Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, through scripture, prayer, and meditation, and then continue that conversation with him throughout your day. Your host is Travis Twyman, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. In this season of the podcast, we will be journeying through the gospel of Luke, specifically looking for moments in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the daily Together on Mission podcast.
This is Travis, and the title of the podcast this morning is Gats, and that will make, hopefully, a whole bunch more sense in just a moment. We are in Luke chapter 6, and I think this is one of the most powerful and practical teachings that Jesus of Nazareth ever gave, one of the most relational and powerful teachings from Jesus of Nazareth. It's so practical, and I just want to give it to us first, and then I'll explain it just a bit, and hopefully we can think about our lives and how this directly and dramatically impacts our lives. And so Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, verse 37, do not judge, and you won't be judged.
Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be poured into your lap.
And then finally, for with the measure you use, whatever you measure out, it will be measured back to you. In other words, what goes around comes around. What you do will be done to you. And again, so practical, so relational.
You see, the opposite of judgment, Jesus says do not judge. The opposite of judgment is actually thinking the best. Judgment involves thinking the worst, and the opposite, the antithesis of judgment, is thinking the best. And as we find ourselves thinking the best, especially when we don't have great information, we will find ourselves not condemning others, but rather forgiving others and giving to others what might be called the benefit of the doubt.
Giving what we would want others to give to us, because we want others to give us the benefit of the doubt, right? And when we think the best of others, we actually measure out exactly what we would want measured back to us. So let's just think for a moment how incredibly practical this teaching is. You see, in relationships, gaps are always created.
And, you know, somebody says something to you with an intense tone, that creates a gap. Someone's late to a meeting, that creates a gap. Someone doesn't perform a common courtesy, that creates a gap. Somebody doesn't call you back.
Somebody steps on your toes. Somebody doesn't respond to you when you address them. One of your kids forgets to do their chores. A spouse forgets that they said they would grab something from the store, and they get home without it.
And on and on and on it goes. We're going to call those relational gaps. And gaps are created all the time at work and in extended families and really in every relationship imaginable. And the moment a gap is created, we have a decision to make.
How are we going to fill that gap? What kind of content are we going to fill that gap with? Good content or bad content? Are we going to fill that gap with trust or suspicion?
Are we going to think the best? Or are we going to think the worst? Are we going to blame? Or are we going to give somebody the benefit of the doubt?
And this makes all the difference. And it's exactly what Jesus is talking about. It's a very relational passage. Are we going to give others the benefit of the doubt?
Because that's exactly what we would want them to give us. And of course, part of this essential Jesus of Nazareth teaching is that what we do give away will come right back to us. Whatever we measure out will be measured back to us. And so if we measure out filling that gap with bad content or suspicion or thinking the worst, that's exactly what's going to come back to us.
And let's just be honest, when someone else is late, right, and that creates a gap, late to a meeting, late to a date, whatever. When someone else is late, we tend to blame their character. But when we're late, we would never blame our character. We're going to blame some aspect of the environment.
There was traffic or whatever. And so part of what Jesus is saying here is that we need to give others the same benefit of the doubt. That we give ourselves. And if when I create a gap, I tend to blame the environment, then when someone else creates a gap, you know, a boss, a co-worker, you know, a kid, a spouse, let's give them the same benefit of the doubt that we give ourselves.
Let's fill any gap that's created with trust and not with suspicion. That is exactly what Jesus is talking about. Again, it's so powerful. It's so practical.
And this alone will change everything. And of course, Jesus says that when you find yourself doing this for others, it will come back to you. When we refuse to judge and condemn, instead we give forgiveness and generosity. That's going to come right back to us.
And so think for just a moment about the gaps that have been created recently in some of the relationships that you rub shoulders with regularly. Have you filled those gaps with trust or suspicion? Are you thinking the best or are you thinking the worst? Are you blaming their character or are you blaming the environment, something other than their character?
And of course, the big question is, are you doing to them what you would want them to do to you? Are we finding that judgment and condemnation are more prevalent as we fill gaps than giving and forgetting? But, you know, what happens when a gap is continually created? You know, this same thing continues to happen.
I think Jesus would say, well, address it. I mean, address it sooner rather than later. Because when we address, and here's what happens when we address a gap, when we address the gap that someone else has created, it gives them the opportunity to fill that gap with content. And of course, that's exactly what we would want them to do to us.
If we created a gap in a relationship, we would want them to come and talk to us so that we have the opportunity to fill that gap with the content that we would want to fill it with. So let's give other people the opportunity to do what we would want them to give us the opportunity to do. And it's not exactly what Jesus says in this passage. For whatever you measure out, it will be measured back to you.
So when a gap is created, have a conversation sooner rather than later. And of course, go into that conversation with the openness to allow the person that created the gap to fill it with whatever content they choose. Because that's exactly what we would want them to do to us. Now, of course, more could be said.
I truly believe, and I was reading this this morning and just kind of meditating on it and thinking about a couple of relationships that I get to rub shoulders with regularly and some gaps that have been created in my life. And I was just struck with what I tend to fill those gaps with. And then this teaching encouraged me to do something very, very different. I truly believe this is one of the most powerful and practical teachings that Jesus of Nazareth ever gave.
And we really do get to choose how we fill these relational gaps. Is it going to be judgment and condemnation and blaming character, or is it going to be generosity and forgiveness? And are we going to fill it with trust or suspicion, thinking the best or thinking the worst? And of course, Jesus says, whatever you measure out will most assuredly be measured back to you, which means, of course, that we have a great deal more control over how other people treat us than we might have thought.
And so this is an opportunity to treat other people exactly how we would want them to treat us. We'll talk soon. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by it today.
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