23 Bible Verses about Missionaries

I have demonstrated before you a [good] example in all [these] things, so that you [too] will work hard to help those who are [physically] weak. [Also] remember the words of the Lord Jesus who Himself said, 'It is a greater blessing [for you] to give [to people's needs] than to receive [help yourselves].' "

Religion that is pure and uncorrupted in the eyes of [our] God and Father involves taking care of orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself unstained by the world.

when I was without adequate clothing, you gave me something to wear; [when] I was sick, you came to visit me; [when] I was in prison, you came to see me.'

I send greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow-workers in [the service of] Christ Jesus.

And when I was there with you and in need, I was not a [financial] burden to anyone, for when the brothers came from Macedonia they provided me with what I lacked, so I kept myself from being a burden to you in every way and will continue to do so.

Nevertheless, it was really good of you people to share [with me] during my troubles [i.e., imprisonment]. As you Philippians also know, during the early days of [my] preaching the Gospel [in those regions], when I left Macedonia [Note: This was the northernmost province of Greece], no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving [i.e., financial help], except you only. For even [when I was] in Thessalonica, you sent [money] more than once to meet my needs.

Greetings to Urbanus, our fellow-worker in [the service of] Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.

These people testify about your love [for them] before the [assembled] church. You will be doing a good thing to send them on their journey in a way that is pleasing to God [i.e., by furnishing them with travel expenses for their ministry].

Your speech should always be favorable, seasoned with salt [i.e., interesting and appropriate], so that you may know how to properly answer each person [you talk with].

Do not allow unwholesome [Note: The Greek word for "unwholesome" is "rotten, diseased"] language to come from your mouth, but only what is helpful for building up those who need it, so that you can impart favor [i.e., benefit] to those who listen [to you].

You should let the message of Christ live in you abundantly [i.e., as individuals and collectively]. Use [much] wisdom in teaching and warning one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with favor [i.e., with thankfulness] in your hearts toward God.

We should not neglect our assembling together [as a church], as some people are in the habit of doing, but we should encourage one another [spiritually], and [do it] all the more [diligently] as you see the day [of judgment] coming closer.

But [instead], encourage one another each day, as long as it is [still] called "Today," so that none of you becomes stubborn [as a result] of the deceitfulness of sin.

My brothers, if anyone among you strays away from the truth [of God's inspired message], and someone brings him back [to it], that person should know that whoever brings a sinner back from the error of his way will save that soul from [spiritual] death and will cover over a large number of sins [i.e., the many sins of that person will become forgiven].

But God chose what the world considers foolish [i.e., people with little apparent ability], in order to shame the "wise people." And He chose what the world considers weak in order to shame what it considers strong.

How can you know, [Christian] wife, whether or not you will [be able to] convert your husband? Or how can you know, [Christian] husband, whether or not you will [be able to] convert you wife?

so that you will be without just blame and innocent [of wrongdoing], children of God without fault in the middle of a crooked and perverted generation of people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky,

In that same way, you should allow your light [i.e., influence] to shine in front of people, so that they will see your good deeds and [be led to] honor your Father in heaven.

and so became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. [Note: These two provinces make up present-day Greece].

Therefore, [continue to] encourage one another, and build each other up [spiritually], just as you are also doing.

So then, let us pursue such things that produce peace and things that build one another up [spiritually].

[Instead], each of us should do what pleases his neighbor in order to accomplish something good and uplifting [in his life].

In that same way, you should allow your light [i.e., influence] to shine in front of people, so that they will see your good deeds and [be led to] honor your Father in heaven.

You should live such good lives before [unconverted] Gentiles, so that even though they accuse you of being evildoers, by seeing your good deeds, they will [be led to] honor God [for you] on the day He visits us again [i.e., to bring judgment].

so that you will be without just blame and innocent [of wrongdoing], children of God without fault in the middle of a crooked and perverted generation of people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky, as you hold out [i.e., offer to people] the message of [never ending] life. Then I will have something to boast about on the day of Christ's [return, See 1:6], that I had not run the race for nothing nor had worked for nothing.

