Rejection is an important topic for everyone to understand. It’s painful, and can leave us feeling distraught and purposeless. Thankfully, rejection appears in the Bible.
Rejection, whether in the bible or at school, hurts. Our human nature causes us to want to be approved of and accepted by others. It’s an important part of our character. So how can we reject others without damaging that aspect of our character?
When we think of Christianity and religion, we often think of the Bible. The Bible is the holy book for Christianity, along with Jewish and Islamic religions. But even though the Bible is considered holy, it also has stories of rejection throughout it. These stories provide us with information on how to handle rejection from people around us, as well as how to deal with being rejected by God.
Many people have had to deal with rejection at some point in their lives. It can be disheartening when our advances are turned down, or when we are unable to succeed at something. Even worse, some have been rejected from an early age, as was the case with the story of Joseph and his brothers (Gen 37). At first, it may seem a bit odd to read about rejection in the Bible. The reference might come across as flippant or even insensitive. Yet this does not mean that the Good Book does not provide us with helpful examples for dealing with these painful situations in our own lives.
Rejection In The Bible
We are all prone to disappointment and feelings of rejection, and that is especially true in the aftermath of a broken relationship. However, as born-again believers we have a resource in God’s Word that can bring comfort and clarity to the situation. One person’s rejection does not mean we are unlovable. We can allow that one rejection to determine how we feel and allow that feeling to color our idea of who we are, or we can choose to put that behind us and move forward on the basis of something that is far more lasting.
What is that? For believers, it is our position in Christ. When we are born again, we are accepted. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:3-6).
Rejection In The Bible
John 15:18
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”
1 Peter 2:4
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious.
Psalm 27:10
For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Psalm 94:14
For the Lord will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage.
1 Corinthians 2:14
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Peter 5:7
Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:8
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Deuteronomy 14:2
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Hebrews 13:5
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Isaiah 41:9
You whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.”
Isaiah 49:15
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”
Isaiah 49:16
“Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”
Isaiah 53:3
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
James 2:13
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Jeremiah 30:17
“For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal,” declares the Lord, “because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’”
John 1:11
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
Leviticus 26:11
“I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you.”
Luke 10:16
“The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
