As I've been reading the Gospel of Luke, I have had new insights on scriptures I've read many times before. This one is pretty straightforward, but for some reason, I'd never noticed it before.
Luke 6:38 (Jesus speaking to his disciples) "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."
I'd always just skipped to the end of the verse, thinking it to be another verse that said how you treat others is how you will be treated. But there's more to it, and that more part is really interesting. "Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over." That is what we receive, so what we should give. In my cooking experiences over my life, I have had many occasions to measure different materials. Some, like white sugar, are fairly easy to measure, and would be hard to mess up. But others, like brown sugar or butter, could be messed up, because they don't always fall into the measuring cup as easily. To get a proper measurement, some recipes specifically require that the brown sugar be packed down. I am sure in ancient times, as Jesus was living in, there were those who were very sloppy with their measurements in trading, buying, and selling. It would be easy to just pour in some flour haphazardly, and call it a full measurement, but a good man, a generous man, a Christlike man, would pack it down in, making sure there aren't any pockets of air, fill it to the very top, like as kids we all liked to do in filling up a cup of water (it's fun seeing the surface tension make the water dome over the top). My feeling on this verse is that Christ has already given us a full measure of blessings, even overflowing. Thus, we need to be generous (see previous post on generosity) and charitable, not just being honest in our dealings with our fellow men, but generous in our dealings with our fellow men, because Christ was generous to us first. Think of this next time you measure out a cup of sugar in your next milkshake.
4 comments:
Good insight! I love hearing the promptings you receive as you study the scriptures. Thank you for sharing!
Are you giving me license to make a milkshake? jk Thanks for sharing your insights, Dallin. I appreciate the extra understanding and the uplift they give me.
That is very interesting insight Dallin. Thanks for sharing. I like it.
Awesome! He is so generous to us, isn't He?
Not only did Father provide the Plan of Salvation, giving up His Beloved Son, but He made the earth beautiful! Our time here being tested is not on some merely functional place, but a breathtakingly beautiful masterpiece.
I had never thought about that verse either, but I'll always think of that now when I see it! :)
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