Bible verses by topic
Each of these pages sets out the passages people actually turn to, with a sentence under most of them — taken from our own commentary on that passage — saying what it is claiming. Fewer verses than a list, and a reason for each one.
When life breaks
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Grief
What Scripture says when someone has died. -
Anxiety
Answered with arguments rather than reassurance. -
Suffering
Job asked why for thirty-seven chapters and was never told. -
Loneliness
The first thing called not good was being alone. -
Healing
The cures, and the letters to those not cured. -
Doubt
The man who refused secondhand testimony got what he asked for. -
Shame
Answered without lowering the standard that convicted you.
What you carry
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Forgiveness
What is forgiven, and what is then asked. -
Love
Commanded far more often than it is described. -
Strength
Spoken mostly where somebody has run out of it. -
Temptation
One Greek word covers both trial and temptation. -
Fear
What is driven out, and what is not. -
Pride
Three things a person may not boast of, and the one permitted. -
Prayer
A shut door, a short prayer, and six petitions. -
Anger
Told to speak to a rock, he struck it twice.
The long view
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Grace
What arrives before it is earned, and what it then trains. -
Hope
Confidence about who is at the end of it. -
Gratitude
The primal sin was a failed thanksgiving. -
Patience
The delay is given a motive. -
Wisdom
Men can dig out anything except the one thing they need. -
Faith
Defined once, in a sentence, then illustrated by people who died waiting. -
Peace
A peace unlike the world’s, and the trouble promised with it. -
Death
Two criminals, the same mockery, and one changes his mind. -
Joy
Commanded, which is the surprising part.
The everyday
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Marriage
Less about weddings than about afterwards. -
Money
Examined more often than it is condemned. -
Work
The passages about rest included. -
Friendship
Franker about bad friends than the subject allows. -
Children
The disciples turned the parents away and were overruled. -
Justice
The worship God rejects is his own prescribed worship. -
Words
The letter that calls the tongue unsolvable by effort. -
Purpose
The promise most often quoted was written to people who would die abroad.