31 Bible Verses about Gentiles

So some of them were convinced, and they joined Paul and Silas; also quite a number of devout Greeks and not a few women of the first rank.

So I mean this and now testify to it in the name of the Lord: You must now stop living as the heathen usually do, in the frivolity of their minds, with darkened understanding, estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and because of the stubbornness of their hearts; for in their recklessness they have abandoned themselves to sensuality which leads to excessive practices of all sorts of immorality.

So never worry and say, 'What are we going to have to eat? What are we going to have to drink? What are we going to have to wear?' For the heathen are greedily pursuing all such things; and surely your heavenly Father well knows that you need them all.

At that time you were without any connection with Christ; you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the sacred compacts made by God's promise, with no hope, and no God in the world.

I mean that what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be in fellowship with demons.

The heathen kept on listening and rejoicing and giving the glory to God's message, and all who had been destined to eternal life believed,

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,

But as they opposed and abused him, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be upon your own heads! I am not to blame for it myself. Hereafter I am going to the heathen."

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and loud voices were heard in heaven, saying, "The sovereignty of the world has come into the possession of our Lord and His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever."

Now the apostles and the brothers all over Judea heard that the heathen too had accepted God's message.

and have transformed the splendor of the immortal God into images in the form of mortal man, birds, beasts, and reptiles.

You know that when you were heathen you were in the habit of going off, wherever you might be led, after idols that could not speak.

for they had utterly transformed the reality of God into what was unreal, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Then Paul and Barnabas courageously spoke out, "God's message had to be spoken to you Jews first, but since you continue to thrust it from you and since you show yourselves unworthy to receive eternal life, now and here we turn to the heathen.

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

and that in His name repentance as the condition for the forgiveness of sins should be preached to all the nations. Beginning at Jerusalem

even us whom He has called, not only from among the Jews but from among the heathen too?

to every human soul who practices doing evil, the Jew first and then the Greek.

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,

not out of evil passions as the heathen do who do not know God;

because, although they once knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks, but became silly in their senseless speculations, and so their insensible hearts have been shrouded in darkness.

For He Himself is our peace, He is the one who has made us both into one body and has broken down the barrier that kept us apart;

but leave off the court outside the temple; do not measure it, because it has been given over to the heathen, and for forty-two months they will trample the city underfoot.

for in their recklessness they have abandoned themselves to sensuality which leads to excessive practices of all sorts of immorality.

And so, as they did not approve of fully recognizing God any longer, God gave them up to minds that He did not approve, to practices that were improper; because they overflow with every sort of evil-doing, wickedness, greed, and malice; they are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, ill-will; they are secret backbiters, open slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful; inventors of new forms of evil, undutiful to parents, read more.
conscienceless, treacherous, with no human love or pity. Although they know full well God's sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die, yet they not only practice them but even applaud others who do them.

But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name to the heathen and their kings, and to the descendants of Israel.

On the contrary, because they saw that I had been entrusted with the good news for the heathen, just as Peter had been entrusted with it for the Jews -- for He who had been at work in Peter for his apostleship to the Jews had been at work in me too for the apostleship to the heathen --

For I am not ashamed of the good news, for it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who trusts, of the Jew first and then of the Greek.

But there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is over them all, because He is infinitely kind to all who call upon Him.

Then Peter opened his mouth and said, "Now I really see that God shows no partiality, but in every nation the man who reveres God and practices doing right is acceptable to Him. He has sent His message to the descendants of Israel, by telling them the good news of peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. read more.
You know the story yourselves that spread all over Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and then He went about doing good and curing all who were overpowered by the devil, because God was with Him. We are witnesses of everything that He did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. Yet they murdered Him by hanging Him upon a tree. But God raised Him to life on the third day, and permitted Him to be dearly seen, not by all the people but by witnesses whom God had beforehand appointed, namely, by us who ate and drank with Him after His resurrection from the dead. He also ordered us to proclaim to the people and solemnly to testify that this is the One whom God has appointed to be the Judge of the living and the dead. To this very One all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him is to receive the forgiveness of sins through His name." While Peter was still speaking these truths, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message. 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,

Symeon has told how God at first graciously visited the heathen to take from among them a people to bear His name.

The heathen kept on listening and rejoicing and giving the glory to God's message, and all who had been destined to eternal life believed, and so the message of the Lord spread all over the country.

By this he quieted the whole congregation, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul tell of the signs and wonders which God had done through them among the heathen.

Because the Scripture foresaw that God would bring the heathen into right standing with Himself on condition of faith, He beforehand proclaimed the good news to Abraham in the promise, "It is through you that all the heathen will be blessed."

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.

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;

a light of revelation to the heathen, and a glory to your people Israel."

So remember that you were once heathen in a physical sense, called the uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcised -- though only in a physical sense, by human hands. At that time you were without any connection with Christ; you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the sacred compacts made by God's promise, with no hope, and no God in the world.

He answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the house dogs."

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.

For to keep you from being self-conceited, brothers, I do not want to have a misunderstanding of this uncovered secret, that only temporary insensibility has come upon Israel until the full quota of the heathen peoples comes in,

And so, as they did not approve of fully recognizing God any longer, God gave them up to minds that He did not approve, to practices that were improper;

Indeed, when heathen people who have no law instinctively do what the law demands, although they have no law, they are a law to themselves,

So if the uncircumcised heathen man observes the just demands of the law, will he not be counted as though he were a Jew?

They will fall by the edge of the sword and will be carried off as captives among all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled under the feet of the heathen, until the times of the heathen come to full measure.

The Jews then said to one another, "Where is He about to go that we shall not find Him? He is not going to our people scattered among the Greeks, and going to teach the Greeks, is He?

"For in this city they actually met against your holy Servant Jesus, whom you had consecrated -- Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the heathen and the peoples of Israel,

But at that former time, as you did not know the true God, you were slaves to gods that do not really exist,

When we reached Jerusalem, the brothers there gave us a hearty welcome. On the next day we went with Paul to see James, and all the elders of the church came too. Paul first greeted them and then gave them a detailed account of what God had done among the heathen through his service. read more.
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. 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."

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."

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. read more.
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."

And again: "All you heathen peoples, praise the Lord, yea, let all peoples sing His praise."