What Jesus Said and what He didn't say: Beyond Selective Scripture

When we look around and check the temperature of our cultural moment, we hear certain arguments that follow a familiar pattern: "Jesus never said one word against [insert issue here], but he said plenty about [insert opposing viewpoint]. So Christians should stop opposing us and focus on what Jesus really cared about."

This approach treats Scripture like a policy manual where silence equals approval and frequency equals priority. But this misunderstands both how Jesus taught and how Scripture works as a whole. When we cherry-pick Jesus' words to support predetermined positions, we risk missing the full scope of his teaching and the consistent themes that run throughout his ministry. By that logic, Jesus must also approve of vaping, cyberbullying, ghosting friends, binge drinking, gambling, cheating on taxes, watching pornography, driving recklessly, skipping church, hoarding wealth, eating junk food nonstop, using profanity, sexting, reading horoscopes, binge-watching Netflix and much more. For He didn’t mention any of those either.

More problematically, the "Jesus never said" argument often ignore teachings of Jesus that it portrays to defend, while simultaneously rejecting clear biblical teachings that contradict that position.

But Jesus didn’t come to give a checklist of every possible sin. He affirmed the authority of all Scripture and called us to love God and neighbour in everything. The question isn’t “Did Jesus say this?” but “What has God revealed through His Word?” Silence on a topic isn’t permission—it’s an invitation to seek the whole counsel of God.

When we read Jesus’ words, it’s tempting to hold on to the ones that feel comfortable and familiar while passing more quickly over the ones that challenge us. But when we do that, we risk missing the fullness of who He really is.

It is true that Jesus is full of love, mercy, and compassion. The Gospels are overflowing with His care for the weak, His welcome to the sinner, and His patience with those who struggle. At the same time, the same Jesus speaks about repentance, calls for moral accountability, and makes bold, exclusive claims about Himself. When He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6), He isn’t offering one option among many. He is declaring Himself to be the only way.

This becomes important when we think about questions of morality and daily life. Sometimes there’s an emphasis on what Jesus didn’t explicitly address, as if silence were the same as approval. But Scripture doesn’t work that way. Jesus is the Word made flesh, and His teaching stands in continuity with the whole of God’s revelation. The same Bible that shows us His compassion also gives us God’s clear will for human life, relationships, and moral boundaries. To treat these as optional, or to imagine that Jesus would contradict them, is to create a version of Him that isn’t faithful to the witness of Scripture.

The picture that emerges is not of a Jesus who simply affirms every preference or validates every lifestyle, but of a Lord who calls us to transformation according to God’s Word. That call can feel uncomfortable when it presses against cultural values and personal desires. But it is precisely in that discomfort that we are reminded that following Jesus is not about shaping Him into our image, but about being reshaped into His.

How Scripture Actually Works

The argument "Jesus never said..." falls apart when we remember that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate (John 1:1). All of Scripture—Old and New Testament—reveals his character and will. Jesus himself said he came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17).

When we limit ourselves only to Jesus' recorded words in the Gospels, we're not being more faithful to Christ—we're being less faithful to the full revelation he has given us.

Scripture doesn't operate as a comprehensive legal code that must explicitly mention every possible sin. Instead, it provides us with principles, character formation, and a framework for understanding God's design for human flourishing.

A Confessional Direction Forward

We must confess that using "Jesus never said" arguments often reveals our own desire to escape biblical authority rather than submit to it. When we cherry-pick Jesus' words to support our predetermined positions while ignoring the broader witness of Scripture, we're not being faithful to Christ—we're using him as a mascot for our cultural preferences.

Scripture must be read with diligence and care, understanding that:

• The Bible interprets itself: We don't pit Jesus against Paul, or the Old Testament against the New. All Scripture reveals the character and will of the same God, and apparent tensions drive us to deeper understanding, not selective dismissal.

• Principles transcend specific applications: When Jesus taught about the heart, relationships, justice, and truth, he was giving us frameworks that apply to situations he never specifically addressed.

• The Spirit guides into all truth: Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would guide his followers into truth (John 16:13). This includes helping us apply biblical principles to contemporary challenges that didn't exist in the first century.

• Love requires boundaries: True love—the kind Jesus embodied—sometimes says "no." It sets boundaries, calls sin what it is, and refuses to enable destructive behaviour, even when that refusal is unpopular.

Instead of using Jesus' words as ammunition for cultural battles, we should allow his complete teaching to transform our hearts and minds. This means:

• Embracing both grace and truth: Jesus was full of both (John 1:14). He showed incredible compassion to sinners while never compromising on God's standards.
• Focusing on heart commitment: External behaviour flows from internal change. Jesus consistently addressed the heart first.
• Taking personal responsibility: Before pointing to others' failures or systemic problems, Jesus calls us to examine our own hearts and lives.
• Guarding against covetousness in all its forms: Whether it appears as obvious greed or as sanctified envy, the love of money and what belongs to others is a constant spiritual danger.

The question isn't whether Jesus spoke about our pet contemporary issues. The question is whether we're willing to embrace and follow the full scope of his teaching, even when it challenges our preferences or cultural assumptions.

Christians are not called to find loopholes in Jesus' teaching, but to teach his Word—all of it—which transforms our hearts, minds, and lives. This requires the humility to be corrected, the wisdom to apply eternal principles to contemporary challenges, and the courage to live differently than our culture expects. We don't read Scripture as lawyers looking for escape clauses, but as disciples eager to be shaped by the full counsel of God's word.

For we are looking for what Jesus actually says, which no season, culture or time can change.