80 BIBLE VERSES ABOUT EARTHLY FATHERS

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 33 helpful votes

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

Exodus 20:12 ESV / 32 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.

Hebrews 12:9 ESV / 26 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?

Matthew 23:9 ESV / 26 helpful votes

And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.

Psalm 103:13 ESV / 24 helpful votes

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 20 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV / 14 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.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 13 helpful votes

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

Ezekiel 18:20 ESV / 11 helpful votes

The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Proverbs 20:7 ESV / 11 helpful votes

The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him!

Hebrews 12:5-11 ESV / 10 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? ...

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 10 helpful votes

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

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 10 helpful votes

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

Matthew 7:9-11 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Proverbs 23:24 ESV / 10 helpful votes

The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.

Hebrews 12:7 ESV / 9 helpful votes

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?

John 1:14 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Psalm 51:5 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

2 Timothy 3:13 ESV / 7 helpful votes

While evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

2 Corinthians 6:18 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

John 3:16-17 ESV / 7 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 3:16 ESV / 6 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.

Luke 15:20-24 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Matthew 18:3 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 10:1 ESV / 6 helpful votes

The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

Psalm 58:3 ESV / 6 helpful votes

The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

John 20:17 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Proverbs 14:26 ESV / 5 helpful votes

In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.

Proverbs 3:11-12 ESV / 5 helpful votes

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Psalm 106:36-39 ESV / 5 helpful votes

They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds.

Joshua 24:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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.”

1 John 3:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Romans 10:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Acts 2:38 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 4:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Luke 8:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

Luke 2:22-24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

Matthew 23:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Malachi 4:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Psalm 112:1-2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.

Psalm 102:28 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.

Psalm 86:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 3 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,

James 1:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Hebrews 12:1-29 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 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. ...

1 Corinthians 16:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 3 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 8:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Romans 8:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

John 3:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Luke 15:11-32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ...

Luke 11:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;

Proverbs 4:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 3 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.

1 Chronicles 29:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.

Joshua 1:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 1:31 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

Deuteronomy 1:29-31 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

2 Peter 1:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Hebrews 5:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

Ephesians 5:25-33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ...

Luke 11:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Matthew 1:16-2:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ...

Malachi 2:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Malachi 1:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

Proverbs 23:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Proverbs 15:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 3:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence.

Proverbs 3:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof,

Job 1:4-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Deuteronomy 5:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

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.

Leviticus 5:7-13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. He shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer first the one for the sin offering. He shall wring its head from its neck but shall not sever it completely, and he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, while the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar; it is a sin offering. Then he shall offer the second for a burnt offering according to the rule. And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven. “But if he cannot afford two turtledoves or two pigeons, then he shall bring as his offering for the sin that he has committed a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall put no oil on it and shall put no frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering. ...

Exodus 14:1-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’ And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” ...

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Christopher Lasch: Earthly Fatherhood

Christopher Lasch was a historian and social critic who wrote extensively about the family. He believed that the traditional role of the father as the breadwinner and disciplinarian was no longer viable in the modern world. He argued that fathers needed to be more involved in their children's lives and that they needed to model positive values such as discipline, self-reliance, and compassion.

Lasch also criticized the way that the media and the experts had come to dominate parenting. He argued that parents needed to trust their own instincts and that they should not be afraid to make mistakes. He believed that the best way to raise children was in a loving and supportive environment where children were free to explore and learn.

Here are some of Lasch's key points about fatherhood:

Fathers need to be more involved in their children's lives.Fathers need to model positive values such as discipline, self-reliance, and compassion.Parents need to trust their own instincts and not be afraid to make mistakes.The best way to raise children is in a loving and supportive environment where children are free to explore and learn.Lasch's ideas about fatherhood were controversial in his own time, but they have since been widely accepted. His work has helped to shape the way that we think about parenting and the role of fathers in the family.