Thematic Bible: Suffering for righteousness' sake


Thematic Bible



But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard all this, they derided us and expressed contempt toward us. They said, "What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?"

and in the presence of his colleagues and the army of Samaria he said, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they be left to themselves? Will they again offer sacrifice? Will they finish this in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones to life again from piles of dust?"

I am insignificant and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts.

As the ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Saul's daughter Michal looked out the window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him.

I am a laughingstock to my friends, I, who called on God and whom he answered -- a righteous and blameless man is a laughingstock!

When the Philistine looked carefully at David, he despised him, for he was only a ruddy and handsome boy.

God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something,



A musical composition by David, which he sang to the Lord concerning a Benjaminite named Cush. O Lord my God, in you I have taken shelter. Deliver me from all who chase me! Rescue me!



The enemies who chase me are numerous. Yet I do not turn aside from your rules.

/ (Sin/Shin) Rulers pursue me for no reason, yet I am more afraid of disobeying your instructions.

Certainly my enemies chase me. They smash me into the ground. They force me to live in dark regions, like those who have been dead for ages.

I said, "Lord, you know how I suffer. Take thought of me and care for me. Pay back for me those who have been persecuting me. Do not be so patient with them that you allow them to kill me. Be mindful of how I have put up with their insults for your sake.

We are pursued -- they are breathing down our necks; we are weary and have no rest.





But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you, handing you over to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.






"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject you as evil on account of the Son of Man!



At times you were publicly exposed to abuse and afflictions, and at other times you came to share with others who were treated in that way.

We must go out to him, then, outside the camp, bearing the abuse he experienced.




Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These had not worshiped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.




Even Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, dressing him in elegant clothes, Herod sent him back to Pilate.

Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him.

They got up, forced him out of the town, and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.

After this Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He stayed out of Judea because the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him.

I know that you are Abraham's descendants. But you want to kill me, because my teaching makes no progress among you.

Then they attempted again to seize him, but he escaped their clutches.


At that the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.

They spat on him and took the staff and struck him repeatedly on the head.


Zedekiah son of Kenaanah approached, hit Micaiah on the jaw, and said, "Which way did the Lord's spirit go when he went from me to speak to you?"

When Jesus had said this, one of the high priest's officers who stood nearby struck him on the face and said, "Is that the way you answer the high priest?"



For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal body.

Therefore I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with troubles, with persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.



They were stoned, sawed apart, murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated






Zedekiah son of Kenaanah approached, hit Micaiah on the jaw, and said, "Which way did the Lord's spirit go when he went from me to speak to you?"

To the person who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either.

People have opened their mouths against me, they have struck my cheek in scorn; they unite together against me.


They plotted against him and by royal decree stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord's temple.










from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation.






When they had driven him out of the city, they began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.


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