For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you

 "But I say to you who hear:  Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.  To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also.  And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.  Give to everyone who asks of you.  And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back.  And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.

"But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same.  And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.  But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.  For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.  Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.

"Judge not, and you shall not be judged.  Condemn not, and you  shall not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  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."

- Luke 6:27-38

Yesterday we read that it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.  And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles:  Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor.  And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits.  And they were healed.  And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all.  Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:  "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.  Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!  For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.  But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger.  Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.  Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets."

 "But I say to you who hear:  Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.  To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also.  And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.  Give to everyone who asks of you.  And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back.  And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise."  My study bible tells us that this final summation in the last verse here, known as the "Golden Rule," is a minimum of Christian virtue.  It squarely places the human desire for goodness (what Cyril of Alexandria calls "the natural law of self-love") as a basic standard of how we are to treat others.  My study bible says that this is only the first step on the path to perfection of virtue.  True perfection is found further down in the Sermon, in verse 36, where it is God's mercy, as opposed to humankind's desire, which is the standard.  When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, He's speaking of love in a way that we are to understand it as a choice.  It is an action, something we decide to do.  This is not merely an attitude or a feeling; it is rather a choice not to seek vengeance, but it goes hand in hand with the understanding that vengeance belongs to the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19, Hebrews 10:30).  Ultimately, it is the Lord's justice that we seek for ourselves.

 "But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners love those who love them.  And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same.  And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.  But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.  For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.  Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful."  Again, Christ refers to love as a choice, something we choose to do.  This is not about being blind to the sins around us, the evil or unrighteous acts committed against ourselves or others.  Neither is it a neglect of justice.  But Christ rather prescribes a way of living that encompasses a way of love in response to all things, a choice to practice mercy rather than vengeance.

"Judge not, and you shall not be judged.  Condemn not, and you  shall not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven.  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."  My study bible notes that mercy precludes human judgment.   It says that good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over are descriptions of
how an honest and generous merchant would measure bulk goods.  Flour pressed own, for instance, yields a more generous amount than flour fluffed up.  Those blessings which God intends to put into our hearts are more generous than we can seemingly contain, but this also depends on the spirit in which we ourselves act to give and to forgive.  Christ clearly teaches us that it is our own practice that helps us to realize love and mercy for ourselves.

Jesus speaks of a choice for love.  He does not wish us to seek out harm from those who wish to hurt us, He does not teach us to be best friends with someone who wishes only to abuse us or cause us harm.  What He is teaching about here is offering us a clear choice -- and indeed letting us know that a way of love is a particular choice of action on our part, a clear-cut conscious choice.  Our responses to life don't have to be automatic; we're capable of making a choice.  Jesus speaks of a way of life in which God comes first, and in which we honor God by our own lives and directions and actions.  As human beings, we are created so that we may become more like our Creator, and we are capable of living our lives making wise choices in accordance with the will of Creator.  In both public and personal life, we all know examples of pettiness, of harsh recrimination that only succeeds in making a problem worse.  Christ does not recommend that we neglect justice, but what He seeks from us is a way of making a choice to follow a particular path in which love is defined as definite action, our lives guided in a particular direction.   What He offers us is wisdom, and also freedom.  We have the freedom to practice a kind of virtue that leads us to a better life, a life within the Kingdom.  It is a life in which we are taught humility before God, and a capacity for a heart that serves the love of the Creator, and depends upon that love for life.  It is there where we start, where we practice making our own choices, where we live, and where we heal.  It is there that we seek real justice, and learn about mercy.  Ultimately, Jesus stresses the primacy of of our relationship to God, and that it is from this basic relatedness in our lives to Creator that all other relationships take shape.   Our relations do not simply depend upon what others have done to us, or what we need to do back to them.  Rather, it is in the light of our relationship with Creator that we extend righteous relation to others.  Jesus tells us, "For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you," making it clear where everything starts in our lives, and how the courses we choose determine all the rest.  Jesus began the Sermon on the Plain with the teaching, "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."  In a Christian understanding, we are the "poor" who truly depend upon God for all things, and that includes all the ways we see and respond to our world as well.