All You Need Is Love Series

Luke 6: 37 – 49

All You Need Is Love

37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” 39 And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. 41 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye. 43 “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. 46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? 47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

I do not know about you but I have difficulty judging people. Should we judge people or not is the question. Today we are going to see what our Precious Holy Spirit teaches regarding how we should conduct our lives in regards to this vital situation.

I think that we can all agree that our opinions mean nothing. We therefore have only one standard in thinking about judging others. What does our Lord say in His word?

37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

We can see right off the bat that our Lord speaks about this issue like it is a court session. For one thing we are not the judge. Do you see our Lord’s direct instruction to us – ‘Judge not!’. We are not to render a verdict against anyone. I know that many times my flesh cries out for people to get the ultimate sentence. However, He always stops me with this one which I think we are all familiar with in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 35, “Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; Their foot shall slip in due time; For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things to come hasten upon them.’ We often just respond with our memory of this verse, ‘vengeance is Mine, I shall repay.’

Our Lord here also reminds us that in addition to not being the judge we are also not in the jury. We are instructed to ‘condemn not!’. We are not to decide anyone’s case - Are they guilty or not.

What is terrible hard for us sinners is to do these two things – give and forgive. However, if we follow the advice from our Lord as given in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 6 we will greatly benefit, “6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.’ In other words, if we respond greatly in love by giving and forgiving when our desire is a pound of flesh, we shall greatly receive rewards from our Great God.