8 Bible Verses about Bigotry

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up here in this city, and carefully educated under the teaching of Gamaliel in the law of our forefathers. I was zealous for God, as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way even to the death, and kept on binding both men and women and putting them in jail,

Now Saul, as he was still breathing threats of murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that if he found any men or women belonging to The Way he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem. As he traveled on he finally approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. read more.
He dropped to the ground; then he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" He asked, "Who are you, sir?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

I myself, indeed, once thought it my duty to take extreme measures in hostility to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

You have heard, indeed, of my former conduct as an adherent of the Jewish religion, how I kept on furiously persecuting the church of God, and tried to destroy it, and how I outstripped many of my own age among my people in my devotion to the Jewish religion, because I surpassed all others in my zeal for the traditions handed down by my forefathers.

by the standard set by zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, and measured by the uprightness reached by keeping the law, I was faultless.

After that some little children were brought to Him, for Him to lay His hands on them and pray for them, but His disciples reproved those who brought them.

And people were bringing little children to Him for Him to touch them, but the disciples reproved them for it.

Now some people were bringing even their babies to Him to have Him touch them, but the disciples, when they saw it, reproved them for it.

Then the Jewish believers who had gone along with Peter were astounded because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been showered upon the heathen too,

So when Peter returned to Jerusalem, the champions of circumcision began to bring charges against him for having visited and eaten with men who were not Jews.

They gave the glory to God, when they heard it, and said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousand believers there are among the Jews, all of them zealous champions of the law. They have been repeatedly told about you that you continuously teach the Jews who live among the heathen to turn their backs on Moses, and that you continue to tell them to stop circumcising their children, and to stop observing the cherished customs. What is your duty, then? They will certainly hear that you have come. read more.
Now you must do just what we tell you. We have here four men who are under a vow. Take them along with you, purify yourself with them, and bear the expense for them of having their heads shaved. Then everybody will know that none of those things they have been told about you are so, but that you yourself are living as a constant observer of the law. As for the heathen who have become believers, we have sent them our resolution that they must avoid anything that is contaminated by idols, the tasting of blood, the meat of strangled animals, and sexual immorality."

Some people came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised in accordance with the custom that Moses handed down, you cannot be saved." So, as a dire disturbance and a serious discussion had been created between Paul and Barnabas and them, they decided that Paul and Barnabas and some others from their number should go up to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders about this question. So they were endorsed and sent on by the church, and as they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told of the conversion of the heathen and brought great rejoicing to all the brothers. read more.
When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported what God had done through them as instruments. But some members of the Pharisaic party, who had become believers, arose and said that such converts must be circumcised and told to keep the law of Moses. Now the apostles and elders met to consider this matter. After a lengthy discussion Peter got up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose among you that through me the heathen should hear the message of the good news and believe it. And God who knows men's hearts testifies for them by giving them the Holy Spirit, as He did us, and in this way He put no difference between us and them, because He cleansed their hearts by faith. Then why do you now try to test God by putting on these disciples' necks a yoke which neither our forefathers nor we could bear?

As we have heard that some of our number have disturbed you by their teaching, by continuing to unsettle your minds,

But they did not even try to compel my companion, Titus, although he was a Greek, to be circumcised -- they did not try it even for the sake of the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who stole in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to make us slaves again. But we did not for a moment yield them submission, in order that the truth of the good news might prevail for you.

What special privilege, then, has a Jew? Or, what benefit does circumcision confer? They are great from every point of view. In the first place, the Jews are entrusted with the utterances of God. What then, if some of them have proved unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness make null and void God's faithfulness? read more.
Not at all. Let God prove true, though every man be false! As the Scripture says, "That you may prove yourself upright in words you speak, and win your case when you go into court." But if our wrongdoing brings to light the uprightness of God, what shall we infer? Is it wrong (I am using everyday human terms) for God to inflict punishment? Not at all! If that were so, how could He judge the world? But, as you say, if the truthfulness of God has redounded to His glory because of my falsehood, why am I still condemned as a sinner? Why should we not say, as people abusively say of us, and charge us with actually saying, "Let us do evil that good may come from it"? Their condemnation is just. What is our conclusion then? Is it that we Jews are better than they? Not at all! For we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under the sway of sin, as the Scriptures say: "Not a single human creature is upright, No one understands, no one is searching for God; They all have turned aside, all have become corrupt; No one does good, not even one! Their throats are just like open graves, with their tongues they have spoken treachery; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouths are full of bitter cursing. Their feet are swift for shedding blood, Ruin and wretchedness are on 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 spoken to those who are under its authority, that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be held responsible to God. Because no human creature can be brought into right standing with God by observing the law. For all the law can do is to make men conscious of sin. But now God's way of giving men right standing with Himself has come to light; a way without connection with the law, and yet a way to which the law and the prophets testify. God's own way of giving men right standing with Himself is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for everybody who has faith, for no distinction at all is made. For everybody has sinned and everybody continues to come short of God's glory,

Then what are we to say about our forefather Abraham? For if he was considered in right standing with God on the condition of what he did, he has something to boast of, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God." read more.
Now when a workman gets his pay, it is not considered from the point of view of a favor but of an obligation; but the man who does no work, but simply puts his faith in Him who brings the ungodly into right standing with Himself, has his faith credited to him as right standing. So David, too, describes the happiness of the man to whom God credits right standing with Himself, without the things he does having anything to do with it: "Happy are they whose transgressions have been forgiven, whose sins were covered up; Happy the man whose sin the Lord does not charge against him!" Now does this happiness come to the Jews alone, or to the heathen peoples too? For we say, "Abraham's faith was credited to him as right standing." Under what circumstances was it credited to him as right standing? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? Not after but before he was circumcised. Afterward he received the mark of circumcision as God's seal of his right standing with Him on condition of faith which he had before he was circumcised, that he might be the forefather of all who have faith while still uncircumcised, that they might have their faith credited to them as right standing with God; and the forefather of those Jews who not only belong to the circumcision but also follow in the footsteps of our forefather Abraham in the faith he had before he was circumcised. For the promise made to Abraham and his descendants, that he should own the world, was not conditioned on the law, but on the right standing he had with God through faith. For if the law party is to possess the world, then faith has been nullified and the promise has been made null and void. For the law results in wrath alone, but where there is no law, there can be no violation of it. So it is conditioned on faith, that it might be in accordance with God's unmerited favor, so that the promise might be in force for all the descendants of Abraham, not only for those who belong to the law party but also for those who belong to the faith group of Abraham. He is the father of us all,

It was not for his sake alone that it was written, "It was credited to him"; it was for our sakes too, for it is going to be credited to us who put our faith in God who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus, who was given up to death because of our shortcomings and was raised again to give us right standing with God.

John said to Him, "Teacher, we saw a man using your name to drive out demons, and we tried to stop him, for he was not one of our followers." Jesus said, "Do not try to stop him, for there is no one who will use my name to do a mighty deed, and then be able soon to abuse me. For whoever is not against us is for us.

Then John answered, "Master, we saw a man driving out demons by the use of your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not belong to our followers." Jesus said to him, "Stop hindering him, for the man who is not against you is for you."

So when the Pharisee who invited Him saw it, he said to himself, "If He were really a prophet, He would know who and of what character the woman is who is clinging to Him -- that she is a social outcast."

And so the Pharisees and scribes continually grumbled, and said, "This fellow is welcoming notorious sinners, and even eating with them."

And as Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, come down quickly! for today I must stop at your house." So in haste he came down, and with gladness welcomed Him. And when they all saw it, they began to grumble and say, "He has gone in to lodge with a notorious sinner!"

as they kept shouting, "Men of Israel, help! help! This is the man who teaches everybody everywhere against our people and the law and this place; yea, more than that, he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and desecrated this sacred place." For they had previously seen Trophimus of Ephesus in the city with him, and so they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

They listened to him until he said this, and then all at once they shouted, "Away with such a fellow from the earth! He is certainly not fit to live!"

Then they jeered him, and said, "You are a disciple of His yourself, but we are disciples of Moses. We do know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this fellow comes from."

Then they retorted, "You were born in total depravity, and yet you are trying to teach us!" And so they turned him out of the synagogue.

For John came neither eating nor drinking with others, and yet they said, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking with others, and they say, 'Just look at Him! A glutton and a wine-drinker, a chum of tax-collectors and notorious sinners!' And yet wisdom is vindicated by her doings!"

The Pharisee noticed that He did not first wash before lunch, and was surprised. But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees have the habit of cleaning the outside of your cups and dishes, but inside you yourselves are full of greed and wickedness.

who killed the Lord Jesus and persecuted the prophets and us; and who continue to displease God and show themselves in opposition to all mankind, by trying to keep us from speaking to the heathen, so that they may be saved, so as always to fill to the brim the cup of their sins. But at last God's wrath has come upon them.

Now as the time was coming to a head when He should be taken up to heaven, He firmly set His face to continue His journey to Jerusalem; so He sent messengers before Him. Then they went on and entered into a Samaritan town, to make preparations for Him. But they would not receive Him, because He was facing in the direction of Jerusalem. read more.
When the disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, "Lord, do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?" But He turned at once and reproved them. Then they went on to a different village.

so He sent messengers before Him. Then they went on and entered into a Samaritan town, to make preparations for Him. But they would not receive Him, because He was facing in the direction of 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 up, and they were surprised to find Him talking with a woman, yet not one of them asked Him, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but they are not intelligently so. For they were ignorant of God's way of right standing and were trying to set up one of their own, and so would not surrender to God's way of right standing.

It was on account of this that the Jews tried all the harder to put Him to death, because He not only persisted in breaking the Sabbath, but also kept on saying that God was His Father, and so was making Himself equal to God.

Then all the people in the synagogue, on hearing these things, were filled with fury,