31 Bible Verses about Ritual

Now when the period of their purification ended, in accordance with the law of Moses, they took Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord, to do as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every first born male shall be counted consecrated to the Lord," and to offer the sacrifice in accordance with what is specified in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons."

There came to Him a leper, begging Him on his knees, saying to Him, "If you want to, you can cure me." And His heart was moved with pity for him, so He stretched out His hand and touched him, and said, "I do want to! Be cured!" And the leprosy at once left him, and he was cured.read more.
But Jesus at once drove him out of their presence, and gave him this stringent charge: "See that you tell nobody a single word about it. Be gone, show yourself to the priest, and to prove it to the people, make the offering for your purification which Moses prescribed."

And a leper came up to Him, and prostrated himself before Him, and said, "Lord, if you choose to, you can cure me." Then He put out His hand and touched him, and said, "I do choose to; be cured." And at once his leprosy was cured. Then Jesus said to him, "See that you tell nobody, but go, show yourself to the priest, and, to testify to the people, make the offering that Moses prescribed."

Now while He was in one of the towns, a man covered with leprosy saw Jesus and fell on his face and begged Him, saying, "Lord, if you choose to, you can cure me." So He reached out His hand and touched him, saying, "I do choose to; be cured." And at once the leprosy left him. Then He warned him not to tell anybody, but rather He said, "Go, show yourself to the priest, and, to prove it to the people, make the offering for your purification, just as Moses prescribed."

but we should write them to abstain from everything that is contaminated by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from tasting blood.

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Just look! Your disciples are doing something that it is against the law to do on the sabbath!"

So the Pharisees were saying to Him, "Just look! Why are they doing on the Sabbath what it is against the law to do?"

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

Now circumcision benefits you only if you practice the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision is no better than uncircumcision.

And He said, "Are you too, even yet, without understanding? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and afterwards into the waste? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they make the man foul.read more.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, immorality, stealing, false witnessing, irreverent speech. These are the things that make a man foul, but eating with unwashed hands does not make a man foul."

And He answered them, "Are you too without understanding yet? Do you not know that nothing from the outside that goes into a man can make him foul, because it does not reach his heart but only his stomach, and then passes off into the waste?" In thus speaking He made all foods clean. He kept on saying, "The thing that comes from the inside of a man is the thing that makes him foul,read more.
for from the inside, that is, from the hearts of men, designs for doing evil come, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, abusiveness, haughtiness, thoughtlessness. All these evils come from the inside of a man and make him foul."

A curse on you, you hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of your greed and self-indulgence.

For the real Jew is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, and real circumcision is not outward physical circumcision. The real Jew is the man who is a Jew on the inside, and real circumcision is heart-circumcision, a spiritual, not a literal, affair. This man's praise originates, not with men, but with God.

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

Food will never bring us near to God. We are no worse if we do not eat it; we are no better if we do.

These were but the shadow of what was coming; the reality belongs to Christ.

Then He said to them, "The Sabbath was made to serve man and not man to keep the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

And through your union with Him you once received, not a hand-performed circumcision but one performed by Christ, in stripping you of your lower nature,

For since the law cast only a shadow of the blessings to come and did not possess the reality itself of those blessings, the priests with the same sacrifices that are perpetually offered year after year cannot make perfect those who come to worship. Otherwise, would they not have ceased offering them, because those who offered them, having once been purified, would have had no further consciousness of sins? On the other hand, through these sacrifices there is given a real reminder of their sins,

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.

because it does not reach his heart but only his stomach, and then passes off into the waste?" In thus speaking He made all foods clean.

The next day, while those men were traveling on and not far from the town, Peter went up on the housetop about noon to pray. But he got very hungry and wanted something to eat. While they were getting it ready, he fell into a trance and saw the sky opened, and something like a great sheet coming down, lowered to the earth by the four corners,read more.
which contained all kinds of four-footed animals, reptiles, and wild birds. A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill something and eat it." But Peter said, "Never by any means, sir, for I have never eaten anything common, or not ceremonially cleansed." A second time the voice came to him, "The things that God has cleansed you must not call unclean."

But now we have been freed from our relation to the law; we have ended our relation to that by which we once were held in bonds, so that we may serve in a new spiritual way and not in the old literalistic way.

I know, and through my union with the Lord Jesus I have a clear conviction, that nothing is unclean in itself; that a thing is unclean only to the person who thinks it unclean.

For in union with Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor lack of it counts for anything; but only faith that is spurred on to action by love.

For neither circumcision nor the lack of it has any value, but only a new creation.

through His human nature He has put a stop to the hostility between us, namely, the law with its commands and decrees, in order to create one new humanity out of the two parties and so make peace through union with Himself, and in one body

Yes, although you were dead through your shortcomings and were physically uncircumcised, God made you live again through fellowship with Christ. He graciously forgave us all our shortcomings, canceled the note that stood against us, with its requirements, and has put it out of our way by nailing it to the cross. He thus stripped the principalities and dominions of power and made a public display of them, triumphing over them by the cross.read more.
Stop letting anyone pass judgment on you in matters of eating and drinking, or in the matter of annual or monthly feasts or sabbaths.