Luke 6:37-38
"Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again," Luke 6:37-38.
How should the Christian conduct himself while waiting to go to heaven? The simple straight forward answer is, according to the bible. Knowing this and submitting to the bible are two different things. "If ye love me, keep my commandments," John 14:15. How beneficial is it to obey the bible? "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him," John 14:21. Also look at John 14:23; 15:10, 14. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous," I John 5:3. Our Saviour would have us live according to the Scriptures. Living according to the Scriptures means that we are Kingdom minded. We are living for the Kingdom of Christ, not our own. When we love the Lord and are Kingdom minded, we will submit to the Scriptures. This is God's will for our lives. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," Matthew 6:33. We cannot and will not conduct ourselves as a Christian if we are not continuing in the Scriptures. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God," Romans 12:1-2.
The Christian that is walking with the Lord is reading, studying, and submitting to the Scriptures. We cannot be in communion with Christ apart from His word. If we are not in communion with our Saviour, we will not be able to obey Luke 6:27-38, or any other Scriptures. There will be evidences in our lives of how we are walking with the Lord. When we are walking with the Lord, we will love the things He loves and hate the things He hates (I John 2:15-17). We will also not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. "It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory," Proverbs 25:27. "Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself," Ecclesiastes 7:16. When we view ourselves as being holier than we are, we will be harsh in our judgments of others. We will be like king David in II Samuel 12:1-7. Read also Palm 51. With these truths in mind, let us get into our text.
"Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven," Luke 6:37. "Judge" in this verse means to form and express a judgment or opinion as to any person or thing; in an absolute sense which means this judging is done without any limitations, conditions, or comparisons. When we judge this way, we are making a judgment based on our own opinions and preferences. These types of judgments will differ with everyone in the room. Each person will use their own opinion as the standard or rule of judging. Some will even use Scripture, but with wrong motives. Our judgments should be limited, conditional, and compared to Scripture. You and I are fallible, and we must be very careful when judging others who are just like us. We must judge through the Scriptures.
We are also told not to condemn. "Condemn" in this verse means to give judgment against a person, pass sentence, condemn. The usual pattern is that we judge, then we condemn the one we judge. What we are learning in these verses does not mean that we do not judge and condemn, but rather there is a certain way in which we judge and condemn which we will see in verse 38. Christ also tells us in verse 37 that we are to forgive. "Forgive" in this verse means to let loose from, to loose or unbind a person or thing; metaphorically: to overlook, forgive. This is not what the natural man wants to do. As we learned last time, it is natural to desire to get even (Luke 6:27-36).
We can expect to be judged, condemned, and forgiven by others as we do unto others. "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again," Luke 6:38. The word "mete" in this verse means to measure (i.e. ascertain in size by a fixed standard.). How we do verse 37 is how we can expect to be done. Don't you want someone judging you to judge you rightly, according to the Scriptures? Don't you want them to get the full story before making a judgment? It is important that we do the same. We do not want to be high minded and think that those things wouldn't ever happen to us. We especially better be careful when dealing with the brethren. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted," Galatians 6:1.
There is always a danger of going from one extreme to the other. While some judge harshly, there are others who do not judge at all. Both are wrong. This is another reason it is important to keep Scripture in context. If you keep reading Luke 6 to verses 43-45, you will see what right judging reveals. Again, we must look at other people though the Scriptures, but look at ourselves first. Scripture is the standard. It doesn't change regardless of who the person is. We are flawed people, and it is easy to make a flawed judgment.
As Christians, we want sweet fellowship with our God. We should want to obey our Lord's commands. In order to do this, we must crucify our flesh. "The garden plot must first be clear of weeds and rubbish before it is ready for the vegetables and flowers to be planted therein. Hence the oft-repeated word is, "Cease to do evil, Learn to do well" (Isa. 1:16-17), "depart from evil and do good" (Psa. 34:14), "hate the evil and love the good" (Amos 5:15)-the second cannot be attended to until the first be accomplished. "Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts… Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:22, 24). That is God's unchanging order throughout: we must "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit," if we would know "perfect holiness in His fear." A.W. Pink.
May the Lord grant us the grace to continually become more like Jesus Christ in how we conduct ourselves in this life amongst a people who hate Him. Lord help us be light for You.
Please send questions and comments to richardsonbaptistchurch@gmail.com. Soli Deo Gloria.
