Jesus Quotes on Love, Mercy, and Truth

Jesus taught that loving God and loving your neighbor are the two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:37–39), that his followers should be merciful as their Father is merciful (Luke 6:36), and that he himself is the truth: "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). He never set love, mercy, and truth against each other.

What did Jesus say about love?

Each list below gives Jesus' own words from the Gospels in the King James Version, with a short note on when and why he said them.

• Matthew 22:37–40 — "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." A lawyer asked him to name the greatest commandment, and Jesus joined Deuteronomy 6:5 with Leviticus 19:18. Love for God and love for people belong together.
• John 13:34–35 — "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Spoken at the Last Supper, shortly after he washed his disciples' feet. What's new is the measure: as I have loved you.
• John 15:12–13 — "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Said the night before the cross. He was describing what he was about to do.
• Luke 6:27–28 — "But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you." From the Sermon on the Plain, with a parallel in Matthew 5:44. His love reaches past friends to people who wish us harm, and it shows up in actions and prayers.
• John 3:16 — "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Part of Jesus' night conversation with Nicodemus. Some readers take verses 16–21 as John's reflection on that conversation, while red-letter Bibles print them as Jesus' words. Either way, it is the Bible's best-known summary of God's love.

What did Jesus say about mercy?

• Matthew 5:7 — "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." One of the Beatitudes that open the Sermon on the Mount. People who know they have received mercy learn to give it.
• Matthew 9:12–13 — "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." His answer when Pharisees objected to him eating with tax collectors and sinners, at a meal soon after he called Matthew to follow him.
• Luke 6:36 — "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." Jesus grounds mercy in God's own character. Just before this, he says God "is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil" (Luke 6:35).
• Luke 10:36–37 — "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." The close of the parable of the Good Samaritan, told to a lawyer who wanted to know who counted as his neighbor. The hero is a Samaritan, an outsider Jesus' listeners distrusted.
• Luke 23:34 — "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Prayed from the cross for the people crucifying him. This is mercy at its hardest.

What did Jesus say about truth?

• John 14:6 — "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Thomas had just said the disciples didn't know the way. Jesus answered that the way is a person.
• John 8:31–32 — "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Verse 32 is often quoted alone, but the freedom Jesus describes belongs to those who keep living in his word. He goes on to speak of freedom from sin (John 8:34–36).
• John 4:24 — "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Spoken to a Samaritan woman at a well who asked where people should worship. Jesus turned the question from a place to the heart.
• John 18:37 — "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice." Said on trial before Pilate, who answered, "What is truth?" and walked out without waiting for a reply (John 18:38).
• Matthew 5:37 — "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." From the Sermon on the Mount, about swearing oaths. Jesus' followers should be honest enough that a plain yes or no can be trusted.

How do love, mercy, and truth fit together in Jesus' words?

In John 8 the three meet in a single scene. When a woman caught in adultery was dragged before him, he sent her accusers away one by one and then spoke to her:

Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

John 8:10–11

Mercy came first: no condemnation. Truth came with it: go, and sin no more. Both came from love for a woman others were ready to stone.

Jesus rebuked religious leaders who tithed their garden herbs but neglected "judgment, mercy, and faith" (Matthew 23:23), and John's Gospel describes him as "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). Love without truth can drift into approving what harms people, and truth without mercy turns cruel. In Jesus they are never pulled apart. For more on living this out, see love and forgiveness.