The Golden Rule

Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Matthew chapter 7 to Jesus Christ, Sermon on the Mount. If you're a visitor and you're just joining us today, we want to welcome you into this sermon series that we're doing on Christ's greatest Sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. We're coming actually to the end of this Sermon, where Jesus Christ today sums up the whole body of what he's been talking about in one little verse. Matthew chapter 7, verse 12, that you and I know as the golden rule. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. It's little verse. Matthew chapter 7, verse 12, maybe the most widely quoted and most well-known verse in the Bible. But what most men don't realize is that it was not invented by Jesus Christ. This golden rule has existed at least two millennia, two thousand years before Christ was a participant in our human experience. We find it in an ancient Egyptian document called the eloquent peasant, where that peasant says, now this is the command due to the doer, the cause that he does to you. Which is somewhat a perversion of the golden rule, almost like doing to others before they do it to you, but it's there. As I looked into this golden rule, I found that there was an amazing amount of evidence for it in the ancient world. It's called a number of the old or classic Greek philosophers had different versions of the golden rule exocrates. One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him. Which is a version of the golden rule. Buddha had his own version of it. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill, nor cause to be killed. Confucius said, here is certainly the golden maxim. Do not do to others what you would not done to you. Hinduism has the rule of Dharma, which is the golden rule. Islam hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. Even the animistic and ancient religion of Taoism in Japan says, regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain and your neighbor's loss as your own loss, and do not do to others what you would never want your neighbor to do to you. In fact, you are familiar with what's called the proverb of the three monkeys out of Japanese folk religion. Three monkeys that cover their eyes and their ears and their mouth. See no evil, and hear no evil, and speak no evil. Well, the monkey who covers his eyes is named Misaru, and the monkey who covers his ears, Kakazaru, and the monkey who covers his mouth, Iwazaru. There's actually a fourth monkey called Shizuru who folds his hands as if to do no evil. And the story behind that little, that little folktale is that these monkeys are spirits that tell us that we would never want to see, or hear, or speak, or do things to people that we would not want them to hear, or see, or speak, or do to us. It's a little parable, a little story about the golden rule. Jesus Christ in speaking about the golden rule did not speak into a vacuum. He spoke to Jewish people about a longstanding maxim they had that lay at the very center of their moral and ethical community. It was the rule called the rule of Hillel because the rabbi Hillel, the elder of Babylon, about 100 years before Christ was born, said, what is hateful to you? Do not do to your fellow man. This is the whole law. The rest is explanation. Go and learn. Now, I want you to look at verse 12 again and look how closely the words of Jesus Christ echo the words of rabbi Hillel. What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow man. This is the whole law. The difference is, Hillel states this maxim in negative terms. Jesus states it in positive terms so that in ethical writings and in discussions of this, rabbi Hillel's rule has been known as the silver rule, and Jesus Christ as the golden rule. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them for this is the law and the prophets. Jesus Christ is taking something that is negative and making it something positive. He's taking something that is minimalistic and making it the maximum standard. Because if we live by the silver rule, we have this minimalistic way of thinking, well, what's wrong with it? As long as it doesn't hurt anybody, who's business is it? Jesus Christ says, no, there's something greater than that. You shouldn't be asking yourself what's wrong with it and who's business is it anyway. That's the silver rule. You should be asking something by the golden standard. What is right about this? And how can I be my brother's keeper through this golden maxim? Jesus' own thinking pushes us beyond the business of our own self-interest. There's something very self-serving about the silver rule. Whatever I don't want people to do to me, I'm not going to do to them. It's very much about me

and he became the ethic of the people of Jesus' day. Mind your own business. Keep one's own interest central in life. Look out for number one. It led to a ruthless sort of moral individualism and independence and isolationism. And we see it reflected in the way Americans think and act today. Who says two people of the same sex can't get married? Who's business is it anyway? We're not hurting anybody? Jesus might say, do you believe that same sex unions are good for society, good for the children in those households, good for the people involved in that kind of twisted form of love?

