100 Bible Verses about Hostility Between Friends

1 John 2:1-29 ESV / 9 helpful votes

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ...

James 4:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes

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

John 16:33 ESV / 9 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.”

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

John 3:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Proverbs 20:19 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a simple babbler.

James 4:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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.

Galatians 5:20 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 5 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.

Proverbs 19:11 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

1 Peter 1:1-5:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ...

James 4:1-17 ESV / 4 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 1:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Colossians 3:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Ephesians 4:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Proverbs 29:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression.

Proverbs 17:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

2 Corinthians 12:20 ESV / 3 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.

Luke 17:3-4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Proverbs 29:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

Proverbs 17:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out.

Proverbs 16:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.

Proverbs 10:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.

Genesis 3:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Revelation 13:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

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.

2 Peter 1:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

1 Peter 2:1-25 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— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ...

James 4:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

James 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

James 2:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

James 1:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

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;

1 Timothy 2:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

1 Timothy 2:1-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ...

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— ...

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Colossians 3:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Colossians 1:1-29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, ...

Ephesians 5:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 4:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 2:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Ephesians 2:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,

Ephesians 2:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Ephesians 2:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Ephesians 2:1-22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ...

Ephesians 2:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

Galatians 2:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 1:1-24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. ...

2 Corinthians 5:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

1 Corinthians 2:1-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. ...

Romans 8:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 2 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

Romans 5:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Romans 5:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:1-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ...

Romans 1:1-32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, ...

John 17:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

John 17:1-26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. ...

John 16:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

John 16:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

John 15:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.

John 15:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever hates me hates my Father also.

John 15:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 15:1-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ...

John 14:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 12:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

John 7:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:1-36 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ...

John 1:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

Luke 19:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’”

Matthew 21:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

Matthew 18:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Matthew 12:39 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Matthew 6:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Nahum 1:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

Hosea 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”

Jeremiah 9:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men.

Jeremiah 2:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

Isaiah 57:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But you, draw near, sons of the sorceress, offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman.

Isaiah 41:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;

Song of Solomon 2:1-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women. As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. ...

Proverbs 27:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

Proverbs 20:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.

Proverbs 15:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.

Proverbs 15:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.

Proverbs 15:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 14:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

Proverbs 12:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult.

Psalm 50:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.

Psalm 21:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you.

Psalm 19:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Job 32:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He burned with anger also at Job's three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong.

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