Luke 6:37 - Meaning and Application

All these sayings of Christ were given before in Matthew, some in chapter 7 and some elsewhere. They were words he used often, so they only needed to be repeated here, since they were easy to apply. Grotius thinks we should not press too hard to find a perfect link between them, because they are like Solomon’s proverbs or parables, short sayings full of wisdom.

We should be very fair in judging others, because we ourselves need kindness and patience. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned” (Luke 6:37). Show others the kind of charity that does not think the worst, that bears with faults, and that believes and hopes the best. If we deal that way with people, others will often deal that way with us, and God will not judge and condemn us harshly.

If we have a giving and forgiving spirit, we will benefit from it ourselves. “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” If we forgive the wrongs done to us, others will forgive our small failures, and God will forgive our sins against him. He will also notice generous people, those who plan generous acts (Luke 6:38). “Give, and it will be given to you.” God will reward such giving in his providence, as something lent to him, and he is not unfair to forget it (Hebrews 6:10). He will repay it.

People will also often give back to us through other people, because God uses people as tools of his rewarding care. If we give rightly to others when they need help, God will incline others to give to us when we need help. He may give “good measure, pressed down, shaken together,” that is, more than enough. Those who sow generously will reap generously.

We should expect to be treated in a way that matches how we treat others. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38). Those who deal harshly with others must admit, as Adoni-bezek, a Canaanite king, did (Judges 1:7), that God is righteous if others deal harshly with them. They may expect to receive the same treatment back. But those who deal kindly with others have good reason to hope that God will raise up friends for them in their need. Providence does not always work this way in a full and exact sense, since complete reward and punishment are kept for the next world. Still, it usually keeps enough balance to warn us against harshness and encourage generosity.

Those who put themselves under the guidance of ignorant and mistaken leaders are likely to fall with them (Luke 6:39). “Can the blind lead the blind?” Can the Pharisees, blinded by pride, prejudice, and stubborn religious bias, lead the blind people into the right path? Will they not both fall into the ditch? Of course they will. Those who follow the common opinion, habits, and customs of this world are blind too, and they are led by the blind. They will perish with the world that sits in darkness. Those who follow the crowd blindly into evil are following the blind on the broad road that leads many to destruction.

Christ’s followers cannot expect better treatment in the world than their Master received (Luke 6:40). They should not promise themselves more honor or pleasure than Christ had, nor should they chase the outward glory and rank he never wanted and always refused. They should not reach for power in worldly matters that he would not take. Instead, anyone who would be a mature and settled disciple should be like his Master, dead to the world and everything in it. He should live in labor and self-denial as his Master did, and make himself a servant of all. He should stoop, work hard, and do all the good he can. Then he will be a complete disciple.

Those who try to rebuke and correct others must be careful to be blameless themselves, harmless, and beyond reproach (Luke 6:41, 42). It is a bad sign when people condemn the faults of others while being blind to their own. It is absurd to claim great sharpness in seeing a tiny fault in another person, “a speck,” while not noticing “a beam” in one’s own eye. Such a person is not fit to help reform others.

People are also unfit to help correct others if their desire to reform does not begin at home. How can you offer to help your brother pull a speck out of his eye, which takes both a good eye and a steady hand, when you have a beam in your own eye and make no complaint about it? Anyone who wants to help care for the souls of others must first show care for his own soul. Pulling the speck from a brother’s eye is a good work, but we must prepare for it by first dealing with ourselves. When we reform our own lives, our example may help others reform theirs too.

We should expect people’s words and actions to match what they are, what their hearts are like, and what their principles are. The heart is like the tree, and words and actions are its fruit (Luke 6:43, 44). If a person is truly good, with grace in his heart and a real leaning toward God and heaven, he may not produce much fruit at times, and some of it may fail. He may even seem like a tree in winter. Still, he will not produce rotten fruit. He may not do all the good he should, but he will not do serious harm. If he cannot correct bad conduct, he will not corrupt good conduct.

