Bible Verses About Cultural Practices

Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.

For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God.

Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;

For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.

But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

And ye shall know that I am the Lord: for ye have not walked in my statutes, neither executed my judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you.

Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.

For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:

For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.

For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself.

And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.

For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.

They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.

It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.

And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols:

(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)