Deceit

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

Is falsehood

• Psalm 119:118 You reject all who stray from Your statutes, for their deceitfulness is in vain.

The tongue is an instrument of

• Romans 3:13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips.”

Comes from the heart

• Mark 7:22 greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.

Characteristic of the heart

• Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

God abhors

• Psalm 5:6 You destroy those who tell lies; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

Forbidden

• Proverbs 24:28 Do not testify against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.
• 1 Peter 3:10 For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.

Christ was perfectly free from

• Isaiah 53:9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
• 1 Peter 2:22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.”

Saints

Free from

• Psalm 24:4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.
• Zephaniah 3:13 The remnant of Israel will no longer do wrong or speak lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. But they will feed and lie down, with no one to make them tremble.”
• Revelation 14:5 And no lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

Purpose against

• Job 27:4 my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not utter deceit.

Avoid

• Job 31:5 If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit,

Shun those addicted to

• Psalm 101:7 No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who tells lies shall stand in my presence.

Pray for deliverance from those who use

• Psalm 43:1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; deliver me from deceitful and unjust men.
• Psalm 120:2 Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.

Delivered from those who use

• Psalm 72:14 He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their blood is precious in his sight.

Should beware of those who teach

• Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
• Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.

Should lay aside, in seeking truth

• 1 Peter 2:1 Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.

Ministers should lay aside

• 2 Corinthians 4:2 Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
• 1 Thessalonians 2:3 For our appeal does not arise from deceit or ulterior motives or trickery.

The wicked are full of

• Romans 1:29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

Devise

• Psalm 35:20 For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful schemes against those who live quietly in the land.
• Psalm 38:12 Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long.
• Proverbs 12:5 The plans of the righteous are just, but the counsel of the wicked leads to deceit.

Utter

• Psalm 10:7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and violence; trouble and malice are under his tongue.
• Psalm 36:3 The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.

Work

• Proverbs 11:18 The wicked man earns an empty wage, but he who sows righteousness reaps a true reward.

Increase in

• 2 Timothy 3:13 while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Use, to each other

• Jeremiah 9:5 Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

Use, to themselves

• Jeremiah 37:9 This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will go away for good,’ for they will not!
• Obadiah 1:3–7 The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD…

Delight in

• Proverbs 20:17 Food gained by fraud is sweet to a man, but later his mouth is full of gravel.

False teachers are workers of

• 2 Corinthians 11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

Preach

• Jeremiah 14:14 “The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds.
• Jeremiah 23:26 How long will this continue in the hearts of these prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the delusion of their own minds?

Impose on others by

• Romans 16:18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.
• Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

Sport themselves with

• 2 Peter 2:13 The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.

Hypocrites devise

• Job 15:35 They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb is pregnant with deceit.”

Hypocrites practice

• Hosea 11:12 Ephraim surrounds Me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.

False witnesses use

• Proverbs 12:17 He who speaks the truth declares what is right, but a false witness speaks deceit.

A characteristic of antichrist

• 2 John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, refusing to confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Characteristic of the apostasy

• 2 Thessalonians 2:10 and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.

Evil of

Hinders knowledge of God

• Jeremiah 9:6 You dwell in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the LORD.

Keeps from turning to God

• Jeremiah 8:5 Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.

Leads

To pride and oppression

• Jeremiah 5:27–28 Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich. They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of…

To lying

• Proverbs 14:25 A truthful witness saves lives, but one who utters lies is deceitful.

Often accompanied by fraud and injustice

• Psalm 10:7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and violence; trouble and malice are under his tongue.
• Psalm 43:1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; deliver me from deceitful and unjust men.

Hatred often concealed by

• Proverbs 26:24–26 A hateful man disguises himself with his speech, but he lays up deceit in his heart. When he speaks graciously, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart. Though his hatred is concealed by deception, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

The folly of fools is

• Proverbs 14:8 The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools deceives them.

The kisses of an enemy are

• Proverbs 27:6 The wounds of a friend are faithful, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Blessedness of being free from

• Psalm 24:4–5 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from the God of his salvation.
• Psalm 32:2 Blessed is the man whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Punishment of

• Psalm 55:23 But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.
• Jeremiah 9:7–9 Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of the daughter of My people? Their tongues are deadly arrows; they speak deception. With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him. S…

See CONFIDENCE, FALSE

See Deception

See Falsehood

See Flattery

See Hypocrisy