Luke 6:35-38 ESV
Thoughts on Scripture and Life
One thing I know for sure…life is hard!
Even though I have tried to avoid conflict, it just seems to show up like a bad penny.
I didn’t really have a hard time with enemies when I was growing up, so that’s probably why I avoid it as an adult.
When I was young and in school, every year I had one or two really good friends that I connected with and stayed with.
I was always the youngest person in my classes because I went to school early. My birthday is in August, and as soon as I was old enough, I was ready to start.
Along with being the youngest in my class, I was also the smallest person.
By my Senior year I was still the youngest and the smallest person in my class. By then I was used to it.
When I went to college, I still had a few good friends that I could really count on.
The first conflict I had with another person came when I was in a ministry position of leadership. I was hurt but I was able to work through it.
Later, as a Pastor’s wife it was much worse. To a few people it seemed like I was always doing something wrong. If it wasn’t me, it was one of my kids. There were a few people in every church where we served who had definite opinions about what my children should or should not do.
Love your enemies.
At the time I thought love was a feeling and in order to love them I would need to feel love for them. I struggled because I did not have warm and fuzzy feelings for people who criticized my style of parenting.
In Luke 6:35-38 we read, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. “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.”
I had witnessed my dad love people who were not kind to him, so I went to him when I was in my late 20’s and I asked him how he did it.
He said he didn’t.
I argued that I saw him treat people with kindness after they had been unkind to him.
He reiterated that he didn’t do it.
I stared at him and he gave me his really LOOK.
Then I stopped and thought about it.
He gave me a clue when he asked me, “Do you think God expects us to do everything on our own?”
I was still thinking, but I said, “well…I suppose not.”
Then he asked, “So how do you tell God you need help with someone.”
I thought for a minute (wondering if it was a trick question) and I said, “I pray?”
He smiled and said, “and what do you tell God?”
I literally thought he meant how did I tell God (and why) this person was not nice. He stopped me mid-stream and he said, “do you tell God that you forgive them?”
I says, “Oh that. I suppose I could.”
He answered. “Yes. When you forgive them you give it to God.”
I came back with, “how do I know God will fix them?”
He said, “you don’t. That’s not YOUR job. That’s God’s problem.”
Hummmm…
In comes Luke 6:35-38, especially Luke 6:38, “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.”
Give mercy. Do not judge or condemn. Give forgiveness.
When you do that, God will give to you. But more than that, God will give back good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Do you know what that means?
So, in Biblical times when grain was measured out, it was pressed down and shaken. Luke is saying when we give, God will return our giving by making sure what returns to us is pressed down and shaken together. Then, it is also given back to us running over so much that it will spill out in your lap. When we think of it as grain in visual terms, we can see the return of what we have given exponentially coming back to us.
That’s the result of our giving and forgiving.
My dad was trying to get me to see that when I offer forgiveness, my offering will be returned to me exponentially by God.
Plus, according to Luke 6:35-38 the scope of what God wants us to do is beyond forgiveness. It also includes loving your enemies, lending without expecting it to be returned, giving mercy, giving kindness, not condemning others, and not judging others.
One final note…Luke also reminded his readers of the full extent of God’s love at the end of Luke 6:35 when he wrote that God, “is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”
That tells us no matter what we do…no matter what anyone else does, God will love and God will be kind even when we are ungrateful and downright evil.
For that, I am really really grateful!
Today’s Spiritual Practice is: Give
Give and forgive to one person. The good will be returned exponentially to you.
In God, Deborah
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