34 Bible Verses about Religion

Then Peter began and said, "Now I really understand that God shows no partiality, but welcomes the man of any nation who reveres him and does what is right.

A religious observance that is pure and stainless in the sight of God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their trouble, and keep one's self unstained by the world.

But you, dear friends, must build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith and pray in the holy Spirit, and keep in the love of God, and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to bring you to eternal life.

For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with steadfastness, steadfastness with piety, piety with a spirit of brotherhood, and the spirit of brotherhood with love. read more.
For if you have these qualities in their fulness, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive when it comes to the understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is blind or near-sighted, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his former sins.

"Master, what command is greatest in the Law?" And he said to him, " 'You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind.' That is the great, first command. read more.
There is a second like it: 'You must love your neighbor as you do yourself.' These two commands sum up the whole of the Law and the Prophets."

since they have to do only with food and drink and various washings??aterial regulations in force only until the time for the new order.

Being circumcised or being uncircumcised does not make any difference; all that matters is keeping God's commands.

They profess to know God, but they disown him by what they do; they are detestable, disobedient men, worthless for any good purpose.

It is not everyone who says to me 'Lord! Lord!' who will get into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven.

Why do you call me: 'Lord! Lord!' and not do what I tell you?

keeping up the forms of religion, but resisting its influence. Avoid such people.

"Alas for you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you pay tithes on mint, dill, and cummin, and you have let the weightier matters of the Law go??ustice, mercy, and integrity. But you should have observed these, without overlooking the others.

If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things, why do you act as though you still belonged to the world, and submit to rules like

But the Master answered, "You hypocrites! Does not every one of you untie his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath and lead him away to water him?

But he did not say this because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and when he had charge of the purse he used to take what was put in it.

Such men are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own base passions, and with their plausible and flattering talk they deceive simple-minded people.

But he saw their malice, and said,

You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the look of the earth and sky; and why can you not interpret this present time?

"I am a Jew, and I was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but was brought up here in this city, and thoroughly educated under the teaching of Gamaliel in the Law of our forefathers. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.

Paul wished to take this man on with him, and so on account of the Jews in that district he had him circumcised, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

They praised God when they heard it, and they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousand believers there are among the Jews, all of them zealous upholders of the Law.

And some of the Pharisees said, "Why do you do what it is against the Law to do on the Sabbath?"

and how I surpassed many of my own age among my people in my devotion to Judaism, I was so fanatically devoted to what my forefathers had handed down.

so that you may have a sense of what is vital, and may be men of transparent character and blameless life, in preparation for the Day of Christ,

So let us keep the festival, not with old yeast nor with the yeast of vice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of purity and truth.

For my boast is what my conscience tells me, that my relations to the world and still more to you have been marked by pure motives and godly sincerity, not by worldly shrewdness but by the favor of God.

For I am no peddler of God's message, like most men, but like a man of sincerity, commissioned by God and in his presence, in union with Christ I utter his message.

and to love him with one's whole heart, one's whole understanding, and one's whole strength, and to love one's neighbor as one's self is far more than all these burnt-offerings and sacrifices."

A religious observance that is pure and stainless in the sight of God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their trouble, and keep one's self unstained by the world.

Meanwhile as the people gathered in thousands, until they actually trod on one another, he proceeded to say to his disciples first of all, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, hypocrisy.

They profess to know God, but they disown him by what they do; they are detestable, disobedient men, worthless for any good purpose.

through the pretensions of liars??en with seared consciences

So you outwardly appear to men to be upright, but within you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

but now that you know God, or rather have come to be known by him, how can you turn back to the old, crude notions, so poor and weak, and wish to become slaves to them again?

and they will not eat anything from the market without first purifying it by sprinkling it, and they have a number of other observances which have come down to them, in the way of washing cups, pitchers, and basins.

Then why do you now try to test God, by putting on the necks of these disciples a yoke that neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear?

This is the freedom with which Christ has freed us. So stand firm in it, and do not get under a yoke of slavery again.

If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things, why do you act as though you still belonged to the world, and submit to rules like

though he did not fail to give some evidence about himself, through his kindnesses to you, in sending you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, giving you food and happiness to your heart's content."

For as I was going about and looking at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: 'To an Unknown God.' So it is what you already worship in ignorance that I am now telling you of. God who created the world and all that is in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples built by human hands, nor is he waited on by human hands as though he were in need of anything, for he himself gives all men life and breath and everything. read more.
From one forefather he has created every nation of mankind, and made them live all over the face of the earth, fixing their appointed times and the limits of their lands, so that they might search for God, and perhaps grope for him and find him, though he is never far from any of us. For it is through union with him that we live and move and exist, as some of your poets have said, " 'For we are also his offspring.'

But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas, right before them all, "If you live like a heathen, and not like a Jew, though you are a Jew yourself, why should you try to make the heathen live like Jews?"

Why do you keep looking at the speck in your brother's eye, and pay no attention to the beam that is in your own?

So do everything they tell you, and observe it all, but do not do as they do, for they talk but do not act.

