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100 Bible Verses about Spiritual Parents

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 121 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 113 helpful votes

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Exodus 20:12 ESV / 97 helpful votes

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 90 helpful votes

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV / 88 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 87 helpful votes

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 86 helpful votes

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Proverbs 29:17 ESV / 81 helpful votes

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.

Proverbs 1:8-9 ESV / 80 helpful votes

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 77 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Psalm 127:3 ESV / 70 helpful votes

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 69 helpful votes

Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

Psalm 103:13 ESV / 65 helpful votes

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

Titus 2:4 ESV / 64 helpful votes

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

Luke 1:37 ESV / 63 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Hebrews 12:11 ESV / 61 helpful votes

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 58 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Ephesians 6:2 ESV / 53 helpful votes

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),

Deuteronomy 5:16 ESV / 52 helpful votes

“‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 50 helpful votes

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Philippians 4:6-7 ESV / 47 helpful votes

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19 ESV / 46 helpful votes

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 12:7-11 ESV / 45 helpful votes

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 43 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Ephesians 6:2-3 ESV / 43 helpful votes

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Ephesians 6:1 ESV / 43 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

2 Corinthians 12:14 ESV / 43 helpful votes

Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 42 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Hebrews 13:7 ESV / 41 helpful votes

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV / 41 helpful votes

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ...

Proverbs 23:22 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ESV / 40 helpful votes

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 39 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Proverbs 20:20 ESV / 39 helpful votes

If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.

Exodus 21:15 ESV / 39 helpful votes

“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV / 37 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

James 1:17 ESV / 36 helpful votes

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Hebrews 13:17 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 35 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV / 35 helpful votes

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 34 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 33 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

1 Timothy 4:12 ESV / 32 helpful votes

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

1 Timothy 5:4 ESV / 31 helpful votes

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV / 31 helpful votes

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

2 Timothy 1:5 ESV / 30 helpful votes

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

1 Timothy 3:4 ESV / 30 helpful votes

He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,

Romans 6:23 ESV / 30 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Proverbs 3:12 ESV / 30 helpful votes

For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

1 Peter 4:8 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Proverbs 23:13 ESV / 29 helpful votes

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

1 Samuel 1:27-28 ESV / 28 helpful votes

For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV / 28 helpful votes

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Revelation 11:1-19 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. ...

1 Corinthians 4:15 ESV / 24 helpful votes

For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Hebrews 6:1 ESV / 23 helpful votes

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

Acts 2:38-39 ESV / 23 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Titus 2:7 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 22 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Matthew 19:14 ESV / 22 helpful votes

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV / 22 helpful votes

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Joshua 4:20-24 ESV / 22 helpful votes

And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”

Ephesians 6:1-24 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, ...

1 Thessalonians 2:11 ESV / 20 helpful votes

For you know how, like a father with his children,

Matthew 15:4 ESV / 20 helpful votes

For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

2 Timothy 3:2 ESV / 19 helpful votes

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 19 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

1 Timothy 5:1 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,

Deuteronomy 4:40 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

Leviticus 20:9 ESV / 18 helpful votes

For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.

Leviticus 19:32 ESV / 18 helpful votes

“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

Exodus 21:17 ESV / 18 helpful votes

“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Deuteronomy 27:16 ESV / 17 helpful votes

“‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

1 Timothy 5:17 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

Romans 7:7 ESV / 16 helpful votes

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

Proverbs 17:6 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.

Exodus 20:3 ESV / 14 helpful votes

“You shall have no other gods before me.

John 17:17 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

1 Timothy 4:16 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Luke 2:51 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

Proverbs 1:8 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching,

Matthew 10:37 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Isaiah 49:15 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“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.

Proverbs 31:28 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:

John 10:10 ESV / 9 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Proverbs 10:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes

The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

Genesis 1:26 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

1 Peter 5:5-6 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,

1 Peter 3:21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

1 Timothy 3:2 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

Matthew 19:19 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Isaiah 28:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes

The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot;

Proverbs 3:11-12 ESV / 8 helpful votes

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

1 John 4:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1 John 2:1-29 ESV / 7 helpful votes

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: ...

1 Timothy 5:3-4 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

Galatians 3:28 ESV / 7 helpful votes

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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