85 Bible Verses about Obedience Is Better Than Sacri

1 Samuel 15:22 ESV / 20 helpful votes

And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

Romans 5:19 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

John 14:15 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Ephesians 6:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Acts 5:29 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

Luke 11:28 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Psalm 51:16 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

2 John 1:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

1 Samuel 15:22-23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 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.”

1 Samuel 15:1-35 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. ...

Exodus 19:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

1 John 3:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

James 1:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Hebrews 13:17 ESV / 3 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.

Hebrews 11:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Colossians 3:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 3 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 12:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Romans 6:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Romans 2:6-8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

John 15:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

John 14:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Mark 12:33 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Matthew 23:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Matthew 12:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.

Matthew 9:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 7:21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Hosea 6:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Psalm 119:60 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.

Psalm 112:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments!

Joshua 22:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

1 John 5:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 5:2-3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 3:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

1 John 1:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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 4:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

1 Peter 1:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

James 1:22-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Hebrews 13:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Hebrews 12:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 10:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

Hebrews 3:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house.

Titus 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,

1 Thessalonians 1:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

Colossians 3:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Colossians 3:1-25 ESV / 2 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. ...

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 5:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Ephesians 5:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

Romans 13:1 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.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 2 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.

Romans 8:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 1:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

John 14:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 2 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 6:46 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

Matthew 19:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 2:12-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. ...

Micah 6:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:6-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Jeremiah 7:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’

Isaiah 1:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

Proverbs 21:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Proverbs 13:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who reveres the commandment will be rewarded.

Psalm 119:44 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I will keep your law continually, forever and ever,

Psalm 51:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:1-19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. ...

Psalm 40:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

Psalm 40:6-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

Psalm 1:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

Job 36:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.

1 Chronicles 16:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!

1 Samuel 15:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night.

1 Samuel 13:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

Joshua 5:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Joshua 1:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Deuteronomy 11:26-28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

Deuteronomy 6:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers

Deuteronomy 6:1-25 ESV / 2 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. ...

Deuteronomy 4:39-40 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 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.”

Genesis 4:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,

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