Theme
Bible verses about obedience
Last reviewed
This topic needs a caution. Passages about obedience and submission have a documented history of being used to keep people in harmful situations — in families, in workplaces and in churches.
Where a passage of that kind appears here, the context note says plainly that its application is contested. If you are being pressured using a Bible verse, that is worth raising with someone outside the situation.
The passages selected concern faithfulness in practice: consistency between what a person says and what they do.
8 passages
Each shows its reference and translation, and links to the chapter it comes from.
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”
24“Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it didn’t fall, for it was founded on the rock.
If you love me, keep my commandments.
1Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. 2Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today; 28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible British Edition, which is in the public domain. “World English Bible” is a trademark of eBible.org.