God Does Not Give The Spirit By Measure

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Keraza Magazine issue 25-26, July 1st, 2016

Measures, balances, and standards are all tools used since the dawn of humanity for the purpose of determining size, weight, and length, for trade, engineering, and medical purposes. In truth, all such measures (such as time) are measures and standards specific to the material world, not the spiritual. God, who is unlimited, is not measured or weighed, and consequently, His gifts and grace are beyond any measure or scale, as it is written: "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord" (Isaiah 40:13).

The concept of overflowing is difficult for the human mind to absorb, because it is accustomed to living in scarcity. Actually, scarcity was a natural result of the fall. When Adam was living in the garden, he was living in abundance, not only on the material level but also on the spiritual level. I cannot imagine that he had needed of a scale or measuring line. As for after the fall, the punishment was losing all abundance and submitting to the laws of scarcity: "In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life... In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread" (Genesis 3:17,19). Since that time and the human mind, in dealing with God, does not expect but scarcity and parsimony. Perhaps the most prominent example of this is what the Israelites did when He brought down for them the Manna in the wilderness, not understanding the concept of abundance, nor imagining God's generosity, they stored up the Manna, which brought forth worms and rotted.

In the story of Ezekiel crossing the water that was flowing out from under the threshold of the house, the man with the measuring rod in his hand stopped measuring, since it became a river that cannot be crossed, symbolic of the abundance of the work of the Holy Spirit which is not limited by measures (Ezekiel 47:1-6). Likewise, the Holy Bible habitually, in describing the work of the Holy Spirit, uses words that express abundance, like wells of salvation, rivers of living water, a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life... They are all expressions that assure of continuity and not running out. St. Paul also writes, in many places in his epistles, of the richness of Christ, describing Him in his epistle to the Ephesians as "unsearchable riches" (Ephesians 3:8). For the Lord Christ to bring to us the understanding of the abundance of the Spirit, He used the terms of measure, although the Spirit is not subject to measures, saying: "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom" (Luke 6:38).

Perhaps the abundance of the Spirit is what St. Isaac the Syrian realized when he said, "Do not become foolish in your petitions, lest you insult God by the meanness of your knowledge."¹ It is what made God urge each one of us, as He incited Ahaz of old, "Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above" (Isaiah 7:11), and pushed Elisha to urge the widow of the prophet: "do not gather just a few" (2 Kings 4:3), and the Lord Christ to rebuke us: "Until now you have asked nothing in My name" (John 16:24).

Yes, truly we bless You, Oh our Lord Jesus Christ, because through your incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension to the heavens, You removed from us the curse of scarcity and parsimony which befell us because of sin. You poured out on us of Your Holy Spirit much more than we could have asked or imagined, according to Your richness in glory.

Bishop Youssef
Bishop, Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States

¹ Miller, Dana, trans. The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian. Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1984, 23.