Bible verses about
Bible Verses About Family
Family verses get used two ways: to celebrate, and to pressure. The second is more common than anyone admits.
Scripture is less sentimental than the framed versions suggest. It records families that were a mess, gives instructions aimed mostly at restraint, and says plainly that following God can cost you people at home.
Twelve passages below, quoted in full in both translations. If your family is difficult, the last section is written for you rather than around you.
12 verses for when you need them
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 6:6-7 ESVAnd these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 KJVThe striking feature is where the teaching is located: when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. That is a list of the least ceremonial moments in a day, and it requires no curriculum.
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua 24:15 ESVAnd if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Joshua 24:15 KJVThe famous half is the last line, but the whole verse is Joshua refusing to choose for anyone else. He states where he stands and leaves them free — and he says it at the end of his life, not the start.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4 ESVAnd, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4 KJVThe one direct word to fathers has a negative half first: provoke not your children to wrath. The order is not decorative. A household can run devotions faithfully and still be the reason a child wants nothing to do with any of it.
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6 ESVTrain up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6 KJVA proverb, which is a general observation rather than a guarantee — and reading it as a contract has caused a great deal of unnecessary guilt in parents whose children left anyway.
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
1 Timothy 5:8 ESVBut if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
1 Timothy 5:8 KJVAbout as blunt as the New Testament gets, and usually quoted at people already working themselves into the ground. Read in context Paul is discussing who the church should support; the charge is against abandoning dependants, not against earning too little.
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.
Psalm 127:3 ESVLo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Psalm 127:3 KJVChildren are described as an heritage and a reward — language of inheritance rather than of achievement. The psalm just above it is the one about rising early and sitting up late, which is the setting this lands in.
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
Colossians 3:20-21 ESVChildren, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Colossians 3:20-21 KJVBoth halves are commands, and the second is the one that gets skipped: provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Discouraged is a specific outcome, and it is named as the risk.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Genesis 50:20 ESVBut as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Genesis 50:20 KJVJoseph, to the brothers who sold him. Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good. He does not rename what they did — the evil stays evil in the sentence — which is what makes it usable by anyone whose family did real harm.
God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
Psalm 68:6 ESVGod setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
Psalm 68:6 KJVGod setteth the solitary in families. A promise about being given people rather than about the ones you were born to, which matters if the second group has not worked out.
Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Luke 12:51-53 ESVSuppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Luke 12:51-53 KJVThe verse nobody frames. Jesus says following him will divide households, and says it plainly rather than as something to be softened. If your faith has cost you people at home, he said it would.
For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.
Psalm 27:10 ESVWhen my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
Psalm 27:10 KJVWhen my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. The psalm assumes the case rather than treating it as unthinkable, which is quietly one of the kindest things in the book.
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; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESVCharity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 KJVRead at weddings and written to a church that was fighting. Every line is a verb about restraint — suffereth long, is not easily provoked — which makes it a description of conduct rather than of feeling, and far more useful at home than at the ceremony.
Two threads, and they do not resolve into a slogan.
The first is ordinary and practical: teach in the ordinary hours rather than in set-pieces, do not provoke the children, manage the household with care, provide for your own. Deuteronomy 6 locates the teaching when you sit, walk, lie down and rise — the least ceremonial moments there are.
The second is that Scripture never pretends every family is good. Joseph's brothers sold him. Jesus said following him would divide households, and said it plainly rather than as a warning to be softened. Psalm 27:10 assumes a case where both parents have gone.
So if your family is hard, you are not outside the material. You are in a fairly well-populated part of it. And Psalm 68:6 — God setteth the solitary in families — is a promise about being given people, which is not always the ones you were born to.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version, which is in the public domain. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.