"Come [and] see a man who told me everything I ever did. Can this be the Christ?"

Nathaniel replied to him, "Can anything worthwhile come from Nazareth?" [Note: Nazareth had a bad reputation and Jewish writings made no prediction of a prophet coming from that area. See John 7:52]. Philip answered him, "Come and see."

But when the leading priests and the experts in the law of Moses saw the wonderful things [i.e., miracles] He was performing and [heard] the children shouting in the Temple, "Hosanna to the son of David," [See note at verse 9], they were filled with anger [i.e., over the acclaim being given to Jesus]. They said to Jesus, "Do you hear what these [children] are saying [about you]?" Jesus answered them, "Yes, [I do]. Have you not read [in Psa. 8:2] 'You have ordained that praise would come from the mouths of infants and small children?'"

And we urge you, brothers, to warn those who are idle [Note: The word "idle" originally meant, "insubordinate, or unruly." See II Thess. 3:6-7, 11], encourage those who are timid, help the [spiritually] weak and be patient with everyone.

And yet do not consider him to be an enemy, but warn him as [you would] a [Christian] brother.

So, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another to be healed [from sin sickness]. The special request of a righteous person is empowered with [great] effectiveness.

At the same time, pray for us also, that God will open up a door [of opportunity] for [proclaiming] the message, so we can tell about the [previously] hidden secret of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned.

Pray for us [continually]. We are convinced that we [i.e., the writer of Hebrews] have a clear conscience [i.e., regarding our relationship to you] and we want to behave properly in every way.

So, he called ten of his slaves and gave each of them a sum of money [Note: The amount of each sum was equivalent to one hundred days of a farm laborer's pay, or about $7,000 in 1994]. [Then] he said to them, 'Invest this money until I return.'

"For the kingdom of heaven is similar to a man who planned to go on a trip to a distant country, so called his servants and entrusted to each of them a large sum of money [Note: The narrative that follows suggests that the man was turning over some of his assets to financial managers to invest for him].

For I testify that they gave [financial help] to the full limit of their ability, yes and even beyond it. [And they did this] entirely on their own,

Do not have fellowship with [people who practice] worthless deeds of darkness [i.e., sinful living], but expose them instead.

"If anyone comes to me [i.e., to be my disciple], and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers and sisters and, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

For I have decided not to know anything [while] among you, except Jesus Christ and His being crucified.

But you people are especially chosen [by God]; you are a royal body of priests; you are a nation especially set apart for God's use; you are a people who belong exclusively to God, that you may express the virtues of the One who called you out of darkness [i.e., of sin and error], and into His marvelous light [i.e., righteousness and truth].

But He answered them, "I tell you, if these people remain quiet [about me], [then] the stones will shout [about it]."

Those who were scattered everywhere as a result of the persecution [being waged against the church] because of Stephen's [death], traveled as far away as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, declaring the message to Jews only. But when some men from Cyprus and Cyrene came to Antioch, they preached [about] the Lord Jesus to the Greeks [i.e., Gentiles] also.

Now the disciples, who had become scattered all over, went everywhere preaching the message [of God].

When Jesus heard this He said to him, " [There is] one thing you still lack. Sell all your possessions and distribute [the money] to poor people; become my follower, [then] you will have treasure in heaven."

[And] whoever does not carry his own cross [i.e., his responsibilities with all their difficulties] and follow me cannot be my disciple.

For Christ's love for us motivates us, because we have concluded that, [since] one person [i.e., Christ] died for all people, so then all people have died. [Note: This may mean simply that Christ died for all people, who were dead in their sins]. And Christ died for all people, so that those who are alive should not live for themselves anymore, but for Him who died and rose again for their sakes.

But God chose what the world considers foolish [i.e., people with little apparent ability], in order to shame the "wise people." And He chose what the world considers weak in order to shame what it considers strong.

