.

Make a test of yourselves, if you are in the faith; make certain of yourselves. Or are you not conscious in yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, if you are truly Christ's?

And as James and Jambres went against Moses, so do these go against what is true: men of evil minds, who, tested by faith, are seen to be false.

They say that they have knowledge of God, while by their acts they are turning their backs on him; they are hated by all, hard-hearted, and judged to be without value for any good work.

For in the past we were foolish, hard in heart, turned from the true way, servants of evil desires and pleasures, living in bad feeling and envy, hated and hating one another.

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.

And the value is for you who have faith; but it is said for those without faith, The very stone which the builders put on one side, was made the chief stone of the building;

For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, uplifted in pride, given to bitter words, going against the authority of their fathers, never giving praise, having no religion,

You have been tricked by the pride of your heart, O you whose living-place is in the cracks of the rock, whose house is high up; who has said in his heart, Who will make me come down to earth?

Because of the sin of their mouths and the word of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride; and for their curses and their deceit,

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was an upright man and without sin in his generation: he went in the ways of God.

As for the man of pride, my soul has no pleasure in him; but the upright man will have life through his good faith.

And there was then in Jerusalem a man whose name was Simeon; and he was an upright man, fearing God and waiting for the comfort of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was on him.

But Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, hearing of it, made sport of us, laughing at us and saying, What are you doing? will you go against the king?

And in the hearing of his countrymen and the army of Samaria he said, What are these feeble Jews doing? will they make themselves strong? will they make offerings? will they get the work done in a day? will they make the stones which have been burned come again out of the dust?

Without natural love, bitter haters, saying evil of others, violent and uncontrolled, hating all good, False to their friends, acting without thought, lifted up in mind, loving pleasure more than God;

The evil-doers are strange from the first; from the hour of their birth they go out of the true way, saying false words.

Their only thought is to put him down from his place of honour; their delight is in deceit: blessing is in their mouths but cursing in their hearts. (Selah.)

No one puts forward an upright cause, or gives a true decision: their hope is in deceit, and their words are false; they are with child with sin, and give birth to evil.

But when Pharaoh saw that there was peace for a time, he made his heart hard and did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said.

But again Pharaoh made his heart hard and did not let the people go.

But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the ice-storm and the thunders were ended, he went on sinning, and made his heart hard, he and his servants.

And word came to Pharaoh of the flight of the people: and the feeling of Pharaoh and of his servants about the people was changed, and they said, Why have we let Israel go, so that they will do no more work for us?

He is waiting in the dark places of the towns: in the secret places he puts to death those who have done no wrong: his eyes are secretly turned against the poor.

They put to death the widow and the guest, they take the lives of children who have no father;

Being full of all wrongdoing, evil, desire for the goods of others, hate, envy, putting to death, fighting, deceit, cruel ways, evil talk, and false statements about others;

As saints of God, then, holy and dearly loved, let your behaviour be marked by pity and mercy, kind feeling, a low opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, and a power of undergoing all things;

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.

And now, as you see, I am going to Jerusalem, a prisoner in spirit, having no knowledge of what will come to me there: Only that the Holy Spirit makes clear to me in every town that prison and pains are waiting for me. But I put no value on my life, if only at the end of it I may see the work complete which was given to me by the Lord Jesus, to be a witness of the good news of the grace of God.

Then Paul said, What are you doing, weeping and wounding my heart? for I am ready, not only to be a prisoner, but to be put to death at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And as he might not be moved we did no more, saying, Let the purpose of God be done.

And they made designs, all of them together, to come and make an attack on Jerusalem, causing trouble there.

Sanballat and Geshem sent to me saying, Come, let us have a meeting in one of the little towns in the lowland of Ono. But their purpose was to do me evil.

And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you come face to face with me, O my hater? And he said, I have come to you because you have given yourself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.

And they made their sons and their daughters go through the fire, and they made use of secret arts and unnatural powers, and gave themselves up to doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, till he was moved to wrath.

Whose end is destruction, whose god is the stomach, and whose glory is in their shame, whose minds are fixed on the things of the earth.

These are the men who make divisions, natural men, not having the Spirit.

Then there are those who are haters of the light, who have no knowledge of its ways, and do not go in them.

The light is hated by everyone whose acts are evil and he does not come to the light for fear that his acts will be seen.

For these are they who go secretly into houses, making prisoners of foolish women, weighted down with sin, turned from the way by their evil desires,

My son, if sinners would take you out of the right way, do not go with them. If they say, Come with us; let us make designs against the good, waiting secretly for the upright, without cause; Let us overcome them living, like the underworld, and in their strength, as those who go down to death; read more.
Goods of great price will be ours, our houses will be full of wealth; Take your chance with us, and we will all have one money-bag:

As for you, the Spirit which he gave you is still in you, and you have no need of any teacher; but as his Spirit gives you teaching about all things, and is true and not false, so keep your hearts in him, through the teaching which he has given you.

