As a child, I remember collecting baseball cards as obsessively as I played the game. My dad was my best friend, and I considered him to be the coolest person in the world. But he was also my biggest critic, handing out nicknames such as “Chicken wings” and “Balloon legs” for my thin frame and skinny arms. And if those weren’t bad enough, he sometimes mimicked the gait of a kangaroo when he walked with me—which undeniably hurt my self-esteem. Now that I have a son myself and see him struggling with his dad’s words just like his father did with me, it saddens me to realize how much we are alike in so many ways.
Sons and Fathers, a blog about the importance of fatherhood in society. Here, we provide Bible verses about Sons And Fathers, Biblical principles and life lessons from the Bible, with an emphasis on fathers. In our age of broken families and single children growing up without fathers, we have compiled an extensive list of verses on this subject so you can send these to your friends or family members who need extra encouragement.
Bible Verses About Sons And Father’s
John 5:19 ESV / 277 helpful votes
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 139 helpful votes
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Malachi 4:5-6 ESV / 100 helpful votes
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 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.”
John 3:35 ESV / 76 helpful votes
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
Psalm 127:1-5 ESV / 74 helpful votes
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. 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.
Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 70 helpful votes
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
John 10:30 ESV / 62 helpful votes
I and the Father are one.”
Matthew 3:17 ESV / 52 helpful votes
And behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Proverbs 23:24 ESV / 51 helpful votes
The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
Colossians 3:21 ESV / 48 helpful votes
Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
Proverbs 24:1-34 ESV / 45 helpful votes
Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble. By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, …
Romans 8:14 ESV / 42 helpful votes
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Proverbs 3:12 ESV / 41 helpful votes
For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
Hebrews 1:6 ESV / 38 helpful votes
And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
John 5:22 ESV / 38 helpful votes
The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
Proverbs 23:22 ESV / 37 helpful votes
Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Galatians 6:8 ESV / 32 helpful votes
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:7 ESV / 32 helpful votes
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
Proverbs 2:2 ESV / 31 helpful votes
Making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
Psalm 103:13 ESV / 31 helpful votes
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
3 John 1:4 ESV / 27 helpful votes
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Exodus 20:12 ESV / 27 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.
Malachi 4:6 ESV / 26 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.”
Hebrews 12:7 ESV / 25 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?
Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 24 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.
Genesis 1:26 ESV / 24 helpful votes
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
1 Peter 2:1-25 ESV / 22 helpful votes
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. …
Proverbs 3:11-12 ESV / 22 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.
John 3:16-17 ESV / 21 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.
Ephesians 3:16-19 ESV / 20 helpful votes
That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Isaiah 9:6 ESV / 20 helpful votes
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Proverbs 1:1-33 ESV / 20 helpful votes
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, …
Galatians 3:29 ESV / 19 helpful votes
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Proverbs 20:7 ESV / 19 helpful votes
The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him!
Hebrews 1:3 ESV / 18 helpful votes
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Proverbs 14:26 ESV / 18 helpful votes
In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.
John 3:7-4:1 ESV / 16 helpful votes
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. …
Romans 6:23 ESV / 15 helpful votes
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 5:17 ESV / 15 helpful votes
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Joshua 1:9 ESV / 15 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.”
John 1:14 ESV / 14 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.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV / 14 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.
Colossians 3:20 ESV / 13 helpful votes
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
John 4:24 ESV / 13 helpful votes
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Ephesians 4:13 ESV / 12 helpful votes
Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
1 Corinthians 8:6 ESV / 12 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.
John 14:6 ESV / 12 helpful votes
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Deuteronomy 1:29-31 ESV / 12 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.’
1 Timothy 3:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes
He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,
Philippians 2:6 ESV / 11 helpful votes
Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Galatians 2:20 ESV / 11 helpful votes
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Malachi 4:1-6 ESV / 11 helpful votes
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. …
Joshua 24:15 ESV / 11 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.”