It's not anybody's business whether I live with my girlfriend or not. We're not bothering anybody. Oh really? Have you asked your mom and dad? How about your parents? Would you want your high school daughter, your college son, to live that way when you grow up and have children? I've never done anything wrong to an African-American. Maybe not. But Jesus would ask, have he done anything to help them since the world in which you live oppresses them and takes advantage of them, excuse everything to your plus and to their minus? What have you done good for the disadvantaged, the disenfranchised, the oppressed person? I'm a good citizen, I vote, I pay my taxes, I mind my own business so that's the standard of a good citizen to mind your own business. How much volunteer work have you done in your community? How much have you given to charity? You see, Jesus Christ wants to push us beyond. Something that is very fair asaeical, something that pretends to be ethical, I would never do to other people what I would not want them to do to me and really it's all very self-serving because it's all about me, me and myself and mine. And Jesus says, nope, that's not what I've been teaching you from the beginning of the sermon on the mount to the very end. It's all about the kingdom of God, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you by this all men will know you are my disciples because you mind your own business because you love your neighbor as you love yourself. So whatever you wish that others will do to you, do also to them for this is the law in the prophets. I want us to see three things about this little maxim that seems very simple. In fact, it seems almost moralistic. The problem with preaching a text like this is it almost sounds like it comes out of Asop's fables. Now the moral of this story is but it's a much more powerful gospel principle than you and I have ever imagined. Perhaps because it is a manifestation of God's common grace and general revelation in every human being, so that whether they're Buddhist or Muslim or Taoist or ancient Greek or some kind of pagan living back in the days of two thousand years before Christ, they know. They have some twisted form of this golden rule that becomes a silver rule. The problem with that is preaching it becomes a challenge because we think we already know what it means and we think we already live by it. How many times have you talked to somebody about being a Christian? They say, wait a minute. I'm better than most people. I keep the ten commandments and I live by the golden rule. Well let's find out if we do today. Because the golden rule according to Jesus Christ is these three things. It is a summary of all of His kingdom ethics. It is the principle of all kingdom relationships and it is the directive of all kingdom living. It is a summary of Christian ethics. It is a principle of Christian relationships and it is the operative power, the directive of Christian living. Look at the first one. That the golden rule is the summary of Christian ethics. I want you to turn back to chapter 5 for just a minute. I want you to see that Jesus Christ in a sense in verse 12 of chapter 7 is repeating himself and He's doing so on purpose. He's talking about the law and the prophets, the word of God. In the beginning in chapter 5 verse 17 by saying, do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. And then three chapters later in verse 12 of chapter 7. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them for this is the law and the prophets. We call this little literary device an inclusio because it includes everything between its sandwich or bracketed effect. It's a statement or phrase or a word or a sentence that goes at the beginning of some literary piece and at the end it repeats itself so that everything in between applies to what is repeated. Here it is the law and the prophets. Do not think that that came to abolish the law and the prophets. That's how Jesus begins a sermon. I didn't come to abolish them but to fulfill them and you shall do to others what you want others to do to you because this is all of the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets is the Old Testament way of referring to the Bible, the Old Testament. In fact they had three divisions of Scripture. They divided the Old Testament into the law, the Torah, the prophets and the sacred writings. And they often Jesus Christ the Apostles often referred to the Bible as the law and the prophets. So when Jesus says, do not think that I came to abolish the law and the prophets. I think I'm not to abolish them but to fulfill them and the golden rule is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. He's saying do not think that I came to change the Old Testament. Don't think that I came to tell you there were things in the Old Testament didn't apply to you anymore. Don't think that I came to give you a new testament that replaced the Old Testament. No, no. I've come to fulfill them and this is the fulfillment if you sum it all up. What the Bible teaches is that you should love your neighbor as yourself and do to them what you think ought to be done to you. There's a parallelism between what we call the great commandment and the golden rule. In Matthew chapter 22 Jesus has asked a question. Teacher, what is the greatest commandment of the law? You know his answer. This is the greatest commandment that you shall love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and the second is like undo it. You shall love your neighbor and yourself. These two commandments summarize the law and the prophets. There's that statement again on these two commandments depend the law and the prophets. Therefore if you look at it folks the golden rule and the great commandment are similar. In fact they're just parallel repetitions of one another. You shall love God with all of your being and love your neighbor as yourself because this is what you want God to do to you. You want God to love you with all of his being and you want your neighbor to love you as he loves himself and that is therefore what the new commandment the great commandment requires of you. Love God with all your being. Think of your neighbor as you think of yourself on this all of the Bible rests. It's the two tables of the 10 commandments the first four about loving God with all of our being the second six about loving our neighbor as ourselves. It's what's behind the Psalms. The Psalms only have two themes how to worship God and love him and how to be just and righteous with your neighbor. It's the message of the prophets. It's the teaching of Christ it's the writing of the epistles how to love God with all that you have and to love your neighbor as you would love yourself. Sinclair