42 Bible Verses About Family
Last Updated: 05 February 2020
Even though we forget it sometimes, our relationship with our family is one of the most important things in life.
The Bible is filled with wisdom about the relationship between wife and husband, parents and children, and clear instructions on how to raise a godly family.
This article is a compilation of the most important Bible verses about family. May they inspire you to build closer ties with your family members.
Chapter 1
Bible Verses about Family
Wife & Husband
Genesis 2:18
Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Genesis 2:21-24
God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. The Lord made a woman from the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore, a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
Proverbs 18:22
Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of the Lord.
1 Peter 3:7
You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman, as to the weaker vessel, as also being joint heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it.
Colossians 3:19
Husbands, love your wives, and don’t be bitter against them.
Ephesians 5:33
Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Ephesians 5:22-24
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body. But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.
Colossians 3:18
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Titus 2:1-6
But say the things which fit sound doctrine, that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance: and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good, that they may train the young wives to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the younger men to be sober minded.
Proverbs 21:9
It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than to share a house with a contentious woman.
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.
James 5:16
Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
1 Corinthians 7:1-40
Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. But, because of sexual immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband give his wife the affection owed her, and likewise also the wife her husband. The wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise, also the husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but the wife. Don’t deprive one another, unless it is by consent for a season, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and may be together again, that the evil one doesn’t tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Proverbs 5:18-19
Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
Proverbs 5:15-19
Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you. Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
Hebrews 13:4
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be un-defiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
Mark 10:9
What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.
Chapter 2
Bible Verses about Family
Parenting
The Scripture exhorts us to discipline our children and to raise them in the Lord:
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Ephesians 6:4
You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Proverbs 29:17
Correct your son, and he will give you peace; yes, he will bring delight to your soul.
Proverbs 19:18
Discipline your son, for there is hope; don’t be a willing party to his death.
Proverbs 29:15
The rod of correction gives wisdom, but a child left to himself causes shame to his mother.
Hebrews 12:11
All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Deuteronomy 6:5-7
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and 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 up.
Psalm 127:1-2
Unless the Lord builds the house, they who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil, for he gives sleep to his loved ones.
As parents, we are commanded to provide food, shelter, and a safe and nurturing environment for our kids:
1 Timothy 5:8
But if anyone doesn’t provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.
Colossians 3:21
Fathers, don’t provoke your children, so that they won’t be discouraged.
Titus 2:7-8
In all things show yourself an example of good works. In your teaching, show integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility, and soundness of speech that can’t be condemned, that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us.
1 Timothy 3:1-5
This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer desires a good work. The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching; not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence; (but how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule one’s own house take care of God’s assembly?).
Psalm 127:3-5
Behold, children are a heritage of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Proverbs 17:6
Children’s children are the crown of old men; the glory of children are their parents.
Chapter 3
Bible Verses about Family
Children Being Obedient
Ephesians 6:1-3
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: “that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.”
Colossians 3:20
Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord.
Proverbs 1:8
My son, listen to your father’s instruction, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
Exodus 20:12
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
Proverbs 13:1
A wise son listens to his father’s instruction, but a scoffer doesn’t listen to rebuke.
Proverbs 10:1
A wise son makes a glad father; but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.
Proverbs 23:22
Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
Proverbs 6:20-23
My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck. When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life.
1 Timothy 5:1-4
Don’t rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father; the younger men as brothers; the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are widows indeed. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family and to repay their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God.