What does the Bible say about step families?
Bible Topic · WEB
The Bible calls members of blended families to live under God’s covenant love through faithful care, honor, obedience, and patient discipleship, trusting Christ to heal and unite what sin and loss often complicate. Parents and stepparents are to nurture children in the Lord rather than provoke them, as Ephesians 6:4 and Proverbs 22:6 teach. Children should honor and obey the parents and guardians God has placed over them, according to Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:1, and Colossians 3:20. Household members should provide for one another with practical responsibility and sincere affection, remembering 1 Timothy 5:8. Though Scripture does not use modern terms for stepfamilies, the gospel of John 3:16-17 grounds family life in grace, forgiveness, and Christ-centered commitment.
Top passages, ranked by readers
Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible
- 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.
- Colossians 3:20
Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord.
- Exodus 20:12
"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- 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.
- Ephesians 6:1
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
- John 3:16-17
[16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. [17] For God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
- Joshua 24:15
If it seem evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.
- Matthew 15:4
For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'
- Proverbs 15:20
A wise son makes a father glad, But a foolish man despises his mother.
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