(Luke 6:37 – 38)
37. “Do not judged, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38. Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
It is none of our business in scrutinizing other people’s lives. Pointing one finger to someone, makes the other fingers are point back to us. So judging and condemning other people is unfair. This is a difficult topic to discuss. But what the Lord is saying here is personal grudge or personal disgust to someone, is very prejudice, for with the measure we use, it will be measured to us.
Paul condemned the Galatians and called them, “You foolish Galatians! Who bewitched you?” He was enraged because the church allowed themselves to be manipulated by people with wrong doctrine. Paul was judging them but that was not personal.
If we read the whole chapter two of second Peter, Peter was judging and condemning false teachers because they preached the Word out of greed and those who fall away from the faith and kept on sinning are like dogs that return to their vomit and like pigs that was washed, went back to her wallowing in the mud. Was he not judging and condemning them? Yes but it was not personal.
The Lord Jesus condemned the religious leaders of their hypocrisy in Matthew chapter 23. The Lord’s prophets were enraged by the religious leaders who mislead the people with their false doctrine. Yes, the prophets in the Old Testament condemned false teachers that was the reason why they were persecuted.
Verse thirty eight is always used by preachers out of context to stimulate people to give their money, and because man’s heart by nature, greedy, they will gamble on this verse, believes that they can gain more “a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into their lap. For with the measure he uses, it will be measured to him.”
Did the Lord Jesus here talk about giving your money? No! The Lord was talking about giving forgiveness. The Lord Jesus has given us the pattern on how to pray and this is what He say: (Matthew 6:9-15) “This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” There is a condition; if we don’t forgive others who sins against us, God the Father will not also forgive our sins.
(Matthew 18:21-22) Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me, up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy seven times.” Seventy times seven equals 490 times a day, or in either case the sense is “times without number” or “as many times as necessary.” Meaning to say is that if someone has offended us, we automatically just forgive them from our hearts infinitely without counting.
Anyone who sinned against us is actually have sinned against God. He or she needs to ask God directly for forgiveness and not necessarily to us. King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and cause her husband’s life in the front line battle, because David ordered it. But in Psalms 51:1-4 he said “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sins is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.”
Jesus says in Matthew 18:15-17, “If your brother sins against you go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” How do we treat pagans and tax collectors or sinners? Love them, as God hate sin but He still love sinners. So there is no way that we would harbor hatred in our hearts as Christians, even to those who sinned against us.
Let’s go back to the verse that has been abused by preachers to lure people to give their money. This kind of tactic is swindling. The Word of God says in first Corinthians 6:9, that swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Using this verse for the purpose of stimulating people to give their money will do more harm rather than good.
It happened in our place where a certain Christian gave all the money he have collected from the vendors at the market, because the preacher used this verse. “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
That day his wife at home was sick, they didn’t have money for the doctor and for the medicine. And worse was they needed money for their baby’s milk. His job was to collect rental from the market vendors and endorse the money with the invoice to the municipal, but instead of going to the office he went to the church where there was an evangelistic meeting. When he reached there, what he heard from the preacher was the challenge to give because God will multiply the money you will give. Because he needed money very badly he gambled in giving all the cash that was not his.
Do you think God will compensate the money he gambled and lost for his ignorance? No! But who is more accountable? The more accountable is the preacher who quotes verses from the Bible out of context because of greed.
This verse is not about giving money but giving forgiveness.
Read the topic: “Do not judge lest you be judged”
