100 Bible Verses about Harming Children

Matthew 18:6 ESV / 161 helpful votes

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 94 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 / 78 helpful votes

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

Matthew 18:10 ESV / 75 helpful votes

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Psalm 127:3 ESV / 71 helpful votes

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

Mark 9:42 ESV / 63 helpful votes

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Luke 17:2 ESV / 61 helpful votes

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 51 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.

Luke 17:1-2 ESV / 47 helpful votes

And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Mark 10:13-16 ESV / 47 helpful votes

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 46 helpful votes

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

John 17:15 ESV / 42 helpful votes

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

Mark 9:36-37 ESV / 40 helpful votes

And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Matthew 19:14 ESV / 35 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.”

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 33 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.

Matthew 18:2-6 ESV / 32 helpful votes

And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Luke 9:48 ESV / 31 helpful votes

And said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 30 helpful votes

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

Mark 10:14 ESV / 29 helpful votes

But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Exodus 20:13 ESV / 26 helpful votes

“You shall not murder.

Ephesians 5:1 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Proverbs 29:17 ESV / 25 helpful votes

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

Matthew 7:12 ESV / 24 helpful votes

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV / 24 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 17:6 ESV / 24 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 13:4-6 ESV / 22 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.

Luke 1:37 ESV / 22 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Matthew 25:40 ESV / 22 helpful votes

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Exodus 23:7 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 21 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,

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 21 helpful votes

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

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 21 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 21 helpful votes

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

John 3:16 ESV / 20 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.

Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV / 19 helpful votes

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.

Titus 1:6 ESV / 18 helpful votes

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 18 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.”

Romans 8:14 ESV / 18 helpful votes

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Acts 16:31 ESV / 18 helpful votes

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Exodus 20:12 ESV / 18 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.

3 John 1:4 ESV / 17 helpful votes

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 17 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

John 1:12 ESV / 17 helpful votes

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

Matthew 21:15-16 ESV / 17 helpful votes

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”

Matthew 19:13-14 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Proverbs 1:8-9 ESV / 17 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.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 17 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV / 17 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.

John 16:21 ESV / 16 helpful votes

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

Matthew 5:9 ESV / 16 helpful votes

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Isaiah 54:13 ESV / 16 helpful votes

All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.

James 1:27 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

2 Timothy 3:14-15 ESV / 15 helpful votes

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV / 15 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.

Psalm 139:13-16 ESV / 15 helpful votes

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Revelation 11:1-19 ESV / 14 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. ...

Hebrews 12:11 ESV / 14 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.

Colossians 2:1-23 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ...

Romans 13:10 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

John 17:11 ESV / 14 helpful votes

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

Proverbs 20:11 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Even a child makes himself known by his acts, by whether his conduct is pure and upright.

Psalm 113:9 ESV / 14 helpful votes

He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

Revelation 21:4 ESV / 13 helpful votes

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

1 Peter 5:7 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 13 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.

Luke 18:15-17 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Exodus 21:22 ESV / 13 helpful votes

“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.

Psalm 127:5 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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.

1 John 5:21 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

1 John 4:8 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 3:2-3 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

1 John 3:1 ESV / 11 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

James 1:17 ESV / 11 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.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians 6:7 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

1 John 3:18 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Philippians 4:6 ESV / 10 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.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV / 10 helpful votes

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

John 16:28 ESV / 10 helpful votes

I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

Luke 10:21 ESV / 10 helpful votes

In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

Luke 1:44 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Luke 1:41 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

Matthew 18:5 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me,

Matthew 1:16 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Isaiah 49:1 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.

Isaiah 3:1-26 ESV / 10 helpful votes

For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water; the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms. And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable. ...

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Colossians 4:1-18 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. ...

Colossians 3:23 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

Colossians 3:1-25 ESV / 9 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ...

Colossians 1:1-29 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, ...

Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 3:20 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

Galatians 3:26-27 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Romans 14:19 ESV / 9 helpful votes

So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

Romans 8:31 ESV / 9 helpful votes

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 12:19 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Romans 12:17 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

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