34 Bible Verses about Religion

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.

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

But you, dearly beloved, must continue to build yourselves up on the groundwork of your most holy faith and to pray in the Holy Spirit; you must keep yourselves in the love of God and continue to wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to bring you to eternal life.

Now for this very reason you must do your level best to supplement your faith with moral character, moral character with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with patient endurance, patient endurance with piety, piety with brotherly affection, brotherly affection with universal love. read more.
For if you have these qualities and they continue to increase in you, they will make you neither idle nor unproductive in attaining a full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is blind -- or short-sighted-- and forgetful of the cleansing that he has received from his former sins.

"Teacher, what sort of command is greatest in the law?" And He answered him, "'You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind.' This is the greatest command, and is first in importance. read more.
The second is like it: 'You must love your neighbor as you do yourself.' The essence of the whole law and the prophets is packed into these two commands."

since they deal only with food and drink and various washings, that is, with mere material regulations which are in force only until the time of setting things straight.

Being circumcised or not being circumcised has no value, but keeping God's commands is important.

They profess to know God, but by their actions they disown Him; they are detestable, disobedient, and useless for anything good.

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will get into the kingdom of heaven, but only those who practice doing the will of my Father in heaven.

"So why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' but do not practice what I tell you?

keeping up the forms of religion but not giving expression to its power. Avoid such people.

"A curse on you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees! For you pay tithes on mint and dill and cummin, and yet leave out the more vital matters of the law, justice, love and fidelity. These latter especially you ought to have done, but ought not to have left out the former.

If once through fellowship with Christ you died and were separated from the world's crude notions, why do you live as though you belonged to the world? Why submit to rules such as,

Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not everyone of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey and lead him out of the stable to water him?

He said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and as the carrier of the purse for the Twelve he was in the habit of taking what was put into it.

For such men are really not serving our Lord Christ but their own base appetites, and by their fair and flattering talk they are deceiving the hearts of unsuspecting people.

But Jesus saw their malicious plot, and so asked, "Why are you testing me so, you hypocrites?

You hypocrites! You know how to interpret day by day the look of earth and sky. Then how is it that you do not know how to interpret the present crisis?

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

Paul wanted this man to join him in his journey; so on account of the Jews in that district he took him and had him circumcised, for everybody knew that his father was a Greek.

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.

And some of the Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is against the law to do on the Sabbath?"

and how I outstripped many of my own age among my people in my devotion to the Jewish religion, because I surpassed all others in my zeal for the traditions handed down by my forefathers.

so that you may always approve the better things, and be men of transparent character and blameless life,

So let us keep our feast, not with old yeast nor with the yeast of vice and wickedness, but with the bread of purity and truth without the yeast.

For my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

Now who is qualified for such a task? I am, for I am not a peddler of God's message, like the most of them, but like a man of sincerity, like a man that is sent from God and living in His presence, in union with Christ I speak 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 loves himself is far more than all the burnt-offerings and sacrifices."

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

Meanwhile as the people had gathered in tens of thousands, so that they were trampling upon one another, He began to say, first of all, to His disciples: "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, hypocrisy.

They profess to know God, but by their actions they disown Him; they are detestable, disobedient, and useless for anything good.

through the pretensions of false teachers, men with seared consciences,

So you, too, on the outside seem to people to be upright, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again?

and will never eat until they have carefully washed their hands, and they never eat anything brought from the market until they wash it; and they have many other religious practices which they got from their forefathers, as the washing of cups, pitchers, and pans.

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?

This is the freedom with which Christ has made us free. So keep on standing in it, and stop letting your necks be fastened in the yoke of slavery again.

If once through fellowship with Christ you died and were separated from the world's crude notions, why do you live as though you belonged to the world? Why submit to rules such as,

though He did not fail to furnish evidences about Himself, in constantly showing His kindness to you, in sending you rain from heaven and fruit-producing seasons, in giving you food and happiness to your heart's content."

For as I was going here and there and looking at the things you worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' So it is about the Being whom you are in ignorance already worshiping that I am telling you. The God who made the world and all that it contains, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by human hands, nor is He served by human hands as though He were in need of anything, for He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. read more.
From one forefather He made every nation of mankind, for living all over the face of the earth, fixing their appointed times and the limits of their lands, so that they might search for God, possibly they might grope for Him, and find Him, though He is really not far from any of us. For it is through union with Him that we live and move and exist, as some of your own poets have said, "'For we are His offspring too.'

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

you who teach others, do you not teach yourself too? You who preach that men should not steal, do you steal yourself?

Why do you keep watching the tiny speck in your brother's eye, but pay no attention to the girder in your own?

So everything they tell you, do and practice, but stop doing what they do, for they preach but do not practice.

Whoever says, "I know Him," but does not practice obedience to His commands is a liar, and there is no truth in his heart;

Out of the same mouth flow blessing and cursing! It ought not to be like this, my brothers.

