What Does the Bible Say About Criticizing?

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 88 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 12:3 ESV / 27 helpful votes

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.

James 5:16 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

3 John 1:9-10 ESV / 9 helpful votes

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

Luke 24:25-26 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Luke 22:26 ESV / 6 helpful votes

But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.

Matthew 23:23-24 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

John 14:6 ESV / 5 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.

1 Timothy 2:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

John 8:1-11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” ...

Luke 13:15-16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

Matthew 23:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Matthew 16:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Isaiah 55:1-13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. ...

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

2 Chronicles 6:30 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then hear from heaven your dwelling place and forgive and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways, for you, you only, know the hearts of the children of mankind,

Deuteronomy 7:1-6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. ...

Acts 15:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

Mark 7:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

Matthew 23:34 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,

Matthew 23:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

Matthew 23:1-3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ...

Matthew 16:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Matthew 16:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Matthew 5:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Ezekiel 34:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.

Ezekiel 34:1-6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; ...

2 Samuel 5:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.’”

Deuteronomy 11:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Jude 1:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Galatians 6:12-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

Galatians 2:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.

Galatians 2:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—

2 Corinthians 11:16-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves! For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. ...

2 Corinthians 11:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

Acts 8:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

Acts 2:42 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Luke 22:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors.

Mark 16:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Matthew 24:35 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Matthew 23:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Matthew 23:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

Matthew 23:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat,

Numbers 12:1-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. ...

47 Bible Verses about Criticizing

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 88 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 12:3 ESV / 27 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 5:16 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

3 John 1:9-10 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 24:25-26 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 22:26 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:23-24 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 14:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Timothy 2:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 8:1-11 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 13:15-16 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 16:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 55:1-13 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Chronicles 6:30 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 7:1-6 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 15:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 7:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:34 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:1-3 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:1-30 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 16:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

Matthew 5:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ezekiel 34:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ezekiel 34:1-6 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Samuel 5:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 11:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jude 1:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 6:12-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 2:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Galatians 2:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 11:16-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 11:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 8:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 2:42 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 22:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 16:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 24:35 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Numbers 12:1-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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