The Connection Between Forgiving and Forgiven

Jesus tells his disciples that there is a connection between giving and receiving forgiveness.

"Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

Luke 6:37b

What if giving forgiveness is accessed through the same door through which we receive forgiveness? What if the handle that you use to open the door to forgive another is the one that opens the door so you can be forgiven? What if there is no way to open the door to forgiveness apart from opening the door for the purpose of forgiving?

What if Jesus is giving us a stone cold fact about the universe?

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 6:27-49

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The Sermon on the Level

Jesus was an itinerant preacher, and said similar things on many different occasions. On one occasion he gave a long sermon "on a mountainside," which Matthew records as the Sermon on the Mount. On another occasion, he gave a shorter sermon "on a level place," which Luke records as the so-called Sermon on the Plain. The two sermons are similar, but there are noticeable differences, including the series of "woes" that only Luke includes:

²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have already received your comfort.
²⁵ Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
²⁶ Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets."

Luke 6:24-26

I think the key to understanding what Jesus is getting at here is to think of the blessings and the woes in the Sermon on the Plain as commentary on what Jesus will later tell his disciples:

²³ Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. ²⁵ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

Luke 9:23-25

In other words, if what you have keeps you from following Jesus and receiving eternal life, it would be better to have nothing; if you have nothing, but you are Jesus's disciple, then it means you have everything that matters.

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 6:12-26

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