In The Same Measure?

"Give, and it will be given to you.  They will pour into your lap a good measure - pressed down, shaken together, and running over.  For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." (Luke 6:38)

Recently in these morning thoughts I asked the question, "Are you a robber?"  When I first made contact with this verse, it required my digging a little deeper, which eventually turned into a lot deeper.  That is the wondrous thing about studying God's word.  It has a ‘the dangling carrot syndrome.  Nothing stands alone.  As a matter of fact I tend to get a wee bit tricked when I hear people taking the liberty of taking a verse out of context and building a denomination on it.

I read a neat entry by a very good friend of mine who said, “There will be no Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterians or any other denomination in heaven and by the way there will be no Christians either, only sheep, children of God whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.”

In my travels through the roadways of the Word and seeking deeper understanding of what God was saying when He said, "Yet, you are robbing Me"  I came to yet another profound statement of God, "They have abandoned the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel.  They have turned away from Him" (v. 4b).  He follows this with another statement that tends to get one’s attention, "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint, from the sole of the foot even to the head".  (Isa 5b - 6a). 

Now ,it is at this point that I want to close the Bible and go and rake leaves or some other mundane exercise.  Solomon would say "that kind of attitude is "pure folly". Isaiah goes on, as he always does, and gives us a path out of the wilderness.  "Come let us reason together, says the Lord,  Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.    But notice the next line, the kicker - "If you consent and obey  you will eat the best of the land".   (v.18 - 19a).

Do you think Jesus was referring to this very issue when He said, "For your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return"?  Was He telling us we can determine God's blessings on us by our willingness to give?  I tend to think that is precisely what He is saying.  

Note, in the Sermon on the Mount He made a similar statement pertaining to judging, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judges; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you"  (Matt. 7:1-2). There is much more that we could say about God  placing in our hands the power to be blessed by our heavenly Daddy but we will leave it for another day. 

Soooo, friends and neighbors, remember what Jesus said to the scribe who ask Him what is the greatest commandment?   Jesus said  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as  yourself".  (Mark 12:30-31).  Do you think Jesus was saying "in the same measure that you love Me, your neighbor and yourself, so I will love you.  Something to ponder:  Can we love God in the same measure that He loves us?

Blessings,

Gramps