What Does the Bible Say About Knowing God?

Romans 12:2 ESV / 24 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Philippians 3:10 ESV / 17 helpful votes

That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

1 John 4:6-7 ESV / 16 helpful votes

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 13 helpful votes

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

John 17:1-26 ESV / 13 helpful votes

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. ...

2 Peter 3:18 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

1 Peter 3:18 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

Jeremiah 9:23-24 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

John 1:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Isaiah 53:6 ESV / 7 helpful votes

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Hebrews 4:12 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

John 17:3 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

James 4:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

John 5:30 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Matthew 5:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Psalm 119:105 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

1 John 4:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

1 Timothy 2:3-4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Philippians 2:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

Psalm 119:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.

Psalm 119:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.

Psalm 46:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

Job 22:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Agree with God, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you.

Revelation 10:8-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

1 John 1:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Philippians 2:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Amos 1:1-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. And he said: “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.” Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,” says the Lord. ...

Daniel 4:1-37 ESV / 3 helpful votes

King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid. As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me. ...

Isaiah 49:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages,

Isaiah 14:1-32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord's land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them. When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: “How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers, ...

Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Psalm 119:103 ESV / 3 helpful votes

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 119:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

Psalm 53:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Psalm 19:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

Deuteronomy 28:1-68 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ...

Deuteronomy 18:10-13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God,

Genesis 22:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Genesis 3:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

1 John 2:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.

1 Peter 2:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Hebrews 9:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

2 Timothy 3:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

That the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Ephesians 6:10-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ...

Ephesians 2:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—

2 Corinthians 6:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

Romans 13:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,

John 17:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

John 16:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

John 12:48 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

John 10:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

John 9:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

John 5:28-29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

John 5:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,

John 3:1-36 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ...

Luke 11:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe;

Luke 10:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.

Mark 3:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”

Matthew 25:41 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 12:1-50 ESV / 2 helpful votes

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? ...

Matthew 10:1-42 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, ...

Matthew 4:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Psalm 119:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!

Numbers 1:1-54 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, “Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head. From twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them, company by company. And there shall be with you a man from each tribe, each man being the head of the house of his fathers. And these are the names of the men who shall assist you. From Reuben, Elizur the son of Shedeur; ...

Genesis 18:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

Genesis 12:1-20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, ...

Genesis 2:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, ...

Genesis 1:1-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ...

Revelation 20:11-15 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 12:10 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Revelation 10:1-11 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven ...

Hebrews 2:14 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

Ephesians 2:2 ESV / 1 helpful vote

In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Ephesians 2:1 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2 Corinthians 10:1-18 ESV / 1 helpful vote

I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, ...

Romans 1:16 ESV / 1 helpful vote

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Acts 17:11 ESV / 1 helpful vote

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.

Luke 10:17-20 ESV / 1 helpful vote

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Mark 3:23 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?

Ezekiel 28:11-19 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. ...

Isaiah 14:12 ESV / 1 helpful vote

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!

Psalm 119:12 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes!

88 Bible Verses about Knowing God