Generosity in Judgment, in Forgiveness, and in Giving

Luke 6:37-38 

INTRODUCTION

In Luke 6, Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus names two attitudes to avoid and two behaviors to cultivate. He says,

Judge not, and you will not be judged;

condemn not, and you will not be condemned;

forgive, and you will be forgiven;

give, and it will be given to you;

good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will  be put into your lap.

For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

I. “Judge not..condemn not…”

A. First of all I want to deal with a common misunderstanding of what Jesus means when he says, “Judge not…”

Sometimes this is called “the unbeliever’s favorite verse.”

Some people say, whenever anyone expresses an opinion about right or wrong, “You know, we’re not to judge.”

As if it is our duty to be stupid, to be oblivious to evil, to pretend that everything people do or think is okay—if they think it’s okay.

Jesus makes it clear that this is not his meaning. When we read these words in Matthew, he follows with this: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw pearls before swine” (Matthew 7:6). Clearly Jesus expects us to discriminate between right and wrong, good and bad, truth and error.

We need to have firm ideas of truth and righteousness—not so we can criticize others, but so that we can live according to the truth.

St. Paul writes in Philippians: “This is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-10).

B. In his command, “Judge not” Jesus is warning us against that censorious, faultfinding spirit that thinks it is obliged to play God by evaluating others’ actions so that we can feel superior.

The trouble with fault-finding is that the more we find fault with others, the more blind we are to our own sins.

Have you ever listened to someone waxing eloquent about the faults of another and thought: “But you do the same thing; you just don’t know it.”

“Judge not, that ye be not judged” works even on a human level.

Censorious people draw attention to themselves.

I remember a Peanuts comic strip in which Lucy tells Charlie Brown: “You have a tendency to talk loudly when you get excited, don’t you Charlie Brown? Why do you do this?”

In the third frame Charlie Brown says, “I don’t know. No one has ever been rude enough to tell me about this before.”

In the last frame Lucy is musing to herself: “We critical people are always being criticized.”

Once I had a fellow teacher criticize my grammar. Ever after that I always noticed whenever she made a mistake in grammar.

Whenever we criticize people, we make them especially sensitive to our faults.

C. But there’s a more serious issue here.

When we take delight in the faults of others—whether we are right in our judgment or not—we sin and expose ourselves to the judgment of God.

It’s as if we get up on our little throne right beside the Lord to help him judge the world.

Jesus says, a few sentences later, “Why do you see the speck in your neighbors’ eye but don’t notice the plank in your own eye…You hypocrite. First take out the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s or sister’s eye.”

There are many proverbs on this point:

“Forget others’ faults by remembering your own.”

Here are some proverbs from various nations:

“Everyone has enough to do in weeding his own garden” (Belgian).

“For others’ sins we have the eyes of a lynx, for our own, the eyes of a mole” (Bohemian).

“He who sees his own faults is too much occupied to see the faults of others” (Arabic).

If we focus on the sins of others, we become sour, disagreeable, miserable people.

If we focus on the good we see around us, we become gracious, encouraging, affirming, cheerful people. People like to be around us and we help spread goodness around in the world.

II. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

A. This works on a human level.

If you are gracious with other people’s faults, they are more likely to overlook yours.

If you cut other people some slack they are more likely to return the favor.

B. As Christians we have no option. If we are unforgiving we can’t be forgiven. If we can’t pass on the grace we’ve received from God, we can’t claim to have received forgiveness for ourselves.

Jesus gave us a prayer that includes: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” And then he added, “If you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

III. Last of all, Jesus adds, “Give and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down shaken together, running over will be put in your lap.”

A When we give, we receive more than we gave—not money, but the satisfaction of knowing we are doing God’s work, that we are fulfilling our purpose on earth.

Do you notice that we can sum up each of these commands—judge not, condemn not, forgive, and give—with two words: Be generous—generous in our judgment, generous in our forgiveness, and generous with what we have.

It could be money, or time, or compliments, or encouragement, or just paying attention to others.

I once read a book entitled: “How to Get People to Do Things.”

As I remember, the theme of the book is that if you want to get other people to please you, you must please them. If you want others to meet your needs, you must meet theirs. If you want to be loved, you must show love for them.

B. Some psychologists devised a clever experiment to determine whether generosity really does make people happier than stinginess.

They devised a questionnaire to determine how happy each participant in their study was.

Then they gave each of their subjects a sum of money—it may have been 10 or 20 dollars—and told them that they could do whatever they wanted with the money—spend it, save it, or give it away.

After each participant had disposed of the money, they gave the happiness questionnaire again.

They found that the ones who had given the money away ended up being more happy than the ones who had spent it or saved it.

Their conclusion: the cheapest way to “buy” happiness is to give money away, not to keep it or spend it.

