“Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.
Parallel translations
- KJV Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
- BSB Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
- NKJV Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
- NASB Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
- NLT You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus calls His disciples to be merciful in imitation of their merciful Father. God's compassion is the pattern and measure for ours.
Overview
This verse summarizes the ethic of enemy-love by grounding it in God's own mercy. As children reflect their Father, so disciples are to show the same compassion they have received. Mercy is not optional decoration but the defining mark of those born of God, supremely displayed in the mercy shown to sinners in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Eph 5:1–2Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
- Matt 5:48Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
- 1 Pet 1:15–16but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior;
- Eph 4:31Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander, be put away from you, with all malice.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 6:36 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.