Luke 6:38

Luke 6:38

This is one of those keen-edged, far-reaching sayings of our Lord's which make us understand the testimony of the Apostle who knew Him best: "He needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man" one of those sayings which sum up in a few words the experience of all lives and of many sides of life. Our consciousness witnesses to its truth, and in doing so witnesses to the justice of the world of what has been called God's "natural government."

I. It is true as between man and man. Such as we are to others, such in the long-run will others be to us. Generosity calls out generosity; confidence wins confidence; love is answered to by love. We know all this very well, though we sometimes forget it. Men are to us what we are to them. The disposition that hoards, that grudges, that counts up its own rights, and is extreme to mark any omission or slight on the part of another, seals up men's hearts against itself. "Give, and it shall be given," even in money; but in things far beyond money in love, trust, loyalty, hearty and affectionate service.

II. It is true, again, as between ourselves and life. Life, too, is what we make it, deals with us as we deal with it. To the selfish it is as a churl. To the generous it opens its fountains of beauty and happiness. Give your best, and you shall receive its best. Stinted and measured labour, half-hearted devotion, lukewarm interest what mutilated results, what poor inadequate returns do they always bring, in youth and in age, in work and in play. Lose yourself, forget yourself in healthy work, in true love, in a noble cause, and you will find yourself again in a larger, freer, happier life.

III. Once more, the saying is verified as between ourselves and God, "With what measure ye mete." Even He is, in a sense, to us what we are to Him. Pray, and your prayers shall be heard. Believe, and God will be real to you. Trust and obey,and you shall know that you have not trusted in vain. Shut yourself up from Him, and He will shut Himself up from you.

E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons,p. 146.

The first word to be said on this subject and one which must come before the word which we are specially to consider is "Get."Fill the basket and the store. The desire of possessing is one of the springs of many a noble character and of many a noble career. It is one of the root principles of the manifold and wonderful activity and enterprise and resource of our industrial life. That principle builds our cities, wings our ships, extends our empire over all the world. A great part of Christian virtue and goodness consists in harmonising this principle with others; but without it nothing could be done. And now comes the second word, "Give." Begin to give as soon as you begin to get. That, and that only, will prevent the danger of a growing covetousness.

I. The giving should be in some proportion to the income. I do not presume to fix the proportion with arithmetical exactness. There are insuperable difficulties in the way of fixing or naming any numerical proportions for Christian liberality. But we insist on the principleof a fair and just proportion, and on the consequent duty of the individual to turn the principle into practice, and to find out for himself how much his own proportion ought to be.

II. This proportion will never be reached, or, at any rate, will hardly for any long time be continued, except in connection with another principle of far deeper hold and wider sway: the principle that what is left is given top that all we have belongs to God that we ourselves are not our own. This principle penetrates to the very centre of our being, and sweeps round the widest circumference of our life. It is becoming more and more evident that the religion of Christ is such that we cannot touch the spirit and essence of it by anything less than wholeness of consecration. But when we give the whole ourselves, our endowments, our possessions then the giving of each part in fit time and place cannot be less than a blessedness and a joy.

III. It is also true that we shall never understand really what Christian giving is until we get beyond and above what is called the "duty" of it to this higher ground, where only the blessedness of it will be felt, and where we shall hear very clearly the Master's words, standing as we shall do in His nearer presence, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

A. Raleigh, From Dawn to the Perfect Day,p. 204.

References: Luke 6:38. H. Whitehead, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 19; Church of England Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 89; F. O. Morris, Ibid.,vol. xvii., p. 49; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 346; E. H. Abbott, Church of England Pulpit,vol. iv., p. 278. Luke 6:39; Luke 6:40. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxi., No. 1248.