20 Bible Verses About Evil

Genesis 3:4-5

“‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

Reflection: The serpent contradicts what God told the man in Genesis 2:17, that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would bring death. He offers knowledge of good and evil as a way to be like God, and the woman then sees the fruit as “desirable for gaining wisdom” (Genesis 3:6). When both have eaten, their eyes are opened as the serpent said, and they realize they are naked (Genesis 3:7).

John 8:44

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Reflection: Jesus says this to people who have claimed Abraham, and then God, as their father (John 8:39-41). He has just told them they are “looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth.” The verse names two marks of the devil from the beginning, murder and lying, and they match the two charges Jesus brings: seeking to kill him and refusing to believe the truth.

Ephesians 6:12

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Reflection: Paul writes this between the command to “put on the full armor of God” against “the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11) and the list of that armor. The opponents he names are rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world, and verse 13 speaks of “the day of evil” when believers must stand their ground. Part of the armor is the shield of faith, which puts out “the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).

Jeremiah 17:9

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

Reflection: The verse follows a contrast between the person who trusts in man, “whose heart turns away from the Lord,” and the person who trusts in the Lord and is like a tree planted by water (Jeremiah 17:5-8). Jeremiah calls the heart beyond cure and asks who can understand it. The next verse gives God’s answer: “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind.”

Mark 7:21-23

“For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Reflection: Jesus had told the crowd that nothing entering a person from outside defiles them (Mark 7:15). When the disciples asked about the saying indoors, he explained that food goes into the stomach and not the heart, and Mark adds, “Jesus declared all foods clean.” The list that follows starts with evil thoughts and runs through acts such as theft and murder to arrogance and folly, and Jesus places the source of all of them in the heart.

James 1:14-15

“…but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

Reflection: James writes against anyone who says “God is tempting me,” because “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone” (James 1:13). He places the pull of temptation in a person’s own evil desire and traces what follows in the language of birth: desire conceives sin, and sin, once grown, gives birth to death. Verse 17 gives the other side: every good and perfect gift comes from the Father.

Romans 7:19

“For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

Reflection: Paul describes wanting the good and doing the evil, and in the next verse he says, “it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” He adds, “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (Romans 7:21). Near the end of the chapter comes a cry and its answer: “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).

1 Timothy 6:10

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Reflection: Paul sets “godliness with contentment” against the wish to get rich, which he says leads into temptation, a trap and “many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” (1 Timothy 6:6-9). The root he names is the love of money, and he gives its result: some “have wandered from the faith.” In verse 11 he tells Timothy to flee from all this and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Isaiah 5:20

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

Reflection: This is one of the woes in Isaiah 5:18-23, which also fall on people who are wise in their own eyes and on judges who “acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.” Each pair in the verse, evil and good, darkness and light, bitter and sweet, describes putting one thing in the place of its opposite.

Amos 5:15

“Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.”

Reflection: Amos speaks to Israel about people who take bribes, tax the grain of the poor and “deprive the poor of justice in the courts” (Amos 5:11-12). Hating evil in this verse has a definite place: “maintain justice in the courts.” Verse 14 gives the same command with a promise, “Seek good, not evil, that you may live,” yet verse 15 offers the remnant of Joseph only a “perhaps” of mercy.

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

“…but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.”

Reflection: The command closes a run of short instructions to the church in Thessalonica, and “them” means prophecies: “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all” (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21). Testing has two outcomes. What is good is held on to, and every kind of evil is rejected.

1 Peter 5:8

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Reflection: Peter puts the warning right after “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). The next verse tells readers to resist the devil, “standing firm in the faith,” knowing that believers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. Verse 10 promises that God will restore them “after you have suffered a little while.”

James 4:7

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Reflection: The command follows the Scripture James quotes in verse 6, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Resisting the devil is paired with submitting to God, and the next line adds, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James then calls on sinners to wash their hands and on the double-minded to purify their hearts (James 4:8).

Matthew 6:13

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Reflection: These are the last requests of the prayer Jesus introduces with “This, then, is how you should pray” (Matthew 6:9), addressed to “Our Father in heaven.” The NIV reads “deliver us from the evil one”; the King James Version reads “deliver us from evil” and continues with “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

Romans 12:21

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Reflection: The verse ends a run of commands that begins “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9) and includes “Do not repay anyone evil for evil” (Romans 12:17). Just before it, Paul tells readers to leave revenge to God and quotes Proverbs 25:21-22: feed a hungry enemy and give him a drink, for “in doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Overcoming evil with good, in this chapter, includes food and drink for an enemy.

Psalm 37:1-2

“Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.”

Reflection: The psalm, headed “Of David,” opens by telling its hearers not to fret over evildoers or envy them, because like grass they will soon wither. Verse 8 warns that fretting “leads only to evil,” and verse 9 says that “those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.” In between, the psalm gives the alternative: trust in the Lord, do good, and wait patiently for him (Psalm 37:3, 7).

Habakkuk 1:13

“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”

Reflection: Habakkuk first complains to God about the violence and injustice around him (Habakkuk 1:2-4). God answers that he is raising up the Babylonians, “that ruthless and impetuous people” (Habakkuk 1:6), and this verse belongs to the prophet’s second complaint: a holy God is using the wicked against people more righteous than they are. God’s reply in Habakkuk 2:2-4 gives no reason for using the Babylonians. It tells the prophet to write down a revelation that “awaits an appointed time” and says “the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.”

Genesis 50:20

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Reflection: Joseph speaks to the brothers who sold him for twenty shekels of silver to traders bound for Egypt (Genesis 37:28). After their father’s death they fear he will pay them back, and he answers, “Am I in the place of God?” The verse sets the two intentions in one sentence, theirs to harm and God’s for good, and names the good: the saving of many lives. Joseph then promises to provide for them and their children.

1 John 3:8

“The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”

Reflection: John tells the children of God and the children of the devil apart by what they do: “Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child” (1 John 3:10). The verse gives the reason the Son of God appeared, “to destroy the devil’s work,” and verse 5 says the same of sin: “he appeared so that he might take away our sins.”

Revelation 21:4

“‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Reflection: John hears a loud voice from the throne announce that God’s dwelling place is now among the people. The words about tears are quoted from Isaiah 25:8, which also promises that God “will swallow up death forever.” The next verse, spoken by the one seated on the throne, adds: “I am making everything new!”