Home › What the Bible says › Family
What the Bible says
What Does the Bible Say About Family?
The Bible honors family as a gift from God, a place to learn love, forgiveness, and faith, and it welcomes us into an even larger family in Christ.
From the beginning God set us in families, and Scripture is full of guidance for living together in love, honoring parents, nurturing children, bearing with one another's faults. No family is perfect, but every one can be marked by grace.
The Bible also speaks of a spiritual family, the household of God, where those who trust Christ become brothers and sisters. Whatever your earthly family looks like, God offers you a place to belong.
Key Bible verses
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:15 · King James Version (public domain)
“God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains.”
Psalm 68:6 · King James Version (public domain)
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
Ephesians 6:1-4 · King James Version (public domain)
“But 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 · King James Version (public domain)
How this points to Jesus
Jesus redefined family around those who do the will of God, making room at His table for everyone. Through His cross He brings us into God's household as beloved children. Whatever wounds our families carry, He heals, and He gives us a forever family that no loss can take away.