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100 Bible Verses about Obeying Authority

Hebrews 13:17 ESV / 2,050 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.

Romans 13:1 ESV / 1,918 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.

Acts 5:29 ESV / 1,381 helpful votes

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

Titus 3:1 ESV / 1,314 helpful votes

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

Romans 13:2 ESV / 1,220 helpful votes

Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

Romans 13:1-14 ESV / 1,206 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. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ...

Romans 13:1-5 ESV / 1,107 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. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV / 858 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.

1 Peter 2:13-15 ESV / 842 helpful votes

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

1 Peter 2:13-17 ESV / 623 helpful votes

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

1 Timothy 6:1-21 ESV / 623 helpful votes

Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. ...

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 597 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,

Romans 5:19 ESV / 573 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.

Romans 13:1-7 ESV / 571 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. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ...

Matthew 28:18 ESV / 565 helpful votes

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Matthew 22:21 ESV / 551 helpful votes

They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

1 Peter 2:13 ESV / 549 helpful votes

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,

Romans 13:1-2 ESV / 537 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.

John 19:11 ESV / 525 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

James 4:7 ESV / 503 helpful votes

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

Titus 3:1-2 ESV / 503 helpful votes

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Exodus 19:5 ESV / 499 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;

Romans 13:4 ESV / 493 helpful votes

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.

James 1:25 ESV / 484 helpful votes

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.

Ephesians 5:21 ESV / 484 helpful votes

Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Romans 13:3 ESV / 483 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,

Romans 13:6 ESV / 479 helpful votes

For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.

Romans 12:1-21 ESV / 465 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. 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. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ...

1 Peter 2:13-14 ESV / 458 helpful votes

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

John 3:2 ESV / 447 helpful votes

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.”

John 14:23 ESV / 419 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.

Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 413 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ...

1 Samuel 15:22 ESV / 404 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 13:5 ESV / 402 helpful votes

Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV / 400 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.

1 Peter 5:5 ESV / 399 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.”

Ephesians 6:1 ESV / 396 helpful votes

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

John 14:15 ESV / 393 helpful votes

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

James 1:22 ESV / 392 helpful votes

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

Romans 13:7 ESV / 385 helpful votes

Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

1 Peter 1:14 ESV / 383 helpful votes

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

Exodus 20:12 ESV / 383 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.

Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 375 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 5:23 ESV / 373 helpful votes

For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

1 Timothy 5:17 ESV / 368 helpful votes

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

Acts 5:32 ESV / 365 helpful votes

And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

2 John 1:6 ESV / 364 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.

Joshua 1:8 ESV / 361 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.

1 Timothy 4:12 ESV / 359 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.

Acts 4:19 ESV / 351 helpful votes

But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge,

Colossians 3:22 ESV / 350 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.

2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV / 349 helpful votes

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

Romans 12:2 ESV / 349 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.

1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV / 346 helpful votes

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Romans 1:5 ESV / 345 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,

Luke 11:28 ESV / 345 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 15:2 ESV / 343 helpful votes

And by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

John 3:3 ESV / 339 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

1 Peter 2:15 ESV / 336 helpful votes

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

Romans 15:32 ESV / 332 helpful votes

So that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

Hebrews 13:7 ESV / 331 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.

Romans 12:11 ESV / 330 helpful votes

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

John 15:14 ESV / 327 helpful votes

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

John 3:16 ESV / 327 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.

Joshua 5:6 ESV / 327 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.

1 John 3:21-22 ESV / 326 helpful votes

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 326 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 6:27-28 ESV / 326 helpful votes

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

Romans 2:6-8 ESV / 325 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.

Romans 12:1 ESV / 324 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.

Proverbs 6:20 ESV / 324 helpful votes

My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.

Luke 10:27 ESV / 320 helpful votes

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Romans 8:14 ESV / 318 helpful votes

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

Philippians 2:11 ESV / 317 helpful votes

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

Daniel 2:21 ESV / 316 helpful votes

He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;

1 Kings 2:3 ESV / 316 helpful votes

And keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn,

Deuteronomy 28:1 ESV / 316 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.

1 John 4:1 ESV / 315 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.

Deuteronomy 5:33 ESV / 315 helpful votes

You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

John 15:16 ESV / 314 helpful votes

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Proverbs 10:17 ESV / 314 helpful votes

Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray.

Malachi 2:2 ESV / 313 helpful votes

If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.

1 Peter 2:14 ESV / 311 helpful votes

Or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

John 18:36 ESV / 311 helpful votes

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

1 Peter 2:18 ESV / 308 helpful votes

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.

1 Timothy 2:2 ESV / 306 helpful votes

For kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

Genesis 1:26 ESV / 294 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.”

2 Thessalonians 3:14 ESV / 286 helpful votes

If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 278 helpful votes

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

1 John 4:4 ESV / 275 helpful votes

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Luke 20:25 ESV / 262 helpful votes

He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

Mark 16:15 ESV / 245 helpful votes

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

1 Samuel 15:23 ESV / 240 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.”

Matthew 5:21-22 ESV / 206 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Romans 14:2 ESV / 196 helpful votes

One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.

Deuteronomy 17:12 ESV / 172 helpful votes

The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

John 14:2 ESV / 168 helpful votes

In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

Hebrews 13:1-25 ESV / 155 helpful votes

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” ...

Romans 12:17 ESV / 153 helpful votes

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

Mark 16:2 ESV / 143 helpful votes

And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.

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