Bible verses about "gentiles" | Moffatt

²² So Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe at every turn that you are a most religious people. ²³ Why, as I passed along and scanned your objects of worship, I actually came upon an altar with the inscription TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Well, I proclaim to you what you worship in your ignorance. ²⁴ The God who made the world and all things in it, he, as Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in shrines that are made by human hands; ²⁵ he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything, for it is he who gives life and breath and all things to all men. ²⁶ All nations he has created from a common origin, to dwell all over the earth, fixing their allotted periods and the boundaries of their abodes, ²⁷ meaning them to seek for God on the chance of finding him in their groping for him. Though indeed he is close to each one of us,

³ It is quite enough to have done as pagans choose to do, during the time gone by! You used to lead lives of sensuality, lust, carousing, revelry, dissipation and illicit idolatry,

¹⁴ that the blessing of Abraham might reach the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

²² What if God, though desirous to display his anger and show his might, has tolerated most patiently the objects of his anger, ripe and ready to be destroyed? ²³ What if he means to show the wealth that lies in his glory for the objects of his mercy, whom he has made ready beforehand to receive glory — ²⁴ that is, for us whom he has called from among the Gentiles as well as the Jews? ²⁵ As indeed he says in Hosea, Those who were no people of mine, I will call 'my People,' and her 'beloved' who was not beloved; ²⁶ on the very spot where they were told, 'You are no people of mine,' there shall they be called 'sons of the living God.' ²⁷ And Isaiah exclaims, with regard to Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them shall be saved; ²⁸ for the Lord will carry out his sentence on earth with rigour and despatch. ²⁹ Indeed, as Isaiah foretold, Had not the Lord of hosts left us with some descendants, we would have fared like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorra. ³⁰ What are we to conclude, then? That Gentiles who never aimed at righteousness have attained righteousness, that is, righteousness by faith;

¹⁷ Now in the Lord I insist and protest that you must give up living like pagans; for their purposes are futile, ¹⁸ their intelligence is darkened, they are estranged from the life of God by the ignorance which their dulness of heart has produced in them — ¹⁹ men who have recklessly abandoned themselves to sensuality, with a lust for the business of impurity in every shape and form.

¹⁶ I have other sheep, too, which do not belong to this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice; so it will be one flock, one shepherd.

²⁸ Be sure of this, then, that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen to it."

¹¹ In it there is no room for Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free man; Christ is everything and everywhere.

⁷ and a keen controversy sprang up; but Peter rose and said to them, "Brothers, you are well aware that from the earliest days God chose that of you all I should be the one by whom the Gentiles were to hear the word of the gospel and believe it. ⁸ The God who reads the hearts of all attested this by giving them the holy Spirit just as he gave it to us; ⁹ in cleansing their hearts by faith he made not the slightest distinction between us and them.