And they did not [just] do as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and [then] to us through the will of God.

As each of you has received a gift [from God], you should make use of it [in the body], so that you will be [good] caretakers of the many unearned ways that God favors you. If someone's gift is speaking, he should [be sure to] say only what God wants him to. If a person's gift is serving, he should do so by the strength provided by God [who supplies all such gifts]. This is so that, in using all gifts, God may be honored through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs honor and power forever and ever. May it be so.

"It is too bad for you hypocritical experts in the law of Moses and [you] Pharisees! For you travel over land and sea [in hope of] making one person a proselyte [i.e., a convert to the Jewish religion]. And when you do convert one, you make him twice as deserving of hell as yourselves.

For you showed sympathy for those who were in prison and accepted it joyfully when your [own] possessions were taken away, [because] you knew that you yourselves had a better and more permanent possession [in heaven].

Therefore, every person who acknowledges me in front of people [i.e., to be their Lord and Christ], I will acknowledge him [i.e., to be my disciple] in front of my Father in heaven.

And Joseph, who was called by the apostles, Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), was a descendant of the Jewish tribe of Levi, whose family originated from [the island of] Cyprus. He owned a field, but [due to the great need] sold it and brought the money and gave it to the apostles [for distribution].

The first thing Andrew did was to find his own brother Simon and say to him, "We have found the Messiah (which means Christ [i.e., God's specially chosen one])." So, Andrew brought Simon Peter to Jesus. [And when] Jesus saw him, He said [to him], "You are Simon, the son of John [Note: Peter's father is called Jonah in Matt. 16:17]; you will be called Cephas (which means Peter [i.e., "a stone." See Matt. 16:18])."

You should live such good lives before [unconverted] Gentiles, so that even though they accuse you of being evildoers, by seeing your good deeds, they will [be led to] honor God [for you] on the day He visits us again [i.e., to bring judgment].

and if He did not spare the ancient world of Noah's day, when He brought a flood on those ungodly people (though Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven other people, were saved from it);

He was a man who had learned the way of the Lord, and with spiritual fervor, taught accurately [what he knew] about Jesus, although he knew [and had received] only the immersion [taught and practiced] by John.

He began speaking boldly in the synagogue and when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and proceeded to explain to him God's way more accurately [than he had known].

Then one of them, seeing he had been healed, returned and praised God in a loud voice.

Now a certain Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria [Egypt] and an effective speaker, who was well-grounded in the [Old Testament] Scriptures, came to Ephesus.

For the Son of man came to search for and save those who were lost."

"If anyone comes to me [i.e., to be my disciple], and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers and sisters and, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

This message was about Jesus from Nazareth and how God specially chose Him [and signified it] by giving Him the Holy Spirit and power. He traveled all over doing good [for people] and healing everyone who was [being] oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

But the man went away and began telling people throughout Decapolis about all of the great things Jesus had done for him. [Note: "Decapolis" means "ten cities" and was a region located east of the Jordan River].

"Come [and] see a man who told me everything I ever did. Can this be the Christ?"

Nathaniel replied to him, "Can anything worthwhile come from Nazareth?" [Note: Nazareth had a bad reputation and Jewish writings made no prediction of a prophet coming from that area. See John 7:52]. Philip answered him, "Come and see."

She came forward at that very time and thanked God [in prayer] and spoke about the child [Jesus] to everyone [in the Temple area] who was expecting the redemption of the people of Jerusalem [i.e., their liberation from sin].

And after many questions were asked [about it] Peter stood up and addressed the assembly [including the former Pharisees who were now brothers]: "Brothers, you are aware that some time ago God decided that, from among your number, it would be through my ministry that the Gentiles would hear and believe the Gospel message.

And when they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.

and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod's property manager, and Susanna and many others. These [all] had provided the material support for the group from their own means.

Now the disciples, who had become scattered all over, went everywhere preaching the message [of God].