30 Bible Verses about Gentiles

Some were persuaded and threw in their lot with Paul and Silas, including a host of devout Greeks and a large number of the leading women.

Now in the Lord I insist and protest that you must give up living like pagans; for their purposes are futile, their intelligence is darkened, they are estranged from the life of God by the ignorance which their dulness of heart has produced in them ??19 men who have recklessly abandoned themselves to sensuality, with a lust for the business of impurity in every shape and form.

Do not be troubled, then, and cry, 'What are we to eat?' or 'what are we to drink?' or 'how are we to be clothed?' (pagans make all that their aim in life) for your heavenly Father knows quite well you need all that.

No, what I imply is that anything people sacrifice is sacrificed to daemons, not to God. And I do not want you to participate in daemons!

When the Gentiles heard this they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord and believed, that is, all who had been ordained to eternal life;

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,

But as they opposed and abused him, he shook out his garments in protest, saying, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am not responsible! After this I will go to the Gentiles."

Then the seventh angel blew; and loud voices followed in heaven, crying, "The rule of the world has passed to our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever."

Now the apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

they have exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the semblance of the likeness of mortal man, of birds, of quadrupeds, and of reptiles.

You know when you were pagans, how your impulses led you to dumb idols;

So Paul and Barnabas spoke out fearlessly. "The word of God," they said, "had to be spoken to you in the first instance; but as you push it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, well, here we turn to the Gentiles!

These twelve men Jesus despatched with the following instructions, "Do not go among the Gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town,

and that repentance and the remission of sins must be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

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;

not to gratify sensual passion like the Gentiles in their ignorance of God ??6 no one is to defraud or overreach his brother in this matter, for the Lord avenges all these sins, as we told you already in our solemn protest against them.

Though they knew God, they have not glorified him as God nor given thanks to him; they have turned to futile speculations till their ignorant minds grew dark.

For he is our peace, he who has made both of us a unity and destroyed the barrier which kept us apart;

but omit the court outside the temple, do not measure that, for it has been given over to the Gentiles; and the city will be under their heel for two and forty months.

Yes, as they disdained to acknowledge God any longer, God has given them up to a reprobate instinct, for the perpetration of what is improper, till they are filled with all manner of wickedness, depravity, lust, and viciousness, filled to the brim with envy, murder, quarrels, intrigues, and malignity ??slanderers, defamers, loathed by God, outrageous, haughty, boastful, inventive in evil, disobedient to parents, read more.
devoid of conscience, false to their word, callous, merciless; though they know God's decree that people who practise such vice deserve death, they not only do it themselves but applaud those who practise it.

But the Lord said to him, "Go; I have chosen him to be the means of bringing my Name before the Gentiles and their kings as well as before the sons of Israel.

On the contrary, when they saw I had been entrusted with the gospel for the benefit of the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been for the circumcised (for He who equipped Peter to be an apostle of the circumcised equipped me as well for the uncircumcised),

For I am proud of the gospel; it is God's saving power for everyone who has faith, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well.

Then Peter opened his lips and said, "I see quite plainly that God has no favourites, but that he who reverences Him and lives a good life in any nation is welcomed by Him. You know the message he sent to the sons of Israel when he preached the gospel of peace by Jesus Christ (who is Lord of all); read more.
you know how it spread over the whole of Judaea, starting from Galilee after the baptism preached by John ??38 how God consecrated Jesus of Nazaret with the holy Spirit and power, and how he went about doing good and curing all who were harassed by the devil; for God was with him. As for what he did in the land of the Jews and of Jerusalem, we can testify to that. They slew him by hanging him on a gibbet, but God raised him on the third day, and allowed him to be seen not by all the People but by witnesses whom God had previously selected, by us who ate and drank with him after his resurrection from the dead, when he enjoined us to preach to the People, testifying that this was he whom God has appointed to be judge of the living and of the dead. All the prophets testify that everyone who believes in him is to receive remission of sins through his Name." While Peter was still speaking, the holy Spirit fell upon all who listened to what he said. 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,

Symeon has explained how it was God's original concern to secure a People from among the Gentiles to bear his Name.

When the Gentiles heard this they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord and believed, that is, all who had been ordained to eternal life; and the word of the Lord went far and wide over the whole country.

So the whole meeting was quieted and listened to Barnabas and Paul recounting the signs and wonders God had performed by them among the Gentiles.

Besides, Scripture anticipated God's justification of the Gentiles by faith when it announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham in these terms: All nations shall be blessed in thee.

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!"

To them Peter said, "You know yourselves it is illegal for a Jew to join or accost anyone belonging to another nation; but God has shown me that I must not call any man common or unclean,

to be a light of revelation for the Gentiles and a glory to thy people Israel."

Remember, then, that once upon a time you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called 'the Uncircumcision' by that so-called 'Circumcision' which is itself the product of human hands in the flesh ??12 remember you were in those days outside Christ, aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the Promise, devoid of hope and God within the world.

He replied, "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

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.)

To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in.

Yes, as they disdained to acknowledge God any longer, God has given them up to a reprobate instinct, for the perpetration of what is improper,

[Move vss 14,15 to follow vs 16] (When Gentiles who have no law obey instinctively the Law's requirements, they are a law to themselves, even though they have no law;

(If then the uncircumcised observe the requirements of the Law, shall not their uncircumcision be reckoned equivalent to circumcision?

they will fall by the edge of the sword, they will be carried prisoners to all nations, and Jerusalem will be under the heel of the Gentiles till the period of the Gentiles expires.

The Jews said to themselves, "Where is he going, that we will not find him? Is he off to the Dispersion among the Greeks, to teach the Greeks?

In this very city they actually mustered against thy holy Servant Jesus, whom thou didst consecrate ??Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,

In those days, when you were ignorant of God, you were in servitude to gods who are really no gods at all;

The brothers welcomed us gladly on our arrival at Jerusalem. Next day we accompanied Paul to James; all the presbyters were present, and after saluting them Paul described in detail what God had done by means of his ministry among the Gentiles. read more.
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. 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."

Now the apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 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!" read more.
Then Peter proceeded to put the facts before them. "I was in the town of Joppa at prayer," he said, "and in a trance I saw a vision ??a vessel coming down like a huge sheet lowered from heaven by the four corners. It came down to me, and when I looked steadily at it, I noted the quadrupeds of the earth, the wild beasts, the creeping things and the wild birds. Also I heard a voice saying to me, 'Rise, Peter, kill and eat.' I said, 'No, no, my Lord; nothing common or unclean has ever passed my lips.' But a voice answered me for the second time out of heaven, 'What God has cleansed, you must not regard as common.' This happened three times, and then the whole thing was drawn back into heaven. At that very moment three men reached the house where I was living, sent to me from Caesarea. The Spirit told me to have no hesitation in accompanying them; these six brothers went with me as well, and we entered the man's house. He related to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, 'Send to Joppa for Simon who is surnamed Peter; he will tell you how you and all your household are to be saved.' Now just as I began to speak, the holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning; and I remembered the saying of the Lord, that 'John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the holy Spirit.' Well then, if God has given them exactly the same gift as he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I ??how could I try to thwart God?" On hearing this they desisted and glorified God, saying, "So God has actually allowed the Gentiles to repent and live!"

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. read more.
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? No, it is by the grace of the Lord Jesus that we believe and are saved, in the same way as they are."

or again, Extol the Lord, all Gentiles, let all the peoples praise him;