Most of us aren’t exactly planning to sin. However, sometimes, we talk or react in a way that the Bible doesn’t support and, in fact, it outright condemns. It’s the daily habits that seem to be the most serious. You know the kind, it’s the sort of stuff that happens while you’re stuck in the middle of traffic or at home. Here are nine everyday behaviors that the Bible clearly condemns, as well as the Bible verses that say so. Do any of these surprise you?
1. Gossiping about others
Talking about other people doesn’t necessarily sound ugly at first, and you might simply ask other people, “Did you hear what happened?” or “I probably shouldn’t say this, but…” Perhaps you shouldn’t. Proverbs 16:28 says that gossip separates close friends, with the Hebrew phrasing specifically referring to someone who spreads damaging information behind someone else’s back.
That sounds an awful lot like gossip. In fact, Paul also mentions in Romans 1:29-30 that gossips & slanderers are committing serious moral failures, rather than these habits being minor quirks. The issue here involves damaging someone’s reputation in private. No matter how conversational it might feel, Scripture refers to it as a kind of wrongdoing that we should avoid.
2. Any kind of lying
Sure, some lies seem relatively small, whether that’s because they’re polite exaggerations or omissions that change the story slightly. Yet Proverbs 12:22 warns against them by saying, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” It’s something that Paul also warns against in Colossians 3:9, where he says, “Do not lie to one another,” with the Greek word pseudomai literally referring to that act of speaking falsely.
Bible scholar Douglas Moo actually wrote in the Pillar New Testament Commentary that the instruction is directed at any kind of lying in a relationship, rather than only the big ones. There’s no exception for little white lies whatsoever. Revelation 21:8 also states that “all liars” are among the people who are excluded from the holy city.
3. Holding grudges and refusing to forgive
You might think that forgiveness is optional, yet the Gospels have something else to say about that. Jesus directly says in Matthew 6:14-15 that forgiving others is related to being forgiven yourself, and Mark 11:25 takes this idea a step further. It says that you should forgive anyone you hold something against.
A lot of these ideas of forgiveness come from first-century Jewish prayer traditions, which included instructions about forgiveness before approaching God. You shouldn’t choose to keep your resentment alive because it does nobody any good.
4. Explosive anger and verbal outbursts
It’s easy to think that losing your temper feels justified in the moment. But Galatians 5:19-21 includes warnings from Paul, where he says that fits of rage are some of the behaviors that work as “acts of the flesh.” The passage uses the Greek word thumoi, a word that directly translates to sudden outbursts of anger.
Also, in James 1:20, it says that anger doesn’t lead to the kind of righteousness that God is looking for, so it’s clearly something we should avoid. Scripture sees uncontrolled rage as something we have to be mindful of.
5. Favoritism based on wealth or status
There’s a rather familiar scene in James 2 that we’ve likely all come across before. It involves a wealthy person entering and getting better treatment than a poor person who gets sidelined. Really, the whole idea of showing favoritism towards someone because of their wealth or status connects to judging people based on their appearance.
You’re essentially saying that someone is a better person somehow, simply because of their status. That’s not right. The truth is, the Bible repeatedly condemns people who show preferential treatment to other people because of their visible status.
6. Withholding help when you could give it
Not doing something can be as bad as actually doing something, apparently. James 4:17 clearly states, “If anyone knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” What does that mean? It’s saying that knowing that you could help, but willingly choosing not to, is a kind of sin. 1 John 3:17 goes into this idea in more detail.
It talks about someone with material possessions who chooses to close their heart to another person in need, although it’s more of a real-life & visible need than anything hypothetical. The issue here comes from people seeing and refusing to help others, rather than them lacking any awareness.
7. Judging others hypocritically
Practically everyone has heard the idea that you shouldn’t judge other people. However, Matthew 7:1-5 is even more specific about it by talking about someone who points out a tiny speck in another person’s eye, despite them having a plank in their own eye. It’s hypocritical. Yes, the exaggeration might sound like a lot, but Bible scholar R.T. France argues there’s a reason for that.
He says that it’s meant to be cartoonish to really stress to people how bad it is to have double standards when dealing with other people. Judging others while you excuse yourself is a real kind of double standard, and it’s one that we really should avoid doing. Don’t be strict outward & soft inward.
8. Repaying an insult with another insult
The idea of “an eye for an eye” doesn’t necessarily hold up everywhere in the Bible, as 1 Peter 3:9 instructs, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.” The word “insult” here comes from the Greek word loidoría that refers to abusive speech. In this part of the Bible, Peter was talking to the believers facing hostility from others, according to scholar Wayne Grudem, and it’s a message that still stands.
There’s no justifying insulting someone because they started it, and responding to insults with more insults is directly prohibited. The Bible says you shouldn’t do it at all.
9. Complaining and grumbling habitually
There’s having a bad day & complaining about it, and then there’s continually complaining about your issues. According to Philippians 2:14, we should “do everything without grumbling or arguing,” and Paul connects constant grumbling with Israel’s wilderness complaints in 1 Corinthians 10:10.
He is intentionally trying to bring up how ongoing complaints go against God’s provisions. One tired comment is hardly an issue. No, it’s continually sharing how dissatisfied you are, which is a real problem, and it’s something we should stop instead of merely normalizing.
One thing that some people seem to forget is how often the Bible refers to ordinary things as sins. Things like gossip, anger, lying, insulting & complaining are a regular part of our lives, and that’s part of the reason why we often overlook them. But it’s clear that Scripture sees these everyday habits as being morally bad.
