Luke 6:38

“Give, and it shall be given to you,

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom.

For with what measure you mete,

It shall be measured to you again.”

So those who are His are now called on to give freely and abundantly. The idea here, as earlier, is that as we give God, will give to us. Indeed we are promised that He will not only give in accordance with how we give, but even much more munificently. As we reveal ourselves to be His children by our generosity, so will He pour on us His gifts. He will not be stinting. He will give us good measure. And then He will press it down and shake the container so that there is more room in it so that He can give more. Then He will pour in His gifts until they run over. ‘They shall give into your bosom.' The ‘they' is probably a Hebraism referring to God as being expressed in the plural (as with the ‘us' in Genesis 1:26). ‘Into your bosom' refers to the fold in the garment where it hung over the girdle, which could be used like a pocket. It is saying that God will fill our pockets to overflowing! (It should be noted that the illustration is totally Palestinian).

Or the ‘they' may mean that by moving the hearts of others to give to us (‘they'), God will ensure that we receive more abundantly than we give, not necessarily monetarily. We will receive our gifts in terms of abundant fellowship with God's people, in terms of gratitude and our own warmness of heart. But the overall idea is that the way we measure our giving (whether stingily or generously) will be the measure according to which God gives to us.

Distinguishing The Genuine From The Fake (Luke 6:39).

Luke now draws attention to a break in the sermon. It may be that this indicates that what follows was spoken at another time, or it may have been simply in order to draw attention to the fact that, after the seriousness of what He has been saying in very practical terms, his following words are not to be taken literally but as parabolic. The connection between what follows and what has gone before is simple. Having given His teaching concerning the life of love Jesus now warns them not to be diverted from it, either by blind guides or by disobedience. The blind guides emphasise religious ritual. They prefer ‘sacrifice' to ‘mercy' (compare Matthew 9:13; Matthew 12:7). Those who follow them will fail in their walk and stumble. Others simply do not carry out what they have heard. But they will if their hearts are true. We could have headed this next section, “Don't just talk about it, do it!”