92 Bible Verses about Spiritual Nurture

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 8 helpful votes

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

Titus 2:4-5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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.

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

2 Peter 3:18 ESV / 4 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.

Titus 2:3-5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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 3:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

2 Timothy 1:5 ESV / 4 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.

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.

1 Peter 2:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

Hebrews 12:5-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 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? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 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? ...

Titus 2:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

2 Thessalonians 1:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

Ephesians 4:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Romans 1:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

John 3:16 ESV / 3 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 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.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

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.

Deuteronomy 4:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children—

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

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

1 Peter 4:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:

1 Peter 3:8-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

Hebrews 5:11-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Titus 2:6-7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity,

Titus 1:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Titus 1:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

Titus 1:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began

2 Timothy 1:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

1 Thessalonians 3:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

1 Thessalonians 2:7-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. For you know how, like a father with his children, ...

1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

Colossians 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Philippians 4:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Ephesians 5:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Ephesians 5:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 4:29-5:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. ...

Ephesians 4:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

Ephesians 2:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Ephesians 2:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

Galatians 6:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 14:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

1 Corinthians 12:1-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ...

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.

1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

1 Corinthians 8:9-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

1 Corinthians 4:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

1 Corinthians 4:14-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

1 Corinthians 3:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,

Romans 14:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

Romans 3:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Romans 1:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Romans 1:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,

Acts 20:33-35 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Acts 20:18-20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,

Acts 17:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

John 21:15-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

John 8:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

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.

John 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Luke 2:52 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.

Proverbs 31:1-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. ...

Proverbs 29:15-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. When the wicked increase, transgression increases, but the righteous will look upon their downfall. Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.

Proverbs 13:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Proverbs 11:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

Proverbs 10:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.

Proverbs 6:1-3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor: go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.

Proverbs 5:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

Proverbs 4:1-4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live.

Proverbs 3:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

Proverbs 2:1-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 1:8-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Psalm 78:5-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,

Psalm 37:37 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.

Psalm 37:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever;

Psalm 8:3-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, ...

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ...

Deuteronomy 4:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.

Deuteronomy 4:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire,

Deuteronomy 4:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

How on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

Deuteronomy 4:9-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children— how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

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