Luke 6:37-38 (NIV)
“Do not judge, and
you will not be judged. Do not condemn,
and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 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."
Have you ever heard
or thought about the cycles of God?
God’s creation is full of cycles.
There is the cycle of the seasons, the cycle of day and night, and the
cycle of birth-life-death-resurrection.
There’s also the cycle of sowing and reaping, the cycle of sin
(sin—sorrow/repentance—forgiveness/restoration—sin again), the cycle of
confession (private sin-private confession, personal sin—personal confession,
public sin—public confession) and life’s general cycles like the law of
averages. There’s a scientific discipline called chronobiology that studies
life’s bodily rhythms that include circadian (24 hour cycles of body
temperature, blood pressure, sleeping and waking), ultradian (daily changes in
heartbeat, energy levels and attention spans), circatrigintan (monthly
menstrual cycle), and cirannual (seasonal depression, sexual drive,
susceptibility to certain diseases at different times of the year). Most, perhaps all of life is cyclic in
nature.
This passage from
Luke contains a few cycles of practical and successful Christian living. There are certain things that you should not
do like judging and condemning others.
If you do, then God’s natural cycle of life will cause you to be judged
and condemned. There are certain things
that you are to do. You are to forgive
and to give. If you do, God’s spiritual
cycle of life will enable you to be forgiven and you will end up receiving far
more than you have given. This is what
Jesus meant by His words, “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and
running over”. Your giving results in
God returning to you so many blessings that you cannot comprehend them all just
like pouring excessive grain into a container.
No matter the size of container (good measure), no matter how much you
smash the grain and shake the container, it will not all fit in that container
and will overflow. God allows an
abundance of harvest to result by your generosity of forgiveness and
giving.
“For the measure
you use, it will be measured to you” is called God’s “Law of Reciprocity”. For every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction. If you are friendly
to others, they will be friendly to you.
If you are a complainer to others, they will complain back. If you give generously, you will receive
generously. If you have ever given
generously, did you not experience blessings beyond belief? Were not an abundance of blessings “poured
into your lap”?
Have you ever tried
giving something like half of your paycheck away to help others with them not
knowing it came from you? Do you have
sufficient faith in God’s promises to try this sometime? Perhaps the key to happiness and contentment
in life is to be a generous giver. The
abundance of your life may be largely based on what you give away.
“We make a living
by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” -- Winston Churchill
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