100 Bible Verses about Disobedient Children

Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 2,812 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.”

Proverbs 30:17 ESV / 2,720 helpful votes

The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ESV / 2,560 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.

Ephesians 5:6 ESV / 2,553 helpful votes

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Leviticus 20:9 ESV / 2,534 helpful votes

For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.

Ephesians 2:2 ESV / 2,399 helpful votes

In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Exodus 21:17 ESV / 2,381 helpful votes

“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 2,297 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 2,255 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.

2 Timothy 3:2 ESV / 2,212 helpful votes

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

Colossians 3:6 ESV / 2,198 helpful votes

On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

Exodus 21:15 ESV / 2,196 helpful votes

“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

1 Samuel 15:23 ESV / 2,195 helpful votes

For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

James 4:17 ESV / 2,179 helpful votes

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Romans 5:19 ESV / 2,123 helpful votes

For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Mark 7:9-10 ESV / 2,088 helpful votes

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

Romans 6:23 ESV / 1,990 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 15:4 ESV / 1,982 helpful votes

For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

Leviticus 26:14-16 ESV / 1,699 helpful votes

“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

John 3:16-19 ESV / 1,631 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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Revelation 1:1 ESV / 1,440 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,

Romans 1:30 ESV / 1,285 helpful votes

Slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

Deuteronomy 5:9 ESV / 1,202 helpful votes

You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

Acts 1:1-26 ESV / 1,190 helpful votes

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ...

Proverbs 15:5 ESV / 1,059 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 6:1 ESV / 975 helpful votes

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

James 5:2 ESV / 934 helpful votes

Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.

Proverbs 1:8 ESV / 871 helpful votes

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching,

Exodus 20:12 ESV / 846 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.

1 Timothy 1:9 ESV / 832 helpful votes

Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,

Deuteronomy 21:18 ESV / 826 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,

John 3:1-36 ESV / 811 helpful votes

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ...

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 810 helpful votes

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

Deuteronomy 11:27-28 ESV / 781 helpful votes

The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

Matthew 10:21 ESV / 767 helpful votes

Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,

Mark 13:12 ESV / 738 helpful votes

And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.

Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 701 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, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ...

Luke 12:53 ESV / 701 helpful votes

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.”

Leviticus 26:14 ESV / 697 helpful votes

“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,

Titus 3:3 ESV / 677 helpful votes

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Titus 1:16 ESV / 659 helpful votes

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Nehemiah 9:26 ESV / 656 helpful votes

“Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies.

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 613 helpful votes

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

Deuteronomy 21:21 ESV / 586 helpful votes

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.

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 554 helpful votes

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

Romans 3:23 ESV / 545 helpful votes

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

John 14:15 ESV / 545 helpful votes

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

Luke 1:17 ESV / 534 helpful votes

And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

Proverbs 1:8-9 ESV / 516 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.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 511 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 497 helpful votes

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

John 3:16-17 ESV / 496 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.

Luke 6:46 ESV / 488 helpful votes

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?

John 8:44 ESV / 480 helpful votes

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Deuteronomy 11:19 ESV / 478 helpful votes

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.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 441 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

James 1:14-15 ESV / 433 helpful votes

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV / 433 helpful votes

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 414 helpful votes

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

Hebrews 13:17 ESV / 406 helpful votes

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Hebrews 2:2 ESV / 406 helpful votes

For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,

Romans 10:13 ESV / 385 helpful votes

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Acts 5:29 ESV / 371 helpful votes

But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

Joshua 5:6 ESV / 368 helpful votes

For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Psalm 119:127 ESV / 363 helpful votes

Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold.

Genesis 11:4 ESV / 363 helpful votes

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

2 Peter 2:4 ESV / 361 helpful votes

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

Psalm 119:136 ESV / 343 helpful votes

My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.

John 3:36 ESV / 339 helpful votes

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Ephesians 2:3 ESV / 323 helpful votes

Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

2 Timothy 3:1-7 ESV / 292 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. ...

Psalm 78:10 ESV / 280 helpful votes

They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.

2 John 1:6 ESV / 275 helpful votes

And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

Luke 11:28 ESV / 274 helpful votes

But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

1 Samuel 12:15 ESV / 273 helpful votes

But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.

Isaiah 1:2-9 ESV / 271 helpful votes

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. ...

1 John 3:4-5 ESV / 268 helpful votes

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

Matthew 22:37-40 ESV / 268 helpful votes

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Proverbs 1:23-33 ESV / 266 helpful votes

If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you, when terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. ...

1 Corinthians 6:15-20 ESV / 264 helpful votes

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ...

1 Corinthians 15:33 ESV / 263 helpful votes

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

Proverbs 6:20 ESV / 262 helpful votes

My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV / 260 helpful votes

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Numbers 20:12-15 ESV / 260 helpful votes

And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy. Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that we have met: how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers.

1 Samuel 15:10-23 ESV / 259 helpful votes

The word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.” And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” ...

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 258 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 28:1-68 ESV / 256 helpful votes

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ...

Leviticus 10:1-2 ESV / 250 helpful votes

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

Joshua 1:8 ESV / 248 helpful votes

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Joshua 7:11-12 ESV / 241 helpful votes

Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.

Genesis 3:16 ESV / 241 helpful votes

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

John 3:17 ESV / 234 helpful votes

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.

James 1:22 ESV / 230 helpful votes

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Proverbs 10:1 ESV / 224 helpful votes

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

2 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV / 215 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

John 3:27 ESV / 213 helpful votes

John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.

James 1:5 ESV / 201 helpful votes

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Ephesians 6:2 ESV / 186 helpful votes

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),

Deuteronomy 22:1-30 ESV / 180 helpful votes

“You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep going astray and ignore them. You shall take them back to your brother. And if he does not live near you and you do not know who he is, you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall stay with you until your brother seeks it. Then you shall restore it to him. And you shall do the same with his donkey or with his garment, or with any lost thing of your brother's, which he loses and you find; you may not ignore it. You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way and ignore them. You shall help him to lift them up again. “A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God. ...

2 Timothy 3:1 ESV / 171 helpful votes

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

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