It is one of the ugliest words in the New Testament, and most modern translations keep it exactly as Paul wrote it: revilers. Not critics. Not opponents. Revilers — people whose speech is a weapon, whose words are designed to wound, demean, and destroy. The word appears in one of Scripture’s starkest passages, a list of behaviors Paul says characterize those outside God’s kingdom: “neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers… nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). In the King James Version, that word is revilers.
The Greek behind it is loidoros, and it means exactly what it sounds like: a person who heaps abuse, who rails, who uses language as a bludgeon. Understanding this word matters more than ever in an age when reviling has been industrialized — when millions can be mocked, shamed, and verbally torn apart in comment sections before breakfast. The Bible saw the reviler coming two thousand years ago, and it has searching things to say both to those who are reviled and to those who do the reviling.
A Word That Bites: What Loidoros Means
Loidoros and its verb form loidoreo appear several times in the New Testament, and the contexts are instructive. When the high priest’s officer struck Jesus and demanded, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” — the word for that verbal assault atmosphere is in this family. When Paul was insulted by the high priest Ananias, who ordered him struck on the mouth, Paul’s sharp reply drew the rebuke, “How dare you insult God’s high priest!” (Acts 23:4) — loidoreo again.
The word does not describe disagreement, or even harsh criticism. It describes speech whose purpose is degradation: mockery, contempt, verbal cruelty intended to diminish another person’s humanity. The reviler is not trying to correct you; he is trying to end you, socially and emotionally. There is a difference between “you are wrong” and “you are worthless,” and loidoreo lives entirely in the second category.
That is why Paul places it in such dreadful company — alongside theft, greed, and sexual immorality. We tend to rank sins by their visibility: the thief steals, the drunkard stumbles, but the reviler “just” talks. Paul refuses that ranking. Words that destroy a person’s dignity are, in God’s accounting, as serious as hands that steal. Jesus said the same: “anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell” (Matthew 5:22). Contempt is not a minor sin. It is murder’s younger sibling.
The Tongue: Scripture’s Most Dangerous Member
James devotes an entire chapter to the tongue, and his metaphors escalate alarmingly: a bit that steers a horse, a rudder that turns a ship, a spark that sets a forest ablaze (James 3:3-6). “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”
James’s point is disproportion: the smallest member does the largest damage. No one needs to be taught to revile; it comes naturally to fallen human nature, which is why James says “no human being can tame the tongue” (James 3:8). The reviler is not an aberration. He is the default setting of the unregenerate heart, given a platform.
Proverbs had said it centuries earlier, in the practical wisdom of everyday life: “The words of the reckless pierce like swords” (Proverbs 12:18). “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). The Bible treats speech as action — words do things in the world, the way hammers do things. The reviler wields a hammer and calls it conversation.
Jesus, the Reviled One Who Did Not Revile Back
Here the doctrine turns, and turns toward glory. The New Testament’s supreme picture of reviling is not Paul’s vice list but the cross — where the sinless One absorbed the worst verbal abuse human beings could produce. “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads” (Matthew 27:39). The chief priests, the teachers, the elders mocked Him. Even the criminals crucified beside Him “heaped insults on him” (Matthew 27:44).
And His response is the most astonishing sentence in the ethics of speech: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). The Greek for “hurled their insults” is loidoreo — the very word. Jesus was loidoreo-ed and would not loidoreo back.
Peter presents this not as a curiosity but as a calling: “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). The Christian’s response to reviling is not retaliation, not suppression, not even dignified silence as a tactic — it is entrustment: handing the verdict to the Father who judges justly, and freeing the hands to do something better with them.
When You Are the One Being Reviled
For the reader who came to this article because someone’s words are wounding them right now — a spouse’s contempt, a parent’s criticism, a coworker’s mockery, a stranger’s cruelty online — Scripture offers neither platitudes nor passivity. It offers a path.
First, recognize the blessing hidden in it. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:11-12). This is not masochism; it is perspective. Reviling for Christ’s sake places you in the company of the prophets. The insult becomes, paradoxically, a credential.
Second, answer — but not in kind. “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9). Note the realism: Peter assumes you will be insulted. The question is never whether but how you respond. Blessing your reviler is not weakness; it is the strongest thing a human being can do, because it refuses to let the reviler set the terms.
Third, set boundaries where Scripture permits. Turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) governs personal retaliation, not the enabling of abuse. Paul confronted Peter “to his face” when Peter was in the wrong (Galatians 2:11). Jesus Himself challenged the officer who struck Him: “If I said something wrong, testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” (John 18:23). Endurance is not the same as permission. Seek wise counsel, involve church leadership where appropriate, and protect the vulnerable — including yourself.
When You Have Been the Reviler
Honesty requires turning the mirror around, because most of us have been on both sides. The sarcastic comment that landed harder than intended. The “joke” at someone’s expense. The online reply typed in anger. The gossip disguised as a prayer request. James’s diagnosis is unsparing: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be” (James 3:9-10).
The way back is the way Paul himself walked. Before his conversion, Paul was a reviler of the church — “a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man” (1 Timothy 1:13). And his testimony is the hope of every reviler: “I was shown mercy.” The same grace that placed loidoros in the vice list placed Paul the former blasphemer in the apostleship. No one is beyond the reach of the mercy that reached Paul.
Repentance for the reviler is concrete: confess it to God specifically (not “forgive my sins” in general but “forgive what I said to her on Tuesday”), confess it to the person wounded where possible and wise (“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone,” Romans 12:18), and then learn a new speech — “gracious… seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6), words that “build others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29).
The Last Word Belongs to Blessing
The Bible’s final answer to the reviler is not a louder insult but a better word. At the cross, reviling did its worst — and the worst it could do was kill a Man who rose again, forgiving His killers with His dying breath: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Reviling lost. Blessing won. That is the end of the story, and it is the pattern for every smaller story inside it.
So whether you are enduring reviling today or repenting of it, the path is the same: bring your words — wounded or wounding — to the One who was reviled and did not revile back, and let Him teach your tongue a new trade. The mouth that cursed can learn to bless. The heart that was crushed by words can be healed by the Word. If you want to understand the broader human pattern behind this ancient word — how verbal cruelty operates and wounds — the Wikipedia article on verbal abuse describes it in modern terms; but for the cure, the ancient text remains unsurpassed: entrust yourself to Him who judges justly, and let blessing have the last word.
