General Attitudes Which Should Result From This Kind of Love (6:36-37).
n Be you merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36).
p And judge not, and you shall not be judged (Luke 6:37 a).
p And condemn not, and you shall not be condemned (Luke 6:37 b),
n Release, and you shall be released (Luke 6:37 c).
“Be you merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
And judge not, and you shall not be judged,
And condemn not, and you shall not be condemned,
Release, and you shall be released.”
Having described acts of mercy Jesus now applies the idea generally. The first command here is ‘be you merciful', and it relates back to ‘lending never despairing'. To make unrequited loans is a big thing to ask, but it should be possible for one who has received mercy and therefore loves God enough (compare Luke 7:43). Such people should be willing to show mercy, even to a lender who cannot repay his debt. And in return they will receive mercy, for God will abundantly bless their crops (Deuteronomy 15:10).
Note the reference to ‘your Father'. Now they are revealing themselves as His sons by their merciful behaviour they can expect Him to bless them, not just as a reward, but because He is their Father.
But the thought of showing mercy in this way leads on to being merciful to all. Being merciful refers to more than just forgiving a monetary debt. It refers to not holding people to account, out of compassion. Then their Father will not hold them to account (Matthew 6:14-15). They are therefore not to judge unmercifully, and the result will be that they themselves will not be judged unmercifully. (They may judge righteous judgment in order to help others - John 7:24; as in Luke 6:42). The thought is to prevent censoriousness. They are not to condemnatory, but to be forgiving, so that they too may not be condemned (compare Matthew 6:14-15). They must remember that they too are sinners. They must leave the condemning to God. (That is not, of course, to prevent them from pointing out that God will condemn in the end). They are ‘to release', and thus ‘be released'. This may have in mind the ‘year of release' whose regulations caused the kind of lending which hoped for nothing in return (Deuteronomy 15). They are to carry out the ideas contained in the provisions for the year of release and then they can be sure that God will release them from their debts too.
If this last is the meaning, either Luke read Deuteronomy 15 in a Greek version other than LXX (a good possibility) where ‘release' was connected with apoluo and not with aphesis, or he changes the term here because aphesis would have been too general to get over the specific point. (In Deuteronomy 15 LXX ‘release' is aphesis). Otherwise we may translate apoluo here as signifying forgive, which of course is what aphesis also means. Whichever way it is the point is certainly that as we release and forgive others, so will we be forgiven and released. As we forgive others the little that they owe us so will God be able to forgive us the huge amounts that we owe Him.
The Generosity That Should Result From This Kind of Love (Luke 6:38-40).
The ‘release' just mentioned is the same thing as giving. Indeed it is a kind of giving, for it turns the loan into a gift. Thus Jesus now moves from the particular to the general. Not only are they to release debts but they are to give generously in all things. They are to be open handed like their Father. Then they too will receive bountifully. Elsewhere He puts it simply as, ‘freely you have received, freely give' (Matthew 10:8). On the basis of Luke 6:32-34 this includes giving to those from whom we can expect to receive no return.