But if the fruit is rotten, if a person’s religion leads to a rotten life, if his behavior is wicked, if he is a drunkard, a fornicator, a swearer, a liar, or unjust in any clear way, then the fruit is corrupt, and he is not a good tree. On the other hand, a corrupt tree does not bring forth good fruit, even if it has green leaves. People do not gather figs from thorns or grapes from a bramble bush. You could tie figs onto thorns or hang grapes on a bramble, but they would not be the natural fruit of those plants. In the same way, you cannot expect good conduct from people whose character is truly bad.

If the fruit is good, you may conclude that the tree is good too. If a person’s life is holy, heavenly, and orderly, then even if you cannot know his heart with certainty, you may fairly hope that he is upright before God. Every tree is known by its fruit.

But a vile person will speak vile things (Isaiah 32:6), and today’s experience agrees with the old proverb, that wickedness comes from the wicked (1 Samuel 24:13). The heart is like a treasure chest, and words and actions are the things that come out of it, like spending from that store (Luke 6:45). We saw the same thought in (Matthew 12:34-35). If the love of God and Christ rules in a person’s heart, that person is a good man, and a good treasure will bring forth good things.

But if love of the world and the flesh rules, there is an evil treasure in the heart, and an evil man keeps bringing forth evil things. What comes out shows what is inside, just as you know whether a vessel holds water or wine by what is poured out of it (John 2:8). Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. What a person usually says, and says with ease and delight, generally matches what is deepest and strongest in the heart. One who speaks from earthly things is earthly himself (John 3:31).

Of course, a good person may sometimes say something bad, and a wicked person may use good words for a bad purpose. Still, in general, the heart and the words match, whether the heart is empty and foolish or serious and full of faith. So we should care to fill our hearts, not only with good things, but with a rich supply of them.

It is not enough to hear the sayings of Christ, we must do them. It is not enough to claim to belong to him, as his servants, we must carefully obey him. We insult him if we call him Lord, Lord, as though we were fully under his authority and had given ourselves to his service, and yet do not care to follow his will and serve the interests of his kingdom. We only mock Christ, as those did who said, in scorn, “Hail, King of the Jews,” if we keep saying, “Lord, Lord,” and still walk in the way of our own hearts and eyes. Why do we call him Lord in prayer if we do not obey his commands? One who turns away from hearing the law, his prayer will be hated (compare Matthew 7:21-22).

We also cheat ourselves if we think a mere profession of religion will save us, or that hearing Christ’s words will bring us to heaven without doing them. He explains this with a picture (Luke 6:47-49). Those who truly take care of their souls and eternity are the ones who come to Christ as learners, hear his words, and do them. They think, speak, and act according to the fixed rules of his holy religion. They are like a house built on rock. They take pains in religion, digging deep and laying their hope on Christ, the Rock of ages. No other foundation can anyone lay. These are the people who prepare for the future, even for the worst, and lay up a good foundation for the coming age (1 Timothy 6:19).

Those who do this are helped in three ways. They keep their honesty and faith when temptation and persecution come. While others fall away like seed on stony ground, they stand firm in the Lord. They keep their comfort, peace, hope, and joy in the hardest troubles. The storms and floods of suffering do not shake them, because their feet are set on a rock, a rock higher than they are. And their final safety is secure. In death and judgment they are safe. Obedient believers are kept by the power of Christ through faith for salvation, and they will never perish.

But those who are content with hearing Christ’s sayings, and do not live by them, are preparing for a terrible disappointment. The one who hears and does not do, who knows his duty but neglects it, is like a man who built a house without a foundation. He enjoys hopes that have no real support, and those hopes will fail when he needs them most and expects them to crown his life. When the flood beats hard against that house, it is gone. The sand under it is washed away, and it falls at once. Such is the hope of the hypocrite. Even if he has gained much, when God takes away his soul, it is like a spider’s web, and like the giving up of the ghost.