And all your builders will be made wise by the Lord; and great will be the peace of your children.

Having a form of religion, but turning their backs on the power of it: go not with these.

And the Lord said, because this people come near to me with their mouths, and give honour to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is false, a rule given them by the teaching of men;

What is the Ruler of all, that we may give him worship? and what profit is it to us to make prayer to him?

Have the workers of evil no knowledge? they take my people for food, as they would take bread; they make no prayer to God.

Is it possible for me to let wrong scales and the bag of false weights go without punishment?

The sinner takes money and does not give it back; but the upright man has mercy, and gives to others.

I was quickly angry with his evil ways, and sent punishment on him, veiling my face in wrath: and he went on, turning his heart from me.

Twisted is the way of him who is full of crime; but as for him whose heart is clean, his work is upright.

At the death of an upright man his hope does not come to an end, but the hope of the evil-doer comes to destruction.

We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have given birth to wind; no salvation has come to the earth through us, and no children have come into the world.

Whose thoughts are dark, to whom the life of God is strange because they are without knowledge, and their hearts have been made hard;

And you, who in the past were cut off and at war with God in your minds through evil works, he has now made one

Is it possible for the skin of the Ethiopian to be changed, or the markings on the leopard? Then it might be possible for you to do good, who have been trained to do evil.

Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted.

Who having no more power of feeling, have given themselves up to evil passions, to do all unclean things with overmuch desire.

For we have all become like an unclean person, and all our good acts are like a dirty robe: and we have all become old like a dead leaf, and our sins, like the wind, take us away.

For all have knowledge of how you do what you are ordered. For this reason I have joy in you, but it is my desire that you may be wise in what is good, and without knowledge of evil.

Like children ruled by God, do not go back to the old desires of the time when you were without knowledge:

But the noble-hearted man has noble purposes, and by these he will be guided.

For when, through this work of giving, they see what you are, they give glory to God for the way in which you have given yourselves to the good news of Christ, and for the wealth of your giving to them and to all;

So if any man is in Christ, he is in a new world: the old things have come to an end; they have truly become new.

For by his act we were given existence in Christ Jesus to do those good works which God before made ready for us so that we might do them.

And men were burned with great heat: and they said evil things against the name of the God who has authority over these punishments; and they were not turned from their evil ways to give him glory.

And they said a number of other evil things against him.

And put out the servant who is of no profit into the outer dark: there will be weeping and cries of sorrow.

They have all gone out of the way, there is no profit in any of them; there is not one who does good, not so much as one:

Because the god of this world has made blind the minds of those who have not faith, so that the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not be shining on them.

Whose thoughts are dark, to whom the life of God is strange because they are without knowledge, and their hearts have been made hard;

Even so, every good tree gives good fruit; but the bad tree gives evil fruit.

That you are to put away, in relation to your earlier way of life, the old man, which has become evil by love of deceit;

Without natural love, bitter haters, saying evil of others, violent and uncontrolled, hating all good,

A violent man puts desire of evil into his neighbour's mind, and makes him go in a way which is not good.

Happy are the gentle: for the earth will be their heritage.

And the poor will have their joy in the Lord increased, and those in need will be glad in the Holy One of Israel.

A serious-minded man, fearing God with all his family; he gave much money to the poor, and made prayer to God at all times.

Then those in whom was the fear of the Lord had talk together: and the Lord gave ear, and it was recorded in a book to be kept in mind before him, for those who had the fear of the Lord and gave thought to his name.

Your people will all be upright, the land will be their heritage for ever; the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, to be for my glory.

They were upright in the eyes of God, keeping all the rules and orders of God, and doing no wrong.

You whose hearts are hard and whose ears are shut to me; you are ever working against the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people: if I come among you, even for a minute, I will send destruction on you; so take off all your ornaments, so that I may see what to do with you.

Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted.

He whose purposes are bad will be named a man of evil designs.

For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, uplifted in pride, given to bitter words, going against the authority of their fathers, never giving praise, having no religion,

But be loving to those who are against you and do them good, and give them your money, not giving up hope, and your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High: for he is kind to evil men, and to those who have hard hearts.

For in the past we were foolish, hard in heart, turned from the true way, servants of evil desires and pleasures, living in bad feeling and envy, hated and hating one another.

And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, hearing of it, were greatly troubled because a man had come to the help of the children of Israel.

The evil man goes running away when no man is after him, but the upright are without fear, like the lion.

But those who are full of fear and without faith, the unclean and takers of life, those who do the sins of the flesh, and those who make use of evil powers or who give worship to images, and all those who are false, will have their part in the sea of ever-burning fire which is the second death.

Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner;

Who, though they have knowledge of the law of God, that the fate of those who do these things is death, not only go on doing these things themselves, but give approval to those who do them.

And you, who in the past were cut off and at war with God in your minds through evil works, he has now made one

Because the mind of the flesh is opposite to God; it is not under the law of God, and is not able to be:

Because they are cruel to him against whom your hand is turned; they make bitter the grief of him who is wounded by you.

Because he had no mercy, but was cruel to the low and the poor, designing the death of the broken-hearted.

Being full of all wrongdoing, evil, desire for the goods of others, hate, envy, putting to death, fighting, deceit, cruel ways, evil talk, and false statements about others;

They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage.

And they kept their attention fixed on the Apostles' teaching and were united together in the taking of broken bread and in prayer.

For though I am not present in the flesh, still I am with you in the spirit, seeing with joy your order, and your unchanging faith in Christ.

Happy are those who have mercy: for they will be given mercy.

All the day he is ready to have mercy and to give; his children are a blessing.

And Solomon said, Great was your mercy to David my father, as his life before you was true and upright and his heart was true to you; and you have kept for him this greatest mercy, a son to take his place this day.

But about loving the brothers, there is no need for me to say anything to you in this letter: for you have the teaching of God that love for one another is right and necessary;

After hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have for all the saints,

My soul will say great things of the Lord: the poor in spirit will have knowledge of it and be glad.

And in the same way, let the younger men be ruled by the older ones. Let all of you put away pride and make yourselves ready to be servants: for God is a hater of pride, but he gives grace to those who make themselves low.

Is this your answer to the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not your father who has given you life? He has made you and given you your place.

The sons of pride have no place before you; you are a hater of all workers of evil.

To give punishment to those who have no knowledge of God, and to those who do not give ear to the good news of our Lord Jesus:

Give ear to the word of the Lord, O children of Israel; for the Lord has a cause against the people of this land, because there is no good faith in it, and no mercy and no knowledge of God in the land.

You will send destruction on those whose words are false; the cruel man and the man of deceit are hated by the Lord.

Their throat is like an open place of death; with their tongues they have said what is not true: the poison of snakes is under their lips:

For this is the word of him who is high and lifted up, whose resting-place is eternal, whose name is Holy: my resting-place is in the high and holy place, and with him who is crushed and poor in spirit, to give life to the spirit of the poor, and to make strong the heart of the crushed.

For all these things my hand has made, and they are mine, says the Lord; but to this man only will I give attention, to him who is poor and broken in spirit, fearing my word.

Happy are the clean in heart: for they will see God.

And everyone who has this hope in him makes himself holy, even as he is holy.

The Lord is able to keep the upright safe in the time of testing, and to keep evil-doers under punishment till the day of judging;

See how the Lord has made great his mercy for me; the Lord will give ear to my cry.

A good name is more to be desired than great wealth, and to be respected is better than silver and gold.

A good name is better than oil of great price, and the day of death than the day of birth.

For our glory is in this, in the knowledge which we have that our way of life in the world, and most of all in relation to you, has been holy and true in the eyes of God; not in the wisdom of the flesh, but in the grace of God.

For we are not like the great number who make use of the word of God for profit: but our words are true, as from God, being said as before God in Christ.

Give ear, O heavens, and you, O earth, to the word which the Lord has said: I have taken care of my children till they became men, but their hearts have been turned away from me.

For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who will not give ear to the teaching of the Lord:

For the evil-doer is lifted up because of the purpose of his heart, and he whose mind is fixed on wealth is turned away from the Lord, saying evil against him.

Even of those whose faith is in their wealth, and whose hearts are lifted up because of their stores.

The evil-doer in his pride says, God will not make a search. All his thoughts are, There is no God.

The foolish man has said in his heart, God will not do anything. They are unclean, they have done evil works; there is not one who does good.

And one Ananias, a God-fearing man, who kept the law, and of whom all the Jews in that place had a high opinion,

And God-fearing men put Stephen's body in its last resting-place, making great weeping over him.

When he has got them all out, he goes before them, and the sheep go after him, for they have knowledge of his voice.

My sheep give ear to my voice, and I have knowledge of them, and they come after me:

If any man takes a wife, and having had connection with her, has no delight in her, And says evil things about her and gives her a bad name, saying, I took this woman, and when I had connection with her it was clear to me that she was not a virgin: Then let the girl's father and mother put before the responsible men of the town, in the public place, signs that the girl was a virgin: read more.
And let the girl's father say to the responsible men, I gave my daughter to this man for his wife, but he has no love for her; And now he has put shame on her, saying that she is not a virgin; but here is the sign that she is a virgin. Then they are to put her clothing before the responsible men of the town. Then the responsible men of the town are to give the man his punishment; They will take from him a hundred shekels of silver, which are to be given to the father of the girl, because he has given an evil name to a virgin of Israel: she will go on being his wife, he may never put her away all his life.