By faith Abel offered a sacrifice more acceptable to God than Cain did, for by it he was approved as an upright man, since God approved him for the offering he made; and by it he still continues to speak, though dead.

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in the treatment of their own families, and to pay the debt they owe their parents or grandparents, for this is acceptable to God.

If some brother or sister is thinly clad and has no food for the day, and one of you says to him, "Blessings on you, keep warm, eat until you have aplenty," without giving him the things that are needed for the body, what good does it do?

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

Now his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he uttered the following prophecy: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for He has come and brought His people deliverance; and He has made a mighty Saviour for us in the house of His servant David, read more.
"as He promised by the lips of His ancient prophets, deliverance from our foes and from the hands of all who hate us, to show mercy to our forefathers, and carry out His sacred covenant, the oath which He swore to our forefather Abraham, to grant us deliverance from the dreaded hand of our foes, so that we could serve Him in holiness and uprightness In His own presence all our days. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to make ready His ways, to give 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 those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

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on being reminded of your genuine faith, a faith that first found a home in the heart of your grandmother Lois, then in the heart of your mother Eunice, and now in yours too, I am sure.

"Lord, do pity my son, for he has epilepsy and suffers excruciating pain, and often falls into the fire or into the water.

on being reminded of your genuine faith, a faith that first found a home in the heart of your grandmother Lois, then in the heart of your mother Eunice, and now in yours too, I am sure.

"Also, whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, to attract the attention of people. I solemnly say to you, they already have their reward.

Even at that time of the night he took them and washed their wounds, and he and all the members of his household at once were baptized.

She had a sister named Mary who took her seat at the Lord's feet, and remained listening to His message.

When she and her household were baptized, she begged us by continuing to say, "If you have made up your mind that I am a real believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." And she continued to insist that we do so.

for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. So a large number of people were united to the Lord.

They profess to know God, but by their actions they disown Him; they are detestable, disobedient, and useless for anything good.

Therefore, you have no excuse, whoever you are, who pose as a judge of others, for when you pass judgment on another, you condemn yourself, for you who pose as a judge are practicing the very same sins yourself.

There was also a prophetess there, Hannah, a daughter of Phanuel, who belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was very old; from girlhood she had lived seven years with a husband, and now had been a widow eighty years. She never left the temple, but continued to worship all day and all night with fastings and prayers.

Now there was in Jerusalem a man named Symeon, an upright, devout man; he was expecting to see the consolation of Israel, and he was under the guidance 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. So under the Spirit's guidance he went into the temple, and when the parents brought the child Jesus there to do for Him as the custom of 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 have promised; for my eyes have seen your Salvation, which you prepared before all peoples, a light of revelation to the heathen, and a glory to your people Israel." And His father and mother kept wondering at the things spoken by Symeon about Him. Then Symeon gave them his blessing, and said to Mary, the child's mother, "This child is destined to bring the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign continuously disputed -- yea, a sword will pierce your heart -- so that the secret purposes of many hearts will be revealed."

There a man named Ananias, a man devout in strict accordance with the law, of good reputation among all the Jews who lived there,

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

He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means, the Christ).

a religious man, too, who revered God with all his household, who was always liberal in his many deeds of charity to the people, and who had the habit of praying to God.

"So why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' but do not practice what I tell you?

Well, if a male child undergoes circumcision on the Sabbath, to keep the law of Moses from being broken, are you angry with me for making a man perfectly well on the Sabbath?

When He had finished all these sayings in the hearing of the people, He went into Capernaum. There was a Roman captain who had a slave that was very dear to him, and he 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 bring his slave safe through the illness. read more.
So they went to Jesus and continued to urge Him earnestly, saying, "He deserves that you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the man who built us our synagogue." Then Jesus started to go with them. But when He was not far from the house, the captain sent friends to say to Him, "My Lord, stop troubling yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. And so I did not deem myself worthy even to come to you. But simply speak the word, and let my servant-boy be cured. For I too am under authority of others, and have soldiers under me, and I order one to go, and he goes, another to come, and he comes, my slave to do this, and he does it." When Jesus heard this, He was astounded at him, and turning to the crowd that was following Him He said, "I tell you, I have not found, in a single case among the Jews, so great faith as this!" Then the messengers returned to the house and found the slave well.

"Go back to your home, and continue to tell what great things God has done for you." But he went off and told all over the town what great things Jesus had done for him.

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward Him, and said of him, "Here is a genuine Israelite with no deceit in him!"

Yes, He who sent me is ever with me; I am not alone, because I always practice what pleases Him."

Now there was in Jerusalem a man named Symeon, an upright, devout man; he was expecting to see the consolation of Israel, and he was under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

She was very old; from girlhood she had lived seven years with a husband, and now had been a widow eighty years. She never left the temple, but continued to worship all day and all night with fastings and prayers.

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.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped within her. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

Then Mary said: "My soul extols the Lord;

on being reminded of your genuine faith, a faith that first found a home in the heart of your grandmother Lois, then in the heart of your mother Eunice, and now in yours too, I am sure.