Luke 6:38 — the offering verse that is not about offerings
38Give, and it will be given to you: a good measure, pressed down and shaken together and overflowing, they will place upon your lap. Certainly, the same measure that you use to measure out, will be used to measure back to you again.”
The verse most used in fundraising appeals, and its neighbourhood is about something else: judging, condemning and forgiving. The measure named is the one you use on people.
Short answer
Luke 6:38 is the verse most used in fundraising appeals, and its immediate context is something else: judging, condemning and forgiving. The measure in question is the one you use on people. Promising a financial return from it stretches the text past what it says.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 3 min read
The line belongs to the Sermon on the Plain, right after three commands in a row: do not judge, do not condemn, forgive. It is the fourth in the sequence, and all four close with the same reciprocal shape.
The final image comes from the grain trade, where a measure was pressed down and shaken so more would fit before it was tipped into the buyer’s lap.
The sequence sets the subject. Giving, here, is the fourth verb in a list about how you treat other people, and the return promised follows the same logic as the three before it: the measure comes back. Nothing in the neighbourhood is about money.
The overflowing measure is a commercial and generous image, which is why it converts so easily into a promise of profit. But the clause that follows fixes the meaning: what returns is the measure you used. The text describes reciprocity of treatment, not a yield on a deposit.
The honest reading is more demanding than the popular one, because it does not fit on a pledge card. It asks what measure you have been using on the person who wronged you, on the people who work for you, on those who cannot repay. And yes, material generosity is included — as part of a way of treating people, not as an investment.
Where this verse appears
The line belongs to the Sermon on the Plain, right after three commands in a row: do not judge, do not condemn, forgive. It is the fourth in the sequence, and all four close with the same reciprocal shape.
The final image comes from the grain trade, where a measure was pressed down and shaken so more would fit before it was tipped into the buyer’s lap.
What it says
The sequence sets the subject. Giving, here, is the fourth verb in a list about how you treat other people, and the return promised follows the same logic as the three before it: the measure comes back. Nothing in the neighbourhood is about money.
The overflowing measure is a commercial and generous image, which is why it converts so easily into a promise of profit. But the clause that follows fixes the meaning: what returns is the measure you used. The text describes reciprocity of treatment, not a yield on a deposit.
What to do with it today
The honest reading is more demanding than the popular one, because it does not fit on a pledge card. It asks what measure you have been using on the person who wronged you, on the people who work for you, on those who cannot repay. And yes, material generosity is included — as part of a way of treating people, not as an investment.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, teach me to use a wide measure with people, and not only with what I hope to receive. Let me give without calculating the return. Amen.