What Does the Bible Say About Confront Wrong Doing?

Romans 12:17-21 ESV / 97 helpful votes

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Titus 3:10 ESV / 89 helpful votes

As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,

Matthew 18:15-17 ESV / 86 helpful votes

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Galatians 6:1 ESV / 66 helpful votes

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Matthew 18:15 ESV / 52 helpful votes

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

Titus 2:15 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 33 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.

Proverbs 16:28 ESV / 33 helpful votes

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

1 John 1:9 ESV / 31 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Ephesians 4:26 ESV / 29 helpful votes

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

Galatians 6:1-2 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Luke 17:3 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,

2 Timothy 4:2 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.

Luke 17:3-4 ESV / 22 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 27:17 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 15:1 ESV / 19 helpful votes

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Colossians 3:9 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices

Ephesians 4:25 ESV / 17 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 7:24 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

1 Peter 3:9 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

1 Corinthians 13:7 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 13 helpful votes

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

1 Corinthians 5:1-13 ESV / 12 helpful votes

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. ...

Romans 14:4 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Matthew 18:16 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Matthew 18:1-35 ESV / 12 helpful votes

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ...

Matthew 6:14-15 ESV / 12 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.

James 5:19-20 ESV / 10 helpful votes

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Proverbs 26:3 ESV / 10 helpful votes

A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 10 helpful votes

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Romans 14:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

Romans 5:8 ESV / 9 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 5:5 ESV / 8 helpful votes

You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Matthew 5:23-24 ESV / 8 helpful votes

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Proverbs 19:11 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

Colossians 3:3 ESV / 7 helpful votes

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 7 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.

Matthew 5:1-48 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. ...

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.

Luke 17:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Leviticus 6:2-7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“If anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against the Lord by deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security, or through robbery, or if he has oppressed his neighbor or has found something lost and lied about it, swearing falsely—in any of all the things that people do and sin thereby— if he has sinned and has realized his guilt and will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely, he shall restore it in full and shall add a fifth to it, and give it to him to whom it belongs on the day he realizes his guilt. And he shall bring to the priest as his compensation to the Lord a ram without blemish out of the flock, or its equivalent, for a guilt offering. ...

John 20:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Mark 11:25 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Matthew 21:12-13 ESV / 5 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. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

Matthew 18:35 ESV / 5 helpful votes

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Matthew 18:17 ESV / 5 helpful votes

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

1 Peter 3:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,

Titus 1:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

1 Timothy 5:1-25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, ...

1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

Colossians 3:13 ESV / 4 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.

Romans 13:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,

Romans 12:1-21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ...

Romans 1:32 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Leviticus 19:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.

Isaiah 1:1-66:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ...

Numbers 8:1-26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and say to him, When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand.” And Aaron did so: he set up its lamps in front of the lampstand, as the Lord commanded Moses. And this was the workmanship of the lampstand, hammered work of gold. From its base to its flowers, it was hammered work; according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ...

58 Bible Verses about Confront Wrong Doing

Romans 12:17-21 ESV / 97 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Titus 3:10 ESV / 89 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 18:15-17 ESV / 86 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 6:1 ESV / 66 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 18:15 ESV / 52 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Titus 2:15 ESV / 34 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 33 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 16:28 ESV / 33 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 1:9 ESV / 31 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 4:26 ESV / 29 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 6:1-2 ESV / 25 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 17:3 ESV / 25 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Timothy 4:2 ESV / 22 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 17:3-4 ESV / 22 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 27:17 ESV / 19 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 15:1 ESV / 19 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 3:9 ESV / 17 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 4:25 ESV / 17 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 7:24 ESV / 17 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 3:9 ESV / 16 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 13:7 ESV / 15 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 13 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 5:1-13 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 14:4 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 18:16 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 18:1-35 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 6:14-15 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 5:19-20 ESV / 10 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 26:3 ESV / 10 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 18:22 ESV / 10 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 14:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 5:8 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 5:5 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:23-24 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 19:11 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 3:3 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 3:16-17 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:1-48 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 3:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 17:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 6:2-7 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 20:23 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 11:25 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 21:12-13 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 18:35 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 18:17 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 3:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Titus 1:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Timothy 5:1-25 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 3:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 13:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 12:1-21 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 1:32 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 19:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 1:1-66:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Numbers 8:1-26 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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