I once read of a tombstone that had engraved on it these words: “What I spent, I had. What I saved, I lost. What I gave, I have.” This is what Jesus meant when he said that we can give away our treasure on earth to reap a treasure in heaven.”

So when churches urge tithing, it’s not just because they need money to pay the bills. It’s because they know that giving promotes spiritual maturity.

When St. Paul wrote his thank you letter to the Philippian Christians to thank them for the gift he sent them, he added, “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that accumulates to your account…a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will fully satisfy every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:11-19).

CONCLUSION

A church treasurer once addressed a letter to a wealthy businessman requesting a contribution to a service project sponsored by the church. She received a curt refusal which closed with: “As far as I can see, this Christianity business is just one continual ‘give, give, give.’”

Nothing daunted, the treasurer wrote back as following: “Thank you for the best definition of the Christian life I’ve every heard.”

This story was posted on the website HelpOthers.org in August 2006:

The writer wrote about something she had seen while shopping.

She was shopping in a toy store and decided to look at Barbie dolls for her nieces.

She noticed a little girl who was excitedly looking through the Barbie dolls as well. The little girl had a wad of money clasped in her hand. She would pick up one Barbie after another and ask her father, “Do I have enough?” He usually said “yes,” but she would keep looking and asking, “Do I have enough?”

As she was looking, a little boy wandered in across the aisle and started sorting through the Pokemon toys. He also had money in his hand, although it didn’t look like very much. He was with his father as well, and kept picking up the Pokemon video toys. Each time he picked one up and looked at his father, with the same question—“Do I have enough? Each time, his father would shake his head

The little girl had chosen her Barbie. But then she stopped and was watching the boy and his father. Rather dejectedly, the boy had given up on the video games and had chosen what looked like a book of stickers instead. He and his father then started walking through another aisle of the store.

The little girl put her Barbie back on the shelf, and ran over to the Pokemon games. She picked up the last one the boy had picked up, whispered something to her father, and hurried to the checkout.

The woman who tells the story got in line after the girl and her father. And the boy and his father got in line after her.

When the clerk had taken the girl’s money and put it into a bag, the little girl whispered something to the clerk. The clerk smiled and put the bag under the counter.

The woman telling the story lingered after making her purchase to see what was going to happen.

When the boy and his father reached the cashier, she rang up their purchases and then said, “Congratulations, you are my hundredth customer today and you win the prize!” With that, she handed the little boy the Pokemon game. He stared in disbelief and then said, “Wow! Just what I wanted!”

The little girl and the shopper who tells the story were standing in the front of the store, the girl with a big grin on her face.

As they walked to their car, the father asked his daughter, “Why did you do that?”

She said, “Daddy, didn’t Nana and PawPaw want me to buy something that would make me happy? Well, I did.”

She had decided on the answer to her question: “Do I have enough?”

Let me leave you with these questions: Are you generous—with your judgments? With your forgiveness? With your giving?

An Eternal Weight of Glory

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

INTRODUCTION

One reason why the Bible speaks to us in the depths of our hearts is because so much of the Bible was written by people who were in pain.

If you have read the Psalms, you know how many of them were written by people who were deeply discouraged because of sickness, or the hatred of their enemies, or because they felt forsaken by God.

In the New Testament we have many letters written by the Apostle Paul. And Paul’s life was a life full of trouble. That’s one reason why Paul’s letters are so meaningful to us. Sometimes our lives are full of trouble.

The letter in which Paul most poignantly reveals the depths of his suffering is his second letter to the Corinthians.

In the first chapter he writes of the terrible afflictions he and his companions suffered in Asia. He says, “We were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.”

Paul was not an old man when he wrote this letter, maybe in his 40s or early 50s. But he was a broken man—old before his time. Paul was beheaded during the persecution of Emperor Nero in A.D. 67, about 10 years after writing this letter, while probably in his 50s.

He writes in chapter 11 of the afflictions he has endured: countless beatings,

once stoned and left for dead,

three times shipwrecked,

adrift a night and a day at sea,

in danger from rivers,

and in constant danger from enemies who wanted to kill him.

Sleepless nights, hunger and thirst,

in cold,

and in daily anxiety for all the churches.

In the chapter 4—from which I’m going to take my text—Paul calls himself “a clay jar.” He writes, “We have this treasure”—that is, the light of the gospel—“in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God an not come from us.”

Paul compares himself to a clay jar—cheap material, fragile, and easily broken.

Then he says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed;

      perplexed, but not driven to despair;

                  persecuted, but not forsaken;

                              struck down, but not destroyed;

always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies” (4:7-10).

I’m not trying to glorify pain. Pain is pain, and it hurts. We should avoid pain and suffering whenever we can. But God gives us a way to look at our troubles that opens up the way to blessing.

The text: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”

I. What Paul actually writes in the Greek is: “While the outer man is wasting away, the inner man is being renewed every day…”

A. The “outer man”—or the “outer person”—that is wasting away is the mortal body. The outer person has a body full of scars, of aches and pains, growing weaker every day.

