8 Bible Verses about Bigotry

"I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel in all the strictness of our ancestral Law, ardent for God as you all are to-day. I persecuted this Way of religion to the death, chaining and imprisoning both men and women,

Meanwhile Saul still breathed threats of murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus empowering him to put any man or woman in chains whom he could find belonging to the Way, and bring them to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus in the course of his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed round him; read more.
he dropped to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you?" he asked. "I am Jesus," he said, "and you persecute me.

I once believed it my duty indeed actively to oppose the name of Jesus the Nazarene.

You know the story of my past career in Judaism; you know how furiously I persecuted the church of God and harried it, and how I outstripped many of my own age and race in my special ardour for the ancestral traditions of my house.

in point of ardour a persecutor of the church, immaculate by the standard of legal righteousness.

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray over them. The disciples checked the people,

Now people brought children for him to touch them, and the disciples checked them;

Now people even brought their infants for him to touch them; when the disciples noticed it they checked them,

Now the Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were amazed that the gift of the holy Spirit had actually been poured out on the Gentiles ??46 for they heard them speak with 'tongues' and magnify God. At this Peter asked,

So when Peter came up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party fell foul of him. "You went into the houses of the uncircumcised," they said, "and you ate with them!"

They glorified God when they heard it. Then they said to him, "Brother, you see how many thousands of believers there are among the Jews, all of them ardent upholders of the Law. Now, they have heard that you teach all Jews who live among Gentiles to break away from Moses and not to circumcise their children, nor to follow the old customs. What is to be done? They will be sure to hear you have arrived. read more.
So do as we tell you. We have four men here under a vow; associate yourself with them, purify yourself with them, pay their expenses so that they may be free to have their heads shaved, and then everybody will understand there is nothing in these stories about you, but that, on the contrary, you are guided by obedience to the Law. As for Gentile believers, we have issued our decision that they must avoid food that has been offered to idols, the taste of blood, flesh of animals that have been strangled, and sexual vice."

But certain individuals came down from Jerusalem and taught the brothers that "unless you get circumcised after the custom of Moses you cannot be saved." As a sharp dispute and controversy sprang up between them and Paul and Barnabas, it was arranged that Paul and Barnabas, along with some others of their number, should go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and presbyters at Jerusalem about this question. The church sped them on their journey, and they passed through both Phoenicia and Syria informing the brothers, to the great joy of all, that the Gentiles were turning to God. read more.
On arriving at Jerusalem they were received by the church, the apostles and the presbyters, and they reported how God had been with them and what he had done. But some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and said, "Gentiles must be circumcised and told to observe the law of Moses." The apostles and the presbyters met to investigate this question, and a keen controversy sprang up; but Peter rose and said to them, "Brothers, you are well aware that from the earliest days God chose that of you all I should be the one by whom the Gentiles were to hear the word of the gospel and believe it. The God who reads the hearts of all attested this by giving them the holy Spirit just as he gave it to us; in cleansing their hearts by faith he made not the slightest distinction between us and them. Well now, why are you trying to impose a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we ourselves could bear?

Having learned that some of our number, quite unauthorized by us, have unsettled you with their teaching and upset your souls,

But even my companion Titus, Greek though he was, was not obliged to be circumcised. There were traitors of false brothers, who had crept in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus; they did aim at enslaving us again. But we refused to yield for a single instant to their claims; we were determined that the truth of the gospel should hold good for you.

Then what is the Jew's superiority? What is the good of circumcision? Much in every way. This to begin with ??Jews were entrusted with the scriptures of God. Even supposing some of them have proved untrustworthy, is their faithlessness to cancel the faithfulness of God? read more.
Never! Let God be true to his word, though every man be perfidious ??as it is written, That thou mayest be vindicated in thy pleadings, and triumph in thy trial. But if our iniquity thus serves to bring out the justice of God, what are we to infer? That it is unfair of God to inflict his anger on us? (I speak in a merely human way.) Never! In that case, how could he judge the world? You say, "If my perfidy serves to make the truthfulness of God redound to his glory, why am I to be judged as a sinner? Why should we not do evil that good may come out of it?" (which is the calumny attributed to me ??the very thing some people declare I say). Such arguments are rightly condemned. Well now, are we Jews in a better position? Not at all. I have already charged all, Jews as well as Greeks, with being under sin ??10 as it is written, None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have swerved, one and all have gone wrong, no one does good, not a single one. Their throat is an open grave, they are treacherous with their tongues, the venom of an asp lies under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift for bloodshed, their ways bring destruction and calamity, they know nothing of the way of peace; there is no reverence for God before their eyes. Whatever the Law says, we know, it says to those who are inside the Law, that every mouth may be shut and all the world made answerable to God; for no person will be acquitted in his sight on the score of obedience to law. What the Law imparts is the consciousness of sin. But now we have a righteousness of God disclosed apart from law altogether; it is attested by the Law and the prophets, but it is a righteousness of God which comes by believing in Jesus Christ. And it is meant for all who have faith. No distinctions are drawn. All have sinned, all come short of the glory of God,

