100 Bible Verses about Bitter Truth

James 3:14 ESV / 8 helpful votes

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

Hebrews 12:15 ESV / 8 helpful votes

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

John 14:6 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Ephesians 4:31 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Hebrews 12:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

John 8:32 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Proverbs 12:22 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

1 John 3:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

James 1:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

John 17:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

John 4:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 1:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

James 3:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

1 Timothy 6:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,

Colossians 3:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

Ephesians 4:1-32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ...

1 Corinthians 13:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

1 Corinthians 3:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

Romans 13:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

John 16:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Luke 18:9-14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ ...

Luke 18:1-8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” ...

Matthew 6:14-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 6:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Amos 2:1-3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom. So I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth, and Moab shall die amid uproar, amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet; I will cut off the ruler from its midst, and will kill all its princes with him,” says the Lord.

Isaiah 14:12-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.

Proverbs 27:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?

Proverbs 17:25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.

Proverbs 14:30 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.

Proverbs 14:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger shares its joy.

Psalm 119:160 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Psalm 25:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

Job 10:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Job 5:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.

Deuteronomy 32:35 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’

Deuteronomy 29:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,

Revelation 22:14-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

1 John 5:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

1 John 3:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

1 John 2:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

1 John 1:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

1 Peter 2:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

1 Peter 2:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

James 5:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back,

James 4:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

James 4:1-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

James 4:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

James 1:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

Hebrews 12:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

Hebrews 12:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

Hebrews 12:1-29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. ...

Titus 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Colossians 3:12-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 2:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Philippians 1:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will.

Ephesians 6:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

Ephesians 4:26-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

Ephesians 4:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Galatians 6:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

2 Corinthians 12:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

1 Corinthians 13:4-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

1 Corinthians 5:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

1 Corinthians 5:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

1 Corinthians 4:7-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!

Romans 12:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 8:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 3:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

Romans 2:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.

Romans 2:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God

Romans 2:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

Romans 1:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,

Romans 1:24-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Acts 26:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Acts 13:45 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.

Acts 8:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”

Acts 7:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him

Acts 5:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy

John 18:38 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

John 18:37-38 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

John 16:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

John 8:44 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

John 8:36 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

John 8:31-32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

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