<p>6:38 <i>Give; and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they pour into your lap. For with what measure you use, it shall be measured to you again</i>- We are to give expecting nothing again, and we do not get such generous response to our generosity from men in this life. So I suggest the reference is to judgment day, and the &quot;men&quot; refer to Angels. As men gather in a net and sort out the fish, so the angels will at judgment day (Mt. 13:47-50). &quot;Men (angels) gather (the branches), and cast them into the fire, and they are burned&quot; (Jn. 15:6). This same equation of men and angels is seen in Lk. 6:38, this time concerning how the angels will mete out rewards as well as punishment at the judgment; for the language here is very much the language of judgment to come (Lk. 6:38 cp. Mt. 7:1,2). This association of &quot;men&quot; (angels) with the judgment is fitting, seeing that our guardian angel will have been with us through every up and down of life, and shall come with the Lord Jesus to our judgment. See on Lk. 12:48.</p><p>We might have expected Him to say: &lsquo;Give generously, with a good, running over measure, and this is what you will receive in return&rsquo;. But He doesn&rsquo;t. He says simply &ldquo;Give&rdquo;; and then we will be given to in a generous measure, because with what measure we use in our giving, we will receive. Thinking it through, He means surely that &ldquo;giving&rdquo;, by His definition, means a generous, well packed, abundant giving; for that <i>is </i>Christian giving. And note that the context of Lk. 6:38 is the Lord talking about not being critical and judgmental of others, but rather forgiving and accepting them. It is our 'giving' in this sense which is to be so full and generous. Only God&rsquo;s grace / giving can inspire this attitude within us, as we live hemmed in by the people of a materialistic, mean world, where nobody takes up a cross for anyone else. This is why Paul makes a play on the word &lsquo;grace&rsquo; when writing to the Corinthians about giving; for <i>charis</i>, &ldquo;grace&rdquo;, means &lsquo;giving&rsquo;. He urges them to not receive God&rsquo;s grace in vain, but rather, motivated by it, to give grace to others (2 Cor. 6:1; 8:6,7,19).</p>