The Measure
Each time you hear of the same measure, taken from Luke 6: 38 (New King James Version) “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you”, you immediately recall how your Pastor uses it to lambaste you into parting with your money.
Mercifully, there is sufficient teaching out there that you needn’t ever be deluded into thinking that when Jesus made that remark, He was referring to just money. What we on His mind as He taught His disciples that basic principle? It was a summary of His teaching immediately prior. You may know, or not, that He had been teaching on forgiveness; in the preceding verse, in fact, where the bible says, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven”, (Luke 6:37).
Therefore, you would be right to conclude that His summary statement referred to our being forgiven to the same extent to which we forgive others, and you would be totally on point. As you know, God is not loquacious so, why the summary statement? My thinking, gleaned from Jesus’ other teachings, is that the summary is a cover for all the scenarios He did not have time to itemize on that occasion but also including the one He had just finished illustrating.
So, if you revel in making snide remarks about others, expect God to make snide remarks about your life, perhaps to your employers, who then inexplicably downrate you in spite of your hard work. Perhaps all you need to start enjoying the work place is to stop making mean remarks about others. If you enjoy sensationalizing others’ mistakes, expect God to magnify every error you commit, a bid deal for God, He who is a covering God, Genesis 3: 21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
And what’s more, the more you do that, the greater the shame that God can heap on you as He exposes your faults. I am sure you know people who have a judgmental spirit – no matter what you do or say, they have a critical or negative comment. You know enough to avoid them but you cannot help observing that their lives are filled with negativities. That is when it hits you that as they sow negatives into others’ lives, so God causes them to reap negatives – in like measure.
Of course, you can apply the lesson to the church scenario. If you go into a house of worship where you are (hopefully) fed the word of God, you may leave without paying for your food or the upkeep of the establishment. Nobody will stop you. But God will definitely direct into your life those who will ‘eat’ from you without putting anything back into your life. They use up your resources – including time, space, emotions, prayers and funds – without contributing anything to you.
And Jesus was saying that the more you benefit from a church without contributing anything in return, the more of such people will come into your life. You will find, after reading this, that as you reduce such unwanted behavior, God begins to remove those wasters from your life. By the time you start to ensure full payment for your food – physical and spiritual – the devourers are completely removed from your life.
You know in your heart that this is true. The only thing for us to do is to ask ourselves, “what am I measuring out to people?
Maranatha!
Mercifully, there is sufficient teaching out there that you needn’t ever be deluded into thinking that when Jesus made that remark, He was referring to just money. What we on His mind as He taught His disciples that basic principle? It was a summary of His teaching immediately prior. You may know, or not, that He had been teaching on forgiveness; in the preceding verse, in fact, where the bible says, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven”, (Luke 6:37).
Therefore, you would be right to conclude that His summary statement referred to our being forgiven to the same extent to which we forgive others, and you would be totally on point. As you know, God is not loquacious so, why the summary statement? My thinking, gleaned from Jesus’ other teachings, is that the summary is a cover for all the scenarios He did not have time to itemize on that occasion but also including the one He had just finished illustrating.
So, if you revel in making snide remarks about others, expect God to make snide remarks about your life, perhaps to your employers, who then inexplicably downrate you in spite of your hard work. Perhaps all you need to start enjoying the work place is to stop making mean remarks about others. If you enjoy sensationalizing others’ mistakes, expect God to magnify every error you commit, a bid deal for God, He who is a covering God, Genesis 3: 21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
And what’s more, the more you do that, the greater the shame that God can heap on you as He exposes your faults. I am sure you know people who have a judgmental spirit – no matter what you do or say, they have a critical or negative comment. You know enough to avoid them but you cannot help observing that their lives are filled with negativities. That is when it hits you that as they sow negatives into others’ lives, so God causes them to reap negatives – in like measure.
Of course, you can apply the lesson to the church scenario. If you go into a house of worship where you are (hopefully) fed the word of God, you may leave without paying for your food or the upkeep of the establishment. Nobody will stop you. But God will definitely direct into your life those who will ‘eat’ from you without putting anything back into your life. They use up your resources – including time, space, emotions, prayers and funds – without contributing anything to you.
And Jesus was saying that the more you benefit from a church without contributing anything in return, the more of such people will come into your life. You will find, after reading this, that as you reduce such unwanted behavior, God begins to remove those wasters from your life. By the time you start to ensure full payment for your food – physical and spiritual – the devourers are completely removed from your life.
You know in your heart that this is true. The only thing for us to do is to ask ourselves, “what am I measuring out to people?
Maranatha!
