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100 Bible Verses about Turning Away From God

2 Peter 2:20-22 ESV / 386 helpful votes

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV / 374 helpful votes

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Isaiah 59:2 ESV / 325 helpful votes

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

Proverbs 14:12 ESV / 245 helpful votes

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 241 helpful votes

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

Hebrews 10:26 ESV / 220 helpful votes

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

John 6:64-69 ESV / 190 helpful votes

But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ...

Ezekiel 33:11 ESV / 172 helpful votes

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Isaiah 53:6 ESV / 162 helpful votes

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Romans 5:8 ESV / 137 helpful votes

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

John 15:5 ESV / 130 helpful votes

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.

2 Timothy 2:13 ESV / 120 helpful votes

If we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

Joshua 23:12-13 ESV / 120 helpful votes

For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the Lord your God has given you.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV / 107 helpful votes

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

John 10:10 ESV / 103 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

1 Corinthians 5:11 ESV / 101 helpful votes

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

Ephesians 2:8 ESV / 100 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Acts 3:19 ESV / 97 helpful votes

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,

2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV / 86 helpful votes

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Romans 10:9-10 ESV / 84 helpful votes

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

John 10:17-18 ESV / 80 helpful votes

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV / 74 helpful votes

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 6:23 ESV / 73 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 72 helpful votes

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Luke 15:11-32 ESV / 66 helpful votes

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ...

Titus 3:5 ESV / 65 helpful votes

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Acts 17:30 ESV / 63 helpful votes

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

Proverbs 28:13 ESV / 63 helpful votes

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 62 helpful votes

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Jeremiah 3:22 ESV / 61 helpful votes

“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God.

Jonah 2:8 ESV / 59 helpful votes

Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.

Acts 2:38 ESV / 58 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV / 57 helpful votes

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

James 5:19-20 ESV / 56 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.

Revelation 3:20 ESV / 55 helpful votes

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV / 52 helpful votes

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

1 Timothy 2:5 ESV / 51 helpful votes

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Matthew 4:17 ESV / 51 helpful votes

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jeremiah 3:12 ESV / 51 helpful votes

Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever.

2 Timothy 2:25 ESV / 48 helpful votes

Correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth,

Lamentations 3:22 ESV / 48 helpful votes

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

Joel 2:13 ESV / 47 helpful votes

And rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV / 45 helpful votes

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Matthew 5:29 ESV / 44 helpful votes

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 43 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 41 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Isaiah 55:6-7 ESV / 41 helpful votes

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Galatians 6:1 ESV / 40 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.

Luke 13:3 ESV / 40 helpful votes

No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Isaiah 30:15 ESV / 39 helpful votes

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,

John 1:14 ESV / 38 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.

Matthew 19:25-26 ESV / 38 helpful votes

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

2 Peter 2:4 ESV / 37 helpful votes

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

James 1:17 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Romans 5:1 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mark 1:15 ESV / 37 helpful votes

And saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jeremiah 3:13 ESV / 36 helpful votes

Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord.

1 Peter 3:18 ESV / 35 helpful votes

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

1 Timothy 2:4 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Ephesians 5:5 ESV / 34 helpful votes

For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Jeremiah 2:5 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?

Hebrews 4:15 ESV / 33 helpful votes

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Ephesians 2:9 ESV / 33 helpful votes

Not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

John 1:12-13 ESV / 33 helpful votes

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Revelation 14:10 ESV / 32 helpful votes

He also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

Luke 1:37 ESV / 32 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Ezekiel 18:32 ESV / 32 helpful votes

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”

Matthew 5:48 ESV / 31 helpful votes

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jeremiah 3:1 ESV / 31 helpful votes

“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord.

Psalm 51:1 ESV / 31 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

Proverbs 1:32 ESV / 30 helpful votes

For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them;

2 Kings 17:13 ESV / 30 helpful votes

Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV / 29 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

2 Corinthians 6:2 ESV / 29 helpful votes

For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Numbers 14:43 ESV / 29 helpful votes

For there the Amalekites and the Canaanites are facing you, and you shall fall by the sword. Because you have turned back from following the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 28 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,

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 28 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2 Timothy 2:20-21 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Acts 11:18 ESV / 28 helpful votes

When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Luke 24:46-47 ESV / 28 helpful votes

And said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Romans 7:1-25 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ...

Romans 3:23 ESV / 26 helpful votes

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

Romans 2:4 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Acts 20:21 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 25 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.

Lamentations 5:21 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old—

Daniel 9:13 ESV / 24 helpful votes

As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth.

James 4:8 ESV / 23 helpful votes

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Zechariah 7:12 ESV / 23 helpful votes

They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts.

Jeremiah 31:19 ESV / 23 helpful votes

For after I had turned away, I relented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

John 3:16 ESV / 22 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 24:47 ESV / 22 helpful votes

And that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Habakkuk 1:11 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

Hosea 1:2 ESV / 21 helpful votes

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

Matthew 5:13 ESV / 20 helpful votes

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

Proverbs 3:7 ESV / 19 helpful votes

Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

John 11:35 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Jesus wept.

Proverbs 11:9 ESV / 17 helpful votes

With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.

Matthew 5:29-30 ESV / 16 helpful votes

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

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