For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
This verse appears near the very end of Revelation, the final book of the Bible, which contains a series of symbolic visions given to a man named John about the end of history and the new creation God establishes. The 'outside' refers to exclusion from the New Jerusalem — the eternal city that represents full, unbroken relationship with God. 'Dogs' was a common ancient insult for those considered unclean or outside the community. The remaining categories — sorcerers, the sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters, and those who love falsehood — describe persistent, unrepentant patterns of living. This verse must be read alongside Revelation 22:17, which extends an open invitation to 'anyone who wishes' to receive the free gift of life, holding both realities in honest tension.
God, this verse is hard, and I don't want to pretend otherwise. Search me — not to condemn me, but to find the places where I've quietly made peace with falsehood, small idols, and the things I tell myself are harmless. Keep me close to You, where the door is still open and the water of life is still free. Amen.
This is not a comfortable verse, and the two easy moves are both wrong: explaining it away so it loses its edges, or using it as a weapon to sort people into safe categories. The harder and more honest thing is to sit with what it costs to take seriously the idea that what we love and practice shapes us into something — and that not all somethings lead to the same place. Notice the last category, the one that might sting the most quietly: 'everyone who loves and practices falsehood.' Not people who lie occasionally — that's all of us. This is about those who have made falsehood their home, who have built a life around it. That phrase is more searching than murder and more common than we'd like to admit. And it sits right next to Revelation 22:17, where the door is still open and the water of life is still being offered freely. The question this verse ultimately asks isn't 'Are you a terrible person?' It's quieter and closer: what are you practicing? What are you slowly becoming?
Why do you think the author of Revelation placed a list like this so close to the very final words of the Bible? What is the literary and spiritual effect of ending with both an exclusion and an open invitation?
The list includes both extreme sins like murder and subtle ones like practicing falsehood. What does it tell you about how God views deception compared to how most people — including you — tend to rank it?
This verse is sobering, perhaps frightening. How do you hold it in honest tension with the grace and open invitation found throughout Scripture, without dismissing either the warning or the welcome?
How does taking seriously the reality of consequences change the way you relate to people in your life who seem to be walking toward real harm — in their honesty, their relationships, or what they give their deepest loyalty to?
The phrase 'loves and practices falsehood' suggests a habit built gradually over time. Is there a small falsehood — about yourself, your relationships, or your faith — that you've been practicing long enough that it's started to feel like the truth? What would it take to name it out loud?
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1 Corinthians 6:9
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
Matthew 16:27
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Matthew 7:24
Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.
Proverbs 12:22
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Revelation 21:8
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Galatians 5:19
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:21
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Revelation 21:27
Outside are the dogs [the godless, the impure, those of low moral character] and the sorcerers [with their intoxicating drugs, and magic arts], and the immoral persons [the perverted, the molesters, and the adulterers], and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying (deception, cheating).
AMP
Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
ESV
Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.
NASB
Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
NIV
But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
NKJV
Outside the city are the dogs — the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.
NLT
But outside for good are the filthy curs: sorcerers, fornicators, murderers, idolaters—all who love and live lies.
MSG