What Does the Bible Say About Loving Our Children?

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 10 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 7 helpful votes

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

Psalm 127:3 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Deuteronomy 6:1-25 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “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. ...

Colossians 3:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

John 13:34-35 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Deuteronomy 6:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV / 3 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.

Genesis 18:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

1 John 4:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

We love because he first loved us.

1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

James 2:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

Hebrews 12:11 ESV / 2 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.

Hebrews 12:7 ESV / 2 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?

Titus 2:1-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. ...

2 Timothy 1:5 ESV / 2 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 2:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,

1 Timothy 1:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Ephesians 6:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV / 2 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.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 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; ...

1 Corinthians 7:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

Romans 13:1-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 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, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Romans 2:21-24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

John 17:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Luke 18:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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.

Mark 10:14 ESV / 2 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.

Matthew 22:37-40 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 20:25-28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Malachi 4:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Isaiah 28:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

Ecclesiastes 8:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

Proverbs 29:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 2 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.

Proverbs 11:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever troubles his own household will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.

Psalm 128:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

1 Samuel 15:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

Deuteronomy 30:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

Deuteronomy 6:20-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. ...

Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV / 2 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.

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 ESV / 2 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.

50 Bible Verses about Loving Our Children

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 10 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 127:3 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 6:1-25 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 3:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 13:34-35 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 6:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 18:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 4:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 3:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 2:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 12:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 12:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Titus 2:1-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Timothy 1:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Timothy 2:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Timothy 1:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 6:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 13:1-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 2:21-24 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 17:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 18:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 10:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 22:37-40 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 20:25-28 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Malachi 4:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 28:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ecclesiastes 8:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 29:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 11:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 128:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Samuel 15:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 30:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 6:20-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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