Why is bullying considered sinful?

Answer 1

There are a number of reasons to consider bullying as sinful. Starting with the Old Testament of the Bible, there is the verse that forbids bearing false witness. So that includes telling lies about other people, and lots of bullying involves telling lies on people.

There was the incident where Abraham had a child with Hagar. Hagar gloated over having Ishmael, saying some really mean things, and Sarah begged God to intervene. God convinced Abraham to send Hagar and her son away, though God said that the promise intended for Isaac would also be shared with Ishmael. That family feud is supposedly why much of the world is battling with Islamic people even today. So, because two women didn't get along, there has always been unrest in the Middle East ever since, and it is even spilling over into the rest of the world today.

Then you must take an incident involving a prophet into account. One of the prophets was being harassed and made fun of by teenagers. He prayed about it and wild animals devoured the teen bullies. So if you believe that God sent the wild animals to eat the bullies, then you'd also pretty much have to believe that God doesn't look highly on bullying.

Then there is the New Testament. Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself, and there is nothing loving about bullying. Jesus expounded on the Old Testament and expanded the meanings of the Ten Commandments. He equated hatred with murder, and bullying is often done because of hate.

Answer 2

If you look at only the Ten Commandments, about the only thing in there that can be applied to bullying is the one on bearing false witness. Lying on others is just one type of bullying. However, the two greatest commandments would include bullying since we are to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbors as we would ourselves. Would you lie on yourself, extort money from yourself, beat yourself up, push yourself down some steps, etc? No, so don't do it to other people. There is also the golden rule, and that is a paraphrase of a Bible verse. So if we don't want other people to do things to us, then we have no business doing those things to others.

Bullying even goes against what more fundamentalist believers teach. They say to hate the sin but love the sinner. So with that attitude, one would speak to someone about their perceived "flaws" but not act out in hate against them. While some might consider that hateful or judgmental, it is still better than bullying.