Ferguson is correct he says for Jesus the word of God is not an impossible complex of rules and regulations placed on man's shoulders as a heavy burden rather it is the outworking of this principle of love if we grasp this everything else falls into place and this is Christ's point. You shall love your neighbor as yourself and the sure fire way to do that is to say I will do to my neighbor what I would want my neighbor to do to me see righteousness is all about doing the right thing the right thing to God and the right thing to your neighbor and that is the whole point of Christ ministry I have come Jesus said to give my life a ransom for any I'm come to give myself to people so that they out of love for me and by the grace of God that flows into life they will give themselves to God and to others as well. For the love of Christ controls having concluded this that one died for all therefore they who lived because he died for them should no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. The great challenge to the gospel message is the love of self self righteous self control self protection self promotion self fulfillment it's all about me and myself and mine again and Jesus Christ says no that's what God is into this mix and this mess called sin in the first place I have come to give you a new ethic you should love God with all of your being and love your neighbor as yourself that is the redemptive ethic the redemptive way to live that I have brought to you Earl Palmer in his book the enormous exception which is about this particular story and the sermon on the mouth this great sermon says Jesus has shown that the ethical commands are not technical prescriptions about what constitutes adultery or murder or robbery rather they point toward the grand design of a law which is in its deepest sense care for the well-being of the neighbor just as we have been cared for by God as we ourselves desire to be cared for and loved we now know that this universal longing we share with every human being in the world it's the mandate that Christ has granted to us why why is it loved ones that if we go back in time and if we look at all different kinds of people in all different kinds of relationships why do they all have somewhere in their ethical code their religious formulations some version of the golden rule because it is the universal longing of every human being to be treated in a righteous manner to be treated well by God and well by their neighbor and they realize that something deep inside them compels them to do the same thing we can't get away from it because we're made in the image of God and God does not live for himself but for his creation and therefore we have some of that stuff in us as well this this golden rule is the summary of that kingdom ethic we will live for something larger than life and greater than self and lasting forever it's the kingdom of God it's the glory of God and the good of other people that is how we will structure our lives and that leads to the golden rule is the principle for all kingdom relationships so whatever you wish that others would do to you do also for them for this is the law on the prophets sometimes called the law of reciprocity because of the one another aspect to it I have certain things I want from you I need from you you have things the same things you want to need from me and this is how Jesus has structured his message look at how he's the context says everything Jesus Christ begins his sermon with an introduction called the Beatitudes where he welcomes all different kinds of people the righteous and the unrighteous the saved and the unsafe he welcomes them to the kingdom of God but before they joined the kingdom of God he tells them what living in the kingdom of God is going to be like chapter 5 kingdom ethics what the law really commands and demands chapter 6 kingdom piety what religion and worship of God is really about chapter 7 kingdom relationships and that's where we find this little golden rule at the end of a series of different pieces of wisdom about how to relate to people like don't judge them harshly you wouldn't want to be judged by that same harsh standard don't force your convictions down the throats of other people if they're not ready to receive them it's like giving a Bible to a dog or throwing pearls to a swine he said they just not ready to appreciate these things rather than judge rather than force yourself upon them pray ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock on the door would be open to you and if you don't know what else to do you don't know when not to judge you don't understand the timing about sharing your faith your morals your convictions your beliefs with other people and you don't exactly know what to pray at least you can do this you can do unto others what you would want them to do to you it sounds so simple and yet it is so so difficult because of the self I have a right to express my opinion where did you get that in the Bible I have a right to say what I think really it's my duty let people know what I want well only if you're the center of the universe this is an actual email that we got this last couple weeks about the boy scouts and who we allow into leadership and why we require our leaders and the boy scouts just to be in sympathy and subscribe to the three formula the apostles create the ten commandments and the the Lord's Prayer since this is a Christian church you have shown yourselves to be ignorant and intolerant attitudes which I'm sure you're instilling in your boy scouts so that you raise a new generation of hate-filled people like yourself it may be within your rights to do so but that doesn't make your behavior any less despicable why don't you just shave your boy scouts heads and teach them to go step while you're at it people in most of the United States view the south as backwater trailer park filled with uneducated hillbillies who marry their cousins and participate in lynchings people like you and your church certainly do reinforce that belief you are an embarrassment to Christianity into Christ message of acceptance and love and humility well they said that in such Christian love I'm overwhelmed by that center I wanted to write back simply this say unto others and in email would only you would want emailed to you now really we are neo-nazis teaching our little boys to be stormtroopers Jew haters black killers members of children who are special needs kids that's what we're teaching our boy scouts there were all ignorant javabies running around barefooted with big black king James's practicing incest that's the south comparing who's got the biggest trailer in the park