Whoever says, "I know him," but does not obey his commands, is a liar, and there is no truth in his heart;

Blessing and cursing issue from the same mouth! This is not right, my brothers.

Faith made Abel's sacrifice greater in the sight of God than Cain's; through faith he gained God's approval as an upright man, for God himself approved his offering, and through faith even when he was dead he still spoke.

If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety in the treatment of their own families, and to return the care of those who brought them up, for that is what God approves.

If some brother or sister has no clothes and has not food enough for a day, and one of you says to them, "Goodbye, keep warm and have plenty to eat," without giving them the necessaries of life, what good does it do?

And the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John.

And his father Zechariah was filled with the holy Spirit and he uttered a divine message, saying, "Blessings on the Lord, the God of Israel, Because he has turned his attention to his people, and brought about their deliverance, And he has produced a mighty Savior for us In the house of his servant David. read more.
"By the lips of his holy prophets he promised of old to do this??71 To save us from our enemies and from the hands of all who hate us, Thus showing mercy to our forefathers, And keeping his sacred agreement, "And the oath that he swore to our forefather Abraham, That we should be delivered from the hands of our enemies, And should serve him in holiness and uprightness, unafraid, In his own presence all our lives. "And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, For you will go before the Lord to make his way ready, Bringing his people the knowledge of salvation Through the forgiveness of their sins. "Because the heart of our God is merciful, And so the day will dawn upon us from on high, To shine on men who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, And guide our feet into the way of peace."

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of being reminded of your genuine faith, a faith that was seen first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice; I am sure it is in you also.

"Master, take pity on my son, for he has epilepsy, and is very wretched; he often falls into the fire or into the water.

of being reminded of your genuine faith, a faith that was seen first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice; I am sure it is in you also.

"When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they like to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the squares, to let people see them. I tell you, that is the only reward they will get!

And right then in the night, he took them and washed their wounds, and he and all his household were baptized immediately.

She had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Master's feet, and listened to what he was saying.

When she and her household were baptized, she appealed to us, and said, "If you are really convinced that I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." And she insisted upon our coming.

for he was an excellent man, full of the holy Spirit and faith. So a considerable number of people came over to the Lord.

They profess to know God, but they disown him by what they do; they are detestable, disobedient men, worthless for any good purpose.

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, if you pose as a judge, for when you pass judgment on someone else, you are condemning yourself, for you, who sit in judgment, do the very same things yourself.

There was also a prophetess there named Hannah, the daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was very old, for after her girlhood she had been married for seven years, and she had been a widow until she was now eighty-four. She never left the Temple, but worshipped night and day with fasting and prayer.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Symeon, an upright, devout man, who was living in expectation of the comforting of Israel, and under the influence of the holy Spirit. It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not die without seeing the Lord's Messiah. And under the Spirit's influence he went into the Temple, and when Jesus' parents brought him there to do for him what the Law required, read more.
Symeon also took him in his arms and blessed God, and said, "Now, Master, you will let your slave go free In peace, as you promised, For my eyes have seen your salvation Which you have set before all the nations, A light of revelation for the heathen, And a glory to your people Israel!" The child's father and mother were astonished at what Symeon said. And he gave them his blessing, and said to Mary, the child's mother, "This child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a portent that will be much debated??35 you yourself will be pierced to the heart??nd so the thoughts of many minds will be revealed."

There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the Law, highly respected by all the Jews who lived there,

So the father knew that it was the very time when Jesus had said to him "Your son is going to live." And he and his whole household believed in Jesus.

He was a devout man, who feared God, as did all the members of his household. He was liberal in charities to the people, and always prayed to God.

Why do you call me: 'Lord! Lord!' and not do what I tell you?

But if a person undergoes circumcision on a Sabbath, to avoid breaking the Law of Moses, are you angry at me for making a man perfectly well on a Sabbath?

When he had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he went to Capernaum. A Roman captain had a slave whom he thought a great deal of, and the slave was sick and at the point of death. When the captain heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, to ask him to come and save his slave's life. read more.
And they went to Jesus and urged him strongly to do it, and said, "He deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue." So Jesus went with them. But when he was not far from the house, the captain sent some friends to him, to say to him, "Master, do not take any more trouble, for I am not a suitable person to have you under my roof. That is why I did not think I was fit to come to you. But simply say the word, and have my servant cured. For I am myself under the orders of others, and I have soldiers under me, and I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes, and my slave to do something, and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was astonished at him, and turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, "I tell you, I have not found such faith as this even in Israel!" And when the messengers went back to the house, they found the slave well.

"Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you." And he went and told all over the town what Jesus had done for him.

And he who has sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him."

Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Symeon, an upright, devout man, who was living in expectation of the comforting of Israel, and under the influence of the holy Spirit.

and she had been a widow until she was now eighty-four. She never left the Temple, but worshipped night and day with fasting and prayer.

Now the woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician birth. And she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the babe stirred within her. And Elizabeth was filled with the holy Spirit

And Mary said, "My heart extols the Lord,

of being reminded of your genuine faith, a faith that was seen first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice; I am sure it is in you also.