Thematic Bible


Thematic Bible



So some of them were convinced, and they joined Paul and Silas; also quite a number of devout Greeks and not a few women of the first rank. Verse ConceptsDevout MenGreeksReverence, And ObedienceConverts To ChristianityProselytesJoined To The ChurchThose Who Believed In Christ

So I mean this and now testify to it in the name of the Lord: You must now stop living as the heathen usually do, in the frivolity of their minds, with darkened understanding, estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and because of the stubbornness of their hearts; for in their recklessness they have abandoned themselves to sensuality which leads to excessive practices of all sorts of immorality.

So never worry and say, 'What are we going to have to eat? What are we going to have to drink? What are we going to have to wear?' For the heathen are greedily pursuing all such things; and surely your heavenly Father well knows that you need them all.


I mean that what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be in fellowship with demons. Verse ConceptsAstrologyFalse ReligionPagansNations DescribedSacrificesDemonsSacrificeHalloweenpartnershipstatuesDemonic Influence


And whenever you pray, you must not keep on repeating set phrases, as the heathen do, for they suppose that they will be heard in accordance with the length of their prayers, So then you must not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

In ages past He let all the heathen go on in their own ways; Verse ConceptsGod's WaysLife, Of FaithGod Acting Of OldLeaving People AloneThe Pastpast

While Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred to its depths to see the city completely steeped in idolatry. So he kept up his discussions in the synagogue with the Jews and the pagans who were worshiping there, and also day by day in the public square with any who chanced to be there.

So Paul stood up in the center of the auditorium and said: "Men of Athens, at every turn I make I see that you are very religious. For as I was going here and there and looking at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' So it is about the Being whom you are in ignorance already worshiping that I am telling you. The God who made the world and all that it contains, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by human hands, read more.
nor is He served by human hands as though He were in need of anything, for He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one forefather He made every nation of mankind, for living all over the face of the earth, fixing their appointed times and the limits of their lands, so that they might search for God, possibly they might grope for Him, and find Him, though He is really not far from any of us.

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For God's anger from heaven is being uncovered against all the impiety and wickedness of the men who in their wickedness are suppressing the truth; because what can be known of God is clear to their inner moral sense; for in this way God Himself has shown it to them. Forever since the creation of the world, His invisible characteristics -- His eternal power and divine nature -- have been made intelligible and clearly visible by His works. So they are without excuse, read more.
because, although they once knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks, but became silly in their senseless speculations, and so their insensible hearts have been shrouded in darkness. Though claiming to be wise, they made fools of themselves, and have transformed the splendor of the immortal God into images in the form of mortal man, birds, beasts, and reptiles. So God has given them up to sexual impurity, in the evil trend of their heart's desires, so that they degrade their own bodies with one another, for they had utterly transformed the reality of God into what was unreal, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. This is why God has given them up to degrading passions. For their females have exchanged their natural function for one that is unnatural, and males too have forsaken the natural function of females and been consumed by flaming passion for one another, males practicing shameful vice with other males, and continuing to suffer in their persons the inevitable penalty for doing what is improper. And so, as they did not approve of fully recognizing God any longer, God gave them up to minds that He did not approve, to practices that were improper; because they overflow with every sort of evil-doing, wickedness, greed, and malice; they are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, ill-will; they are secret backbiters, open slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of evil, undutiful to parents, conscienceless, treacherous, with no human love or pity. Although they know full well God's sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only practice them but even applaud others who do them.

Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, who pose as a judge of others, for when you pass judgment on another, you condemn yourself, for you who pose as a judge are practicing the very same sins yourself. Now we know that God's judgment justly falls on those who practice such sins as these. And you, who pose as a judge of those who practice such sins and yet continue doing the same yourself, do you for once suppose that you are going to escape the judgment of God? read more.
Do you think so little of the riches of God's kindness, forbearance, and patience, not conscious that His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But in your stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when the justice of God's judgments will be uncovered. For when He finally judges, He will pay everyone with exactness for what he has done, eternal life to those who patiently continue doing good and striving for glory, honor, and immortality, but wrath and fury, crushing suffering and awful anguish, to the self-willed who are always resisting the right and yielding to the wrong, to every human soul who practices doing evil, the Jew first and then the Greek. But glory, honor, and peace will come to everyone who practices doing good, the Jew first and then the Greek; for there is no partiality in God's dealings. All who sin without having the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For merely hearing the law read does not make men upright with God, but men who practice the law will be recognized as upright. Indeed, when heathen people who have no law instinctively do what the law demands, although they have no law, they are a law to themselves, for they show that the deeds the law demands are written on their hearts, because their consciences will testify for them, and their inner thoughts will either accuse or defend them,

You know that when you were heathen you were in the habit of going off, wherever you might be led, after idols that could not speak. Verse ConceptsDumbnessMutenessPagansPolytheismCarrying IdolsDumbdiscriminationstatuesHinduism

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not heathen sinners, and yet, Verse ConceptsSinnersWhat Foreigners Are LikeJews

For it is disgraceful even to mention the vices practiced in secret by them; Verse ConceptsNations DescribedSecret SinsActing In SecretCurbing SpeechShame Of Bad Conductspeakingdisobedience


For the time that is past is enough for you to have accomplished what the heathen like to do, leading lives that are steeped in sensuality, lustful desires, drunkenness, carousing, revelry, dissipation, and idolatry that leads to lawlessness, They are astonished that you are not still rushing hand in hand with them into the same excesses of profligate living, and they abuse you for it;



And whenever you pray, you must not keep on repeating set phrases, as the heathen do, for they suppose that they will be heard in accordance with the length of their prayers, Verse ConceptsPagansPrayerfulnessHeathenMan's Conduct Towards GodChantingLack Of MeaningWhat Foreigners DoSaying RepeatedlyExamples of secret prayerRewards Of RitualPraying