Relationships and family
What does the Bible say about adoption?
Adoption is one of the Bible's great pictures of the gospel: God brings outsiders into His family and calls them His own children.
What Scripture says
Ephesians 1:5
“having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,”
Romans 8:15
“For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!””
Psalm 68:5-6
“A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.”
James 1:27
“Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. See all Bible questions or verses by topic.