that's a person whose life revolves around self and they feel the need to say what self wants to say unbridled unchasoned uncontrolled Jesus is saying if I may prayer phrase keep your hate-filled emails and shut your mouth withhold your searing judgment and save your demeaning sensorious comments stop and pray before you speak right or react and if all that fails then don't say to another person what you would not want them to say to you you say pastor you're being kind of pointed in your illustration will you know why because everybody in this place lives by the golden rule remember we're better than 99% of the people false we are 99% of the people we live by the ten commandments you can't really believe that you've probably broken five on the way to church and we don't live by the golden rule because we live in a country society that says the most important thing is self therefore we could not live by the golden rule which is not about self it's about others and people who think only for themselves their opinions their desires to do and live whatever way they want to their plans to to join the Boy Scout troop regardless of standards their right to send any email they choose to express their religious convictions in any context without thinking sympathetically of the other person these people don't understand the golden rule and I would venture to say that their relationships are riddled with gaping wounds caused by their right to say do whatever they think they have a right to do now this golden rule is the standard for all healthy relationships and thirdly it is the directive for kingdom living there's something that we're to do with this so whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets Jesus is saying this golden rule is in essence the gospel way to live by grace and through faith in Christ and for good works I'd like you to turn if you would please to a very familiar pastor Ephesians chapter 4 I've said this probably a dozen times in this pulpit in the last year that if you want to understand the parameters of any Christian endeavor of Christian living of doing Christian business of Christian schools of Christian marriage of anything that has to do with Christ you'll find it in Ephesians chapter 2 8 9 and 10 and four operative statements by grace through faith in Christ for good works find them as I read the text for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them these are the parameters this is the box in which the Christian lives by grace through faith in Christ for good works these four statements shape everything about a gospel person by grace through faith in Christ for good works and so they shape this golden rule I want to tell you that you cannot and I cannot keep the golden rule in our own power it's not possible it takes the transforming power of gospel grace to empower us to keep the golden rule sin clear Ferguson again says the Christian life is indeed demanding but in essence it's principle as simple it is knowing the grace of God working so powerfully in our heart that we are freed from the mastery of sin and self of your life free now to bring a blessing to God and to other people we tend to see grace is something that is again self serving grace is for me to cover me when I'm guilty and in trouble but the primary reason that grace is given is to empower us with the dunamis the power the dynamite of God to live for him and for other people grace is not some passive commodity I purchased like fire insurance or something from an attorney to get me out of trouble with the judge grace is the life of God in the soul of man it's the power of God to save us and sanctify us and help us to live for someone else because the greatest power we face inside is the power of the self and so we can't keep the golden rule if you've tried to live by the golden rule failed join the human race and welcome to the rest of us you'll never be able to do it unless the love of Jesus Christ abides in you because you've accepted Christ is your Lord and Savior you've been converted you've been transformed by the gospel and you're a new creature in Christ the old things have passed away things of the self and new things have come the things of loving God and other people as you would want them to love you so it's all by grace and it's all through faith the golden rule will make you do things that just don't make sense go back to chapter 5 you're going to love your neighbors you're going to bless those who curse you you're going to do good to those who persecute you you're going to as Paul says in Romans 12 you're going to overcome evil with good let me tell you something the golden rule is not common sense it's not common sense common sense is I do it to you before you do it to me that's common sense the golden rule is a walk of faith it's the rule as one commentator said of life in the kingdom of God and according to Jesus Christ life in this kingdom is all by faith we walk by faith and not by sight the golden rule will ask you to step out and do things that you would say to Jesus Christ this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of in my life but that's the golden rule it's a walk of faith thirdly it's something that can only be fleshed out in Christ it's only Christ in you his life and his love in you that it will empower you and able you to keep the golden rule not the silver rule don't hurt other people anybody can do that a reasonable amount of time this is the rule that is the golden rule the optimist view the optimist approach what is good about this I will do to other people I'm looking for what pushes forward the kingdom of Jesus Christ or what promotes the glory of God what brings someone to a new level holding us what improves their relationship with Christ and other people what heals their wounded soul men's their broken mind takes care of their racked and painful past and brings them into a new dimension called life in Christ I have been crucified with Christ is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me if you try to separate the golden rule from Christ in you your union with Christ you are bound to be frustrated to fail and soon to become cynical about this marvelous statement of Jesus Christ and finally this is all about good works we tend to downplay good works nowadays we tend to say good works are legalism you know if you read Titus just read that little letter Paul wrote to Titus he said this is why Jesus Christ has purchased a people for his own glory that they might be zealous for good works he said in fact we on chapter three of Titus since we have been forgiven by the mercy of God and cleanse by the washing and renewing of the Holy Spirit and justified through the presence of Jesus Christ therefore since God has been good to let us learn how to do good works for these things are good