8 Bible Verses about Backsliding, Christian Examples
Most Relevant Verses
And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening. And Lot was sitting in the gateway of Sodom. Then Lot saw [them] and stood up to meet them. And he bowed down [with his] face to the ground. And he said, "Behold, my lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you can rise early and go on your way." And they said, "No, but we will spend the night in the square." But {he urged them strongly}, and they turned aside with him and came into his house. And he made a meal for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.read more.
Before they laid down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people {to the last man}, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where [are] the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them." But Lot went out to them at the entrance, and he shut the door behind him. And he said, "No, my brothers, please do not do [such a] wrong [thing]. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Please, let me bring them out to you; then do to them as [it seems] good in your eyes. Only to these men do not do [this] thing, since they came under{ my roof} for protection." But they said, "Step aside!" Then they said, "{This fellow} came to dwell as a foreigner and he acts as a judge! Now we shall do worse to you than them!" And they pressed very hard against the man, against Lot, and they drew near to break the door. Then the men reached out [with] their hands and brought Lot in to them, into the house, and they shut the door. And the men who [were] at the entrance of the house they struck with blindness, both small and great, and they were unable to find the entrance. Then the men said to Lot, "Who [is] here with you? Bring out from the place [your] sons-in-law, and your sons and your daughters, and all who [are] with you in the city. For we are [about to] destroy this place, because their cry has become great before Yahweh. Yahweh sent us to destroy it." Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law [who were] taking his daughters and said, "Get up! Go out from this place, because Yahweh [is going] to destroy the city!" But {it seemed like a joke} in the eyes of his sons-in-law. And as the dawn came up the angels urged Lot saying, "Get up, take your wife and your two daughters {who are staying with you}, lest you be destroyed with the punishment of the city." But [when] he lingered, the men seized him by his hand and his wife's hand, and his two daughters by hand, on account of the mercy of Yahweh upon him. And they brought him out and set him outside of the city. And after bringing them outside [one] said, "Flee for your life; do not look behind you, and do not stand anywhere in the plain. Flee to the mountains lest you be destroyed." And Lot said to them, "No, please, my lords. Behold, your servant has found favor in your eyes and {you have shown me great kindness} in saving my life. But I cannot flee to the mountains, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city [is] near [enough] to flee there, and it [is a] little [one]. Please, let me flee there. Is it not a little [one]? Then my life shall be saved." And he said to him, "Behold, {I will grant this favor as well}; that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Escape there quickly, for I cannot do [this] thing until you get there." Therefore, there name of the city was called Zoar.
{It came about in the spring}, at the time {kings} go out, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel. They ravaged all of the {Ammonites} and besieged Rabbah, but David [was] remaining in Jerusalem. It happened {late one afternoon} [that] David got up from his bed and walked about on the roof of the king's house, and he saw a woman bathing on her roof. Now the woman {was very beautiful}. David sent and inquired about the woman, and [someone] said, "[Is] this not Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"read more.
Then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) And she returned to her house. The woman became pregnant, and she sent and told David, and she said, "I [am] pregnant."
Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loyal love. According to your abundant mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and from my sin cleanse me. For {I myself know} my transgressions, and my sin [is] ever before me.read more.
Against you, only you, I have sinned and have done this evil in your eyes, so that you are correct when you speak, you are blameless when you judge. Behold, in iniquity I was born, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you delight [in] truth in the inward parts, and in [the] hidden [parts] you make me to know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness; let [the] bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and all my iniquities blot out. Create a clean heart for me, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit {within me}. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and with a willing spirit sustain me. [Then] I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation; [then] my tongue will sing aloud [of] your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise. For you do not delight [in] sacrifice or I would give [it]. [With] a burnt offering you are not pleased. The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good in your favor toward Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight [in] righteous sacrifices, burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then bulls will be offered on your altar.
I am astonished that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel,
But now, [because you] have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? You carefully observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid [for] you, lest perhaps I have labored for you in vain!
It is reported everywhere [that there] is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind which [does] not [even exist] among the Gentiles, so that someone has the wife of [his] father. And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst? For [although I] am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this in this way, as [if I] were present.read more.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, [when] you are assembled, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus, [I have decided] to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting [is] not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven in order that you may be a new batch of dough, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. So then, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven or with the leaven of wickedness and sinfulness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in the letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. By no means [did I mean] the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy people and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would have to depart out of the world. But now I have written to you not to associate with any so-called brother, if he is a sexually immoral person or a greedy person or an idolater or an abusive person or a drunkard or a swindler--with such a person not even to eat. For what [is it] to me to judge those outside? Should you not judge those inside? But those outside God will judge. Remove the evil person {from among yourselves}.
You know this, that all those in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.