The outer person ends up in the grave.

But there’s another person that Paul calls the “inner person.”

This is the Paul is on the inside. The inner person, the home of the Holy Spirit, living in fellowship with God, trusting and obeying God, and enjoying the peace that only God can give.

The inner man or the inner woman is the person who will live forever.

B. But it’s not automatic that our inner person is “renewed day by day.”

Some people get old on the inside too. They lose hope, lose interest in life, feel sorry for themselves, harbor bitter memories, and have nothing to look forward to.

But people who live close to God remain vital and full of hope, even as their health fails, because, as Jesus once said, there is within them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

The secret of this constant renewal is to view things in the light of eternity—to always be aware that this life is not all there is, but this life is just the prelude to real life that lasts forever.

II. Then Paul says something surprising: “For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure…”

A. I have told you in Paul’s own words how grim his life was. It was full of trouble and sorrow and pain and disappointment. And yet he calls it “this slight momentary affliction…”

Afflictions are slight and momentary only in comparison with eternal life.

Our afflictions in this life may be terrible, break our hearts and crush our spirits.

But if we can bring them into comparison with the “eternal weight of glory,” then they dwindle into insignificance.

Paul writes a few sentences on: “…for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

No matter what struggles we have in our earthly bodies, someday they will be left behind and forgotten because, looking back on them a thousand years from now, we will see them as slight and momentary.

B. And our sorrows, Paul says, are actually “preparing us for an eternal weight of glory”!

In other words, the more we suffer for Jesus, the more joy we will experience when we are with Christ in glory.

Our sufferings aren’t like Paul’s; we aren’t suffering for our faith. But I believe that if we can offer our pains and troubles to God, they will be sanctified and bring eternal blessings into our lives.

I believe that our sorrows—if we offer them to God—can make us deeper people, able to hold more joy because sorrow has enlarged or hearts to contain much more of God.

The truth is that the joy of heaven is something that can’t be had apart from faithfulness amid suffering on earth…

III. Then Paul continues, “…because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen;

for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”

A. The word for “look” in this verse has a stronger meaning than just “to see.” Other translations have “aim for,” “fix our eyes on,” or “focus on,” or “give attention to.”

B. But how can we look at what can’t be seen?

The secret is that we see, not by the eyes in our heads but by the eyes of faith.

And how can we learn to have eyes of faith? By prayer, by scripture, by meditation, by fellowship with Christian believers, and by acts of love.

If we walk with God, the things that are invisible to ordinary people will become the most real things, and the invisible things are the things that last forever.

I read once of an ice palace that was built in St. Petersburg. It had walls, ceilings, furniture—all colored to look like the real thing. It was grand—but when spring came, it melted away. It didn’t last.

And that’s the trouble with our beautiful and interesting and fascinating world—it won’t last.

But there’s another, even more beautiful and fascinating and interesting world—and it will last, forever.

C. S. Lewis wrote a series of books about some children’s adventures. In the last book there is a train wreck and the children find themselves in heaven. He writes, “All their life in this world and all their adventures had been the cover and the title page: now they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

What a beautiful description of what we are looking forward to in the world to come!

CONCLUSION

There’s a common idea that people who are preoccupied with the “hereafter” have their heads in the clouds.”

You’ve heard the saying, “He’s so heavenly minded, he’s of no earthly use.”

I’d like to turn that around. The Bible teaches that if our minds are focused on the things of this life, our lives will be wasted. To see everything in terms of the here and now is to head straight for destruction.

To bring everything we do into the light of eternity is the only way to make sure that what we do with our lives here be a blessing for all eternity—for us and for those we love.

Diane Komp is a physician, a pediatric oncologist. She has made a career out of treating children with cancer.

Early in her practice of medicine she was treating a little girl named Anna for leukemia. This was back in the days when few recovered from this disease. At the age of 7, Anna was facing the end.

At Anna’s side at the last were her parents and her doctor. At that time Komp was not a believer. She was an agnostic. But this is what happened that day in the doctor’s own words:

“Before she died, Anna mustered the final energy to sit up in her hospital bed and say: ‘The angels—they’re so beautiful! Mommy, can you see them? Do you hear their singing? I’ve never heard such beautiful singing!’ Then she lay back on her pillow and died.”

Komp says, “Anna’s parents reacted as if they had been given the most precious gift in the world. Together we contemplated a spiritual mystery that transcended our understanding and experience. For weeks to follow, the thought that stuck in my head was: Have I found a reliable witness?”

Not long after this, Diane Komp herself began her journey as a Christian. Little Anna was a reliable witness.

Maybe God gave that little girl that vision of eternity as a gift to her parents.

It isn’t likely that you or I will have a vision like that little girl did. But if we live close to God, we can see the eternal things by faith and know that someday we will see the reality.