But if so, what can we say about Abraham, our forefather by natural descent? This, that if 'Abraham was justified on the score of what he did,' he has something to be proud of. But not to be proud of before God. For what does scripture say? Abraham believed God and this was counted to him as righteousness. read more.
Now a worker has his wage counted to him as a due, not as a favour; but a man who instead of 'working' believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, has his faith counted as righteousness. Just as David himself describes the bliss of the man who has righteousness counted to him by God apart from what he does ??7 Blessed are they whose breaches of the Law are forgiven, whose sins are covered! Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not count to him. Now is that description of bliss meant for the circumcised, or for the uncircumcised as well? Abraham's faith, I repeat, was counted to him as righteousness. In what way? When he was a circumcised man or an uncircumcised man? Not when he was circumcised, but when he was uncircumcised. He only got circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which belonged to his faith as an uncircumcised man. The object of this was to make him the father of all who believe as uncircumcised persons and thus have righteousness counted to them, as well as a father of those circumcised persons who not only share circumcision but walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had as an uncircumcised man. The promise made to Abraham and his offspring that he should inherit the world, did not reach him through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is adherents of the Law who are heirs, then faith is empty of all meaning and the promise is void. (What the Law produces is the Wrath, not the promise of God; where there is no law, there is no transgression either.) That is why all turns upon faith; it is to make the promise a matter of favour, to make it secure for all the offspring, not simply for those who are adherents of the Law but also for those who share the faith of Abraham ??of Abraham who is the father of us all

And these words counted to him have not been written for him alone but for our sakes as well; faith will be counted to us as we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, Jesus who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised that we might be justified.

John said to him, "Teacher, we saw a man casting out daemons in your name; but he does not follow us, and so we stopped him." Jesus said, "Do not stop him; no one who performs any miracle in my name will be ready to speak evil of me. He who is not against us is for us.

John said to him, "Master, we saw a man casting out daemons in your name, but we stopped him because he is not a follower of ours." Jesus said to him, "Do not stop him; he who is not against you is for you."

When his host the Pharisee noticed this, he said to himself, "If he was a prophet he would know what sort of a woman this is who is touching him; for she is a sinner."

but the Pharisees and the scribes complained, "He welcomes sinners and eats along with them!"

But when Jesus reached the spot he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down at once, for I must stay at your house to-day." He came down at once and welcomed him gladly. But when they saw this, everyone began to mutter that he had gone to be the guest of a sinner.

shouting, "To the rescue, men of Israel! Here is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against the People and the Law and this Place! And he has actually brought Greeks inside the temple and defiled this holy Place!" (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian along with him in the city, and they supposed Paul had taken him inside the temple.)

Till he said that, they had listened to him. But at that they shouted, "Away with such a creature from the earth! He is not fit to live!"

Then they stormed at him: "You are his disciple, we are disciples of Moses! We know God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this fellow comes from."

They retorted, "And so you would teach us ??you, born in utter depravity!" Then they expelled him.

For John has come neither eating nor drinking, and men say, 'He has a devil'; the Son of man has come eating and drinking, and men say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of taxgatherers and sinners!' Nevertheless, Wisdom is vindicated by all that she does."

The Pharisee was astonished to see that he had not washed before the meal, but the Lord said to him, "You Pharisees do clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but your inner life is filled with rapacity and malice.

who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, who harassed ourselves, who offend God and oppose all men by hindering us from speaking words of salvation to the Gentiles. So they would fill up the measure of their sins to the last drop! But the Wrath is on them to the bitter end!

As the time for his assumption was now due, he set his face for the journey to Jerusalem. He sent messengers in front of him. They went and entered a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because his face was turned in the direction of Jerusalem. read more.
So when the disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, will you have us bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and checked them. Then they journeyed to another village.

He sent messengers in front of him. They went and entered a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because his face was turned in the direction of Jerusalem.

The Samaritan woman said, "What? You are a Jew, and you ask me for a drink ??me, a Samaritan!" (Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

At this point his disciples came up; they were surprised that he was talking to a woman, but none of them said, "What is it?" or, "Why are you talking to her?"

I can vouch for their zeal for God; only, it is not zeal with knowledge. They would not surrender to the righteousness of God, because they were ignorant of his righteousness and therefore essayed to set up a righteousness of their own.

But this only made the Jews more eager to kill him, because he not merely broke the sabbath but actually spoke of God as his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage;