8 Bible Verses about Bigotry

"I am a Jew, and I was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but was brought up here in this city, and thoroughly educated under the teaching of Gamaliel in the Law of our forefathers. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way even to the death, and bound both men and women and put them in prison,

Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, went to the high priest, and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women there who belonged to the Way, he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem. But on his journey, as he was approaching Damascus, a sudden light flashed around him from heaven, read more.
and he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, sir?" he asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," said the voice.

I once thought it my duty vigorously to oppose the cause of Jesus of Nazareth.

You have heard of my former conduct when I was attached to the Jewish religion??ow furiously I used to persecute the church of God and ravage it, and how I surpassed many of my own age among my people in my devotion to Judaism, I was so fanatically devoted to what my forefathers had handed down.

as to my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church; and by the Law's standard of uprightness, no fault could be found with me.

Then some children were brought up to him so that he might lay his hands on them and pray, but his disciples reproved the people for it.

And people brought children to him to have him touch them, but the disciples reproved them for it.

People brought babies to him to have him touch them, but the disciples, when they saw it, reproved them for it.

The Jewish believers who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the holy Spirit had been showered upon the heathen too,

and when Peter returned to Jerusalem, the advocates of circumcision took him to task, charging him with having visited and eaten with men who were not Jews.

They praised God when they heard it, and they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousand believers there are among the Jews, all of them zealous upholders of the Law. They have been told that you teach all Jews who live among the heathen to turn away from Moses, and that you tell them not to circumcise their children nor to observe the old customs. What then? They will be sure to hear that you have come. read more.
So do what we tell you. We have four men here who are under a vow. Join them, undergo the rites of purification with them, and pay their expenses so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will understand that there is no truth in the stories about you, but that you yourself observe the Law. As for the heathen who have become believers, we have written them our decision that they must avoid anything that has been contaminated by idols, the tasting of blood, the meat of strangled animals, and immorality."

Some people came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers that unless they were circumcised as Moses prescribed, they could not be saved. This created a disturbance and a serious discussion between Paul and Barnabas and them, and it was agreed that Paul and Barnabas and some others of their number should go up to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders about this question. The church saw them off upon their journey, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria they told of the conversion of the heathen, and caused great rejoicing among all the brothers. read more.
When they reached Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported how God had worked with them. But some members of the Pharisees' party who had become believers got up and said that such converts ought to be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses. The apostles and elders had a meeting to look into this matter. After a long discussion, Peter got up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose that of you all I should be the one from whose lips the heathen should hear the message of the good news and believe it. And God who knows men's hearts testified for them by giving them the holy Spirit just as he had done to us, making no difference between us and them, but cleansing their hearts by faith. Then why do you now try to test God, by putting on the necks of these disciples a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear?

As we have heard that some of our number, without any instructions from us, have disturbed you by their teaching and unsettled your minds,

But they did not insist that even my companion Titus, although he was a Greek, should be circumcised, to gratify the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who sneaked in to spy upon the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to reduce us to slavery again. But we did not submit to them for a moment, in order that the truth of the good news might remain yours.

What advantage is there then in being a Jew, and what is the use of circumcision? A great deal, from every point of view. In the first place, the Jews were intrusted with the utterances of God. What if some of them have shown a lack of faith? Can their lack of it nullify the faithfulness of God? read more.
By no means! God must prove true, though every man be false; as the Scripture says, "That you may be shown to be upright in what you say, And win your case when you go into court." But if our wrongdoing brings out the uprightness of God, what are we to say? Is it wrong in God (I am putting it in ordinary human terms) to inflict punishment? By no means, for then how could he judge the world? But, you say, if a falsehood of mine has brought great honor to God by bringing out his truthfulness, why am I tried for being a sinner? And why not say, as people abuse us for saying and charge us with saying, "Let us do evil that good may come out of it"? Such people will be condemned as they deserve! What does this mean? Are we Jews at a disadvantage? Not at all. We have already charged Jews and Greeks all alike with being under the control of sin. As the Scripture says, "There is not a single man who is upright, No one understands, no one searches for God. All have turned away, they are one and all worthless, No one does right, not a single one! Their throats are like open graves, They use their tongues to deceive; The venom of asps is behind their lips, And their mouths are full of bitter curses. Their feet are swift when it comes to shedding blood, Ruin and wretchedness mark their paths, They do not know the way of peace. There is no reverence for God before their eyes!" Now we know that everything the Law says is addressed to those under its authority, so that every mouth may be shut, and the whole world be made accountable to God. For no human being can be made upright in the sight of God by observing the Law. All that the Law can do is to make man conscious of sin. But now God's way of uprightness has been disclosed without any reference to law, though the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. It is God's way of uprightness and comes through having faith in Jesus Christ, and it is for all who have faith, without distinction. For all men sin and come short of the glory of God,