For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom, the disgusting god of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not walking in the Lord's ways with all his heart as David his father did. read more.
Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, in the mountain before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the disgusting god worshipped by the children of Ammon. And so he did for all his strange wives, who made offerings with burning of perfumes to their gods.

And after a time, his master's wife, looking on Joseph with desire, said to him, Be my lover. But he would not, and said to her, You see that my master keeps no account of what I do in his house, and has put all his property in my control; So that no one has more authority in this house than I have; he has kept nothing back from me but you, because you are his wife; how then may I do this great wrong, sinning against God? read more.
And day after day she went on requesting Joseph to come to her and be her lover, but he would not give ear to her. Now one day he went into the house to do his work; and not one of the men of the house was inside. And pulling at his coat, she said, Come to my bed; but slipping out of his coat, he went running away.

The porter lets him in; and the sheep give ear to his voice; he says over the names of the sheep, and takes them out. When he has got them all out, he goes before them, and the sheep go after him, for they have knowledge of his voice.

Reuben, you are my oldest son, the first-fruit of my strength, first in pride and first in power: But because you were uncontrolled, the first place will not be yours; for you went up to your father's bed, even his bride-bed, and made it unclean.

But Pilate made answer, What I have put in writing will not be changed.

And there, at the memory of your ways and of all the things you did to make yourselves unclean, you will have bitter hate for yourselves because of all the evil things you have done.

For there are men who are not ruled by law; foolish talkers, false teachers, specially those of the circumcision,

But they took pleasure in my trouble, and came together, yes, low persons came together against me without my knowledge; they never came to an end of wounding me.

Whose end is destruction, whose god is the stomach, and whose glory is in their shame, whose minds are fixed on the things of the earth.

On Egypt and on Judah and on Edom and on the children of Ammon and on Moab and on all who have the ends of their hair cut, who are living in the waste land: for all these nations and all the people of Israel are without circumcision in their hearts.

So is the end of all who do not keep God in mind; and the hope of the evil-doer comes to nothing:

Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in the death of the upright; their thoughts are thoughts of sin; wasting and destruction are in their ways.

A good-for-nothing man is a designer of evil, and in his lips there is a burning fire.

Happy are they who are without sin in their ways, walking in the law of the Lord.

Happy are those servants who are watching when the lord comes; truly I say to you, he will make himself their servant and, placing them at the table, he will come out and give them food.

The wise-hearted will be named men of good sense: and by pleasing words learning is increased.

So that you may be holy and gentle, children of God without sin in a twisted and foolish generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,

Who gave himself for us, so that he might make us free from all wrongdoing, and make for himself a people clean in heart and on fire with good works.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, See, here is a true son of Israel in whom there is nothing false.

These will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because he is the Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with him are named, marked out, and true.

Better it is to have a gentle spirit with the poor, than to take part in the rewards of war with men of pride.

False to their friends, acting without thought, lifted up in mind, loving pleasure more than God;

And the children are hard and stiff-hearted; I am sending you to them: and you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord.

But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel have a hard brow and a stiff heart.

Without natural love, bitter haters, saying evil of others, violent and uncontrolled, hating all good,

But those who are full of fear and without faith, the unclean and takers of life, those who do the sins of the flesh, and those who make use of evil powers or who give worship to images, and all those who are false, will have their part in the sea of ever-burning fire which is the second death.

Without knowledge, not true to their undertakings, unkind, having no mercy:

The upright man is a hater of false words: the evil-doer gets a bad name and is put to shame.

And with more such words he gave his witness, offering them salvation and saying, Come out from this evil generation.

They have become false, they are not his children, the mark of sin is on them; they are an evil and hard-hearted generation.

And the children are hard and stiff-hearted; I am sending you to them: and you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord.

For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, uplifted in pride, given to bitter words, going against the authority of their fathers, never giving praise, having no religion,

False to their friends, acting without thought, lifted up in mind, loving pleasure more than God;

For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, uplifted in pride, given to bitter words, going against the authority of their fathers, never giving praise, having no religion,

Is this your answer to the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not your father who has given you life? He has made you and given you your place.

And all those who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

By glory and by shame, by an evil name and a good name; as untrue, and still true;

The evil man goes running away when no man is after him, but the upright are without fear, like the lion.

Their respect for a man's position is a witness against them; and their sin is open to the view of all; like that of Sodom, it is not covered. A curse on their soul! for the measure of their sin is full.

Happy are those whose heart's desire is for righteousness: for they will have their desire.

Happy are the poor in spirit: for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

And now I will be no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we are one.

But you are holy, O you who are seated among the praises of Israel.