What Does the Bible Say About Respect For Authority?

Romans 13:1-14 ESV / 9 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. ...

1 Peter 5:5 ESV / 5 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.”

John 3:16 ESV / 5 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.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Titus 2:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

To be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Romans 13:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Romans 13:1 ESV / 4 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.

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 4 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 22:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 13:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

Exodus 20:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”

Hebrews 12:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

Ephesians 6:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

John 14:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 20:30 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts.

Proverbs 15:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A fool despises his father's instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.

Proverbs 12:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Proverbs 1:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Leviticus 19:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Exodus 20:13-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal.

Genesis 1:1-31 ESV / 3 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. ...

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Revelation 12:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.

1 Peter 2:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Colossians 4:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

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 5:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Ephesians 5:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

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 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 14:1-23 ESV / 2 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. ...

Romans 12:1-21 ESV / 2 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. ...

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 2 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

Isaiah 38:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh restore me to health and make me live!

Isaiah 14:12-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“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! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

Proverbs 23:1-35 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. ...

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 6:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

Psalm 94:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law,

Leviticus 19:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

Leviticus 19:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.

Genesis 3:1-24 ESV / 2 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’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ...

Genesis 1:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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.

46 Bible Verses about Respect For Authority

Romans 13:1-14 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 5:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 3:16 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Titus 2:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 13:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 13:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Exodus 20:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hebrews 12:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 6:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 14:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 20:30 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 15:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 12:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 1:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

Exodus 20:13-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 1:1-31 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 12:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 2:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

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

Ephesians 5:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 5:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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

1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 12:1-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 38:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 14:12-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 23:1-35 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 6:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 94:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 19:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 19:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 3:1-24 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 1:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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