Luke 6:38 - 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.

We’ve heard this Scripture used many times; mostly regarding money. However, that’s not what it’s about. And in using it that way, dissolves its power.

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Let’s talk about when it all goes wrong, because some time in your life, or your ministry, it will. No matter how sanctified we get or who you’ve put on a pedestal, we will all fail. Misunderstanding leads to hurt, hurt leads to bitterness…

God cannot use your bitterness.

Luke 6:27-38 – /27 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. /28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. /29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. /30 Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. /31 Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

/32 “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! /33 And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! /34 And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.

/35 “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. /36 You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

/37 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. /38 Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

It’s about forgiveness. You will be wronged. You will be hurt. People will talk about you. People will take advantage of you… so what do you do?

CS Lewis, in The Weight of Glory, talks about the difference between forgiving something and excusing it…

• Forgiveness says, “Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never hold it against you and everything between the two of us is exactly as it was before.”
• Excusing says, “I see you couldn’t help it or didn’t mean it; you weren’t really to blame.” If no one is to blame, there is nothing to forgive.

Lewis goes on to say,

“In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites… If you had a perfect excuse, you would not need forgiveness; if the whole of your action needs forgiveness, then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call ‘asking God’s forgiveness’ very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses… We are so very anxious to point these out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which the excuses don’t cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses.

All the real excusing He [God] will do. What we have got to take to Him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting time by talking about all the parts which can be excused.

Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. That, and only that, is forgiveness, and that we can always have from God when we ask for it.

Finally, he concludes about forgiving others…

You must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart — every wish to humiliate or hurt… In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent of guilt left over… To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.” We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.

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So read it again. I hope it changes things for you…

Luke 6:38 - 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.