Lk 6:36-38
[Jesus said to his disciples,] 36“Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful.
37“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. 38Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
Be Merciful: The command to be “merciful” (Greek oiktirmon) in imitation of the heavenly Father is paralleled by Matthew’s “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 19:21). For Luke, the perfection of God is found in his being merciful. For Israel, too, Yahweh is dives in misericordia, a God “rich in mercy” and abiding love.
The motivation of the command is the imitation of God. The Golden Rule (“Do to others as you would have them do to you” [Lk 6:33]) is not the ultimate norm here, but rather “Do as God would do.” God is the starting point from which imitation proceeds.
The next verses enflesh what being merciful entails: stop judging and condemning, forgive, give gifts. “Stop judging” is not an invitation to inaction. There are instances when a person must judge another—as in cases of fraternal correction (Lk 17:3-4) or of the exercise of temporal powers as judge (Rom 13:1-5). But man’s judgment can fall short because he sees only the external. God alone can judge with fairness, God alone can fathom the recesses of the human heart, God alone fully knows that “mercy triumphs over judgment” (Jas 2:13). The disciples are therefore to be slow in judging and condemning people. But they must be fast in forgiving and giving generously.