Giving and Receiving

Luke 6:38 ESV
“Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

I need to approach this passage differently than conventional uses that I have heard for years from the pulpit and at offering time: Is Jesus speaking about money, or something deeper?

If we take Luke 6:38 and couple it with Luke 6:37, is reads this way:

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Luke 6:37 and 38 are not two different subject matters but one: Don’t judge, don’t condemn, but forgive. If we forgive as we have been forgiven by God, and we turn and give this same attitude to others, and forgive, then we will receive that back overflowingly. Unfortunately, the opposite is true as well: if we do not forgive but judge and condemn, then we will receive that back overflowingly from people as well.

The last sentence of verse 38 brings this clarity; “For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Good or bad, whatever measure of kindness or condemnation that we use, it will be measured back to us. Think about that!

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, as You have sacrificially given to me, love, forgiveness, kindness, and blessings, help me to give to others, love, forgiveness, kindness, and blessings. I understand, the measure of blessings or revilement I give, it will be given back to me overflowingly. Help me to make the right decisions Lord Jesus, Amen!