The best Bible verses for kindness (ESV) include passages about God's love, strength, and guidance. This page features 15+ carefully curated Scripture passages for kindness (ESV), each selected for its relevance and depth. Read, save, and share the perfect verse for your situation.
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,"James 1:2
"Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world."1 Peter 5:9
"They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity."Ephesians 4:19
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."Ephesians 4:32
"praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,"Ephesians 6:18
"Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."James 1:18
"“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account."Matthew 5:11
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,"Colossians 3:12
"so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."Ephesians 2:7
"In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer."Isaiah 54:8
"but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”"Jeremiah 9:24
"the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."Jeremiah 31:3
Translations differ in what they optimise for. Some follow the original wording closely at the cost of a natural English sentence; others read smoothly and make interpretive choices to get there. Neither is wrong, but they produce noticeably different verses.
Each of the 15 verses below is shown in the translation you asked for, and every verse links to a page comparing all six side by side — which is usually the fastest way to see where the translators disagreed.
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The most-cited Bible verses for kindness (ESV) are James 1:2, 1 Peter 5:9, Ephesians 4:19. This page collects 15 of them, each with its full passage, context and the text in six translations.
Read the verse in its surrounding passage before you use it — a verse that fits in isolation sometimes says something different in context. Compare two translations where the wording is unclear, and pick for the person who will read it rather than for the theme.
Scripture returns to kindness (ESV) across both testaments rather than settling it in one passage, which is why the verses on this page do not all say the same thing. Read together they give a fuller answer than any single verse does.
There is no single best translation. The NIV and NLT read most naturally and communicate well to someone outside the church; the ESV and NASB stay closer to the original wording; the KJV carries the phrasing most people recognise. Every verse here links to a page showing all six side by side.
More than any page can list. This one carries the 15 that are most often turned to for kindness (ESV), chosen so each stands on its own and links through to the full chapter it belongs to.