A selection of verses showing whom God regards as "his children".
God tells Moses to tell Pharaoh, king of Egypt that the nation of Israel is his son:
22 You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘The LORD says, Israel is my son, my firstborn, 23 and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me;” and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”
Moses tells the early Israelites that they are children of God because he has chosen them to be his special people:
1 You are the children of the LORD your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. 2 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
The New Testament tells us that God's children are those who are different from others because of their relationship with him:
12 But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.
15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, amongst whom you are seen as lights in the world,
1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is.
These chapters have links to this theme:
Category