2 Corinthians 3:17 ESV / 10 helpful votes
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV / 10 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; …
Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 10 helpful votes
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. …
Matthew 11:27 ESV / 10 helpful votes
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Matthew 11:25 ESV / 10 helpful votes
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;
Proverbs 3:32 ESV / 10 helpful votes
For the devious person is an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence.
Psalm 51:11 ESV / 10 helpful votes
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Ephesians 6:2 ESV / 9 helpful votes
“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),
John 17:24 ESV / 9 helpful votes
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
John 10:32 ESV / 9 helpful votes
Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”
John 3:16 ESV / 9 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.
John 1:3 ESV / 9 helpful votes
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Luke 12:12 ESV / 9 helpful votes
For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Exodus 34:6-7 ESV / 9 helpful votes
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
Revelation 20:11-15 ESV / 8 helpful votes
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
1 Corinthians 16:13 ESV / 8 helpful votes
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Romans 5:1 ESV / 8 helpful votes
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 53:3 ESV / 8 helpful votes
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 30:1-33 ESV / 8 helpful votes
“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation. For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes, everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace.” …
Proverbs 10:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.
Romans 8:29 ESV / 7 helpful votes
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
John 14:23 ESV / 7 helpful votes
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Proverbs 3:11 ESV / 7 helpful votes
My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof,
1 Chronicles 29:17 ESV / 7 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.
Revelation 1:1 ESV / 6 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,
John 14:28 ESV / 6 helpful votes
You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
John 6:57 ESV / 6 helpful votes
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
John 3:1-36 ESV / 6 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. …
John 1:18 ESV / 6 helpful votes
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Proverbs 17:24 ESV / 6 helpful votes
The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
Proverbs 17:6 ESV / 6 helpful votes
Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.
Proverbs 9:1 ESV / 6 helpful votes
Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars.
Psalm 103:1-22 ESV / 6 helpful votes
Of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. …
Job 24:1-25 ESV / 6 helpful votes
“Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days? Some move landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them. They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. They thrust the poor off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves. Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil, seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children. …
Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV / 6 helpful votes
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Genesis 18:19 ESV / 6 helpful votes
For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
Genesis 2:24 ESV / 6 helpful votes
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 ESV / 5 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.
Colossians 1:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Ephesians 6:1-2 ESV / 5 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),
1 Corinthians 15:1-58 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. …
Romans 1:1-32 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, …
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.’”
John 1:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Matthew 7:9-11 ESV / 5 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 10:1 ESV / 5 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 2:1-3 ESV / 4 helpful votes
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Scriptures about father and son
Proverbs 15:20
Verse Concepts
A wise son makes a father glad,
But a foolish man despises his mother.
Proverbs 29:3
Verse Concepts
A man who loves wisdom makes his father glad,
But he who keeps company with harlots wastes his wealth.
Proverbs 15:5
Verse Concepts
A fool rejects his father’s discipline,
But he who regards reproof is sensible.
Proverbs 17:21
Verse Concepts
He who sires a fool does so to his sorrow,
And the father of a fool has no joy.
Proverbs 17:25
Verse Concepts
A foolish son is a grief to his father
And bitterness to her who bore him.
Proverbs 19:13
Verse Concepts
A foolish son is destruction to his father,
And the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.
Ephesians 6:4
Verse Concepts
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Hebrews 12:7
Verse Concepts
It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
Hebrews 12:9
Verse Concepts
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
Luke 11:11
Verse Concepts
Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?
Ezekiel 18:4
Verse Concepts
Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.
Jeremiah 6:21
Verse Concepts
Therefore, thus says the Lord,
“Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this people.
And they will stumble against them,
Fathers and sons together;
Neighbor and friend will perish.”
Matthew 10:35
Verse Concepts
For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
Luke 12:53
Verse Concepts
They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Matthew 10:21
Verse Concepts
“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.
Ezekiel 5:10
Verse Concepts
Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.