Then what are we to say about our ancestor Abraham? For if he was made upright by what he did, it is something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God, for what does the Scripture say? "Abraham had faith in God, and it was credited to him as uprightness." read more.
Now paying a workman is not considered a favor, but an obligation, but a man who has no work to offer, but has faith in him who can make the ungodly upright, has his faith credited to him as uprightness. So David himself says of the happiness of those to whom God credits uprightness without any reference to their actions, "Happy are they whose violations of the Law have been forgiven, whose sins are covered up! Happy is the man whose sin the Lord will take no account of!" Does this happiness apply to those who are circumcised, or to those who are uncircumcised as well? What we say is, Abraham's faith was credited to him as uprightness. In what circumstances? Was it after he was circumcised or before? Not after he was circumcised, but before; and he was afterward given the mark of circumcision as the stamp of God's acknowledgment of the uprightness based on faith that was his before he was circumcised, so that he should be the forefather of all who, without being circumcised, have faith and so are credited with uprightness, and the forefather of those circumcised persons who not only share his circumcision but follow our forefather Abraham's example in the faith he had before he was circumcised. For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants that the world should belong to him did not come to him or his descendants through the Law, but through the uprightness that resulted from his faith. For if it is the adherents of the Law who are to possess it, faith is nullified and the promise amounts to nothing! For the Law only brings down God's wrath; where there is no law, there is no violation of it. That is why it all turns upon faith; it is to make it a matter of God's favor, so that the promise may hold good for all Abraham's descendants, not only those who are adherents of the Law, but also those who share the faith of Abraham. For he is the father of all of us;

It was not on his account alone that these words, "it was credited to him," were written, but also on ours, for it is to be credited also to us who have faith in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus, who was given up to death to make up for our offenses, and raised to life to make us upright.

John said to him, "Master, we saw a man driving out demons with your name, and we told him not to do so, for he was not one of our followers." But Jesus said, "Do not tell him not to do so, for there is no one who will use my name to do a mighty act, and be able soon after to abuse me. For the man who is not against us is for us.

John answered, "Master, we saw a man driving out demons with your name, and we told him not to do so, for he does not go with us." Jesus said to him, "Do not try to stop him, for the man who is not against you is for you."

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were really a prophet, he would know who and what the woman is who is touching him, for she leads a wicked life."

And the Pharisees and scribes grumbled, and said, "This man welcomes irreligious people, and even eats with them!"

When Jesus reached the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, come down quickly! for I must stay at your house today." And he came down quickly and welcomed him gladly. And when they saw this, everyone complained, and said, "He has gone to stay with an irreligious man!"

shouting, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everybody everywhere against our people and the Law and this place, and besides he has actually brought Greeks into the Temple and desecrated this sacred place." For they had previously seen Trophimus of Ephesus with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the Temple.

They had listened to him until he said that, but then they shouted, "Kill him and get him out of the world! A creature like that ought not to be allowed to live!"

Then they sneered at him, and said, "You are a disciple of his yourself, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this man came from."

They answered, "You were born in utter sin, and are you trying to teach us?" So they excluded him from the synagogue.

For when John came, he neither ate nor drank, and people said, 'He has a demon!' Now that the Son of Man has come, he does eat and drink, and people say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drinker, the companion of tax-collectors and irreligious people!' And yet Wisdom is vindicated by her actions!"

The Pharisee noticed that he did not wash before the meal, and he was surprised. But the Master said to him, "You Pharisees clean the outside of cups and dishes, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.

who killed the Lord Jesus and persecuted the prophets and us; who displease God, and in their hostility to all mankind try to keep us from speaking to the heathen so that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God's wrath has overtaken them at last!

As the time approached when he was to be taken up to heaven, he set his face toward Jerusalem, and sent messengers before him. They started out and went into a Samaritan village, to make preparations for him. And the people there would not receive him, because he was going to Jerusalem. read more.
When the disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, "Master, will you have us order fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and reproved them. And they went on to another village.

and sent messengers before him. They started out and went into a Samaritan village, to make preparations for him. And the people there would not receive him, because he was going to Jerusalem.

So the Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that a Jew like you asks a Samaritan woman like me for a drink?" For Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.

Just then his disciples came back, and they were surprised to find him talking with a woman, yet no one of them asked him what he wanted or why he was talking with her.

I can testify to their sincere devotion to God, but it is not an intelligent devotion. For in their ignorance of God's way of uprightness and in the attempt to set up one of their own, they refused to conform to God's way of uprightness.

On account of this the Jews were all the more eager to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but actually called God his Father, thus putting himself on an equality with God.

And when the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all very angry,