29 Bible Verses about Exclusiveness

While He was at table in the house many tax-collectors and notorious sinners came in and took their seats at table with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax-collectors and notorious sinners?"

Levi was at table in his house, and he had many tax-collectors and notorious sinners as guests, along with Jesus and His disciples, for there were many of them, and they began to follow Him. And when the scribes who belonged to the Pharisees' party saw that He was eating with notorious sinners and tax-collectors, they said to His disciples, "Why does He eat with tax-collectors and notorious sinners?"

Then Levi gave a great reception for Him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax-collectors and others who were at table with them. Now the Pharisees and their scribes were grumbling at His disciples, and were saying, "Why are you eating and drinking with tax-collectors and notorious sinners?"

Now all the tax-collectors and notorious sinners were crowding around Him to listen to Him. And so the Pharisees and scribes continually grumbled, and said, "This fellow is welcoming notorious sinners, and even eating with them."

For before the coming of certain people from James, he was in the habit of eating with heathen Christians, but after they came, he began to draw back and hold aloof from them, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

And with Abraham He made the sacred compact of circumcision, and he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

that you abstain from everything that is offered to idols, from tasting blood, from the meat of animals that have been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves free from these things, you will prosper. Good-by."

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.

Jesus sent these twelve out, after giving them the following charge: "Do not go to the heathen, or to any Samaritan town, but rather to the lost sheep of Israel's house.

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.

and he said to him, "You know that it is against the law for a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit one, but God has taught me not to call any man vulgar or ceremonially unclean;

Jesus sent these twelve out, after giving them the following charge: "Do not go to the heathen, or to any Samaritan town,

Then Jesus left there and slipped away to the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman of that district came out and pleaded, saying, "Do pity me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is suffering horrors from a demon." But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came up and kept begging Him, "Send her away, for she keeps on screaming after us."read more.
But He answered, "I have been sent only to the lost sheep of Israel's house." But she came and bowed to Him, and kept praying, "Lord, help me!" He answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the house dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, and yet the house dogs usually eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, wonderful is your faith! You must have what you want." And her daughter was cured at that very moment.

Then He left there and went into the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and wanted no one to know that He was there. But He could not escape public notice. On the contrary, a woman, whose little daughter had a foul spirit, at once heard about Him and came and flung herself at His feet. She was a heathen who spoke Greek and had been born in Syro-Phenicia. And she kept begging Him to drive the demon out of her daughter.read more.
But He was saying to her, "Let the children first eat all they want, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it out to the house dogs." But she answered Him, "Yes, Lord, and yet the house dogs under the table usually eat the crumbs the children drop." Then He said to her, "Because you have said this, go home; the demon has gone out of your daughter." She went home and found her daughter lying in bed, and the demon gone out.

Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor's palace. It was early in the morning, and they would not go into the governor's palace themselves, in order not to be defiled, so as to be unfit to eat the Passover supper.

Now the apostles and the brothers all over Judea heard that the heathen too had accepted God's message. 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.read more.
Then Peter explained the whole matter to them from beginning to end. He said, "I was praying in the town of Joppa, and while I was praying I fell in a trance and had a vision. I saw something like a great sheet coming down out of the sky, lowered by the four comers; and it came right down to me. With fixed eyes I kept looking at it and saw all kinds of four-footed animals, wild beasts, reptiles, and wild birds. And I heard a voice say to me, 'Get up, Peter, kill something and eat it!' But I answered, 'Never by any means, sir, for nothing common or not ceremonially cleansed has ever passed my lips.' Then the voice from heaven answered again, 'The things that God has cleansed you must not call unclean.' This took place three times; then all at once the whole thing was drawn back into the sky. Just at that moment three men, who had been sent from Caesarea for me, stopped at the house where we were staying. And the Spirit told me to go with them without any hesitation at all. These six brothers, too, went with me, and we all went into the man's house. Then he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say to him, 'Send to Joppa and invite Simon, who is called Peter, to come over; he will tell you truths through which you and your whole household will be saved.' When I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as He did upon us at the beginning, and I remembered the saying of the Lord, 'John baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.' So if God had given them the same gift that He gave us when we believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to try -- and how could I if I tried -- to thwart God?" When they heard this, they had no answer to make, but gave God the glory, saying, "So God has given even the heathen the repentance that leads to life."

Now when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before the coming of certain people from James, he was in the habit of eating with heathen Christians, but after they came, he began to draw back and hold aloof from them, because he was afraid of the circumcision party. The rest of the Jewish Christians, too, joined him in this pretense so that even Barnabas was influenced to join them in their pretense.

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."

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.

Here is what I am saying to you: If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ can do you no good. I again insist that if any man lets himself be circumcised, he is under obligation to obey the whole law. You people, whoever you are among you, who try to get into right standing with God, through law have cut yourselves off from Christ, you have missed the way of God's favor.read more.
For we, by the Spirit, are awaiting the hoped-for blessing which our right standing with God will bring us. For in union with Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor lack of it counts for anything; but only faith that is spurred on to action by love.

These men who are trying to force you to let yourselves be circumcised simply want to make a fine outward show, only to keep you from being persecuted for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For there are many insubordinate people, mere talkers with nothing to say, but deceivers of their own minds, especially those of the circumcision party,

And God who knows men's hearts testifies for them by giving them the Holy Spirit, as He did us,

For by one Spirit all of us, Jews or Greeks, slaves or freemen, have been baptized into one body, and were all imbued with one Spirit.

I want to ask you only this one thing: Did you receive the Spirit by doing what the law commands, or by believing the message you heard? Are you so senseless? Did you begin by the Spirit, but are now approaching perfection by fleshly means? Have you suffered so much for nothing? If it really is for nothing.read more.
Now when He supplies you with the Spirit and performs His wonder-works among you, does He do it because you do what the law commands, or because you believe the message that you heard --

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not heathen sinners, and yet, because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God.

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? In fact, we believe that it is through the favor of the Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

For we hold that a man is brought into right standing with God by faith, that observance of the law has no connection with it. Or is He the God of Jews alone? Is He not the God of heathen peoples too? Of course, He is the God of heathen peoples too, since there is but one God, who will consider the Jews in right standing with Himself, only on condition of their faith, and the heathen peoples on the same condition.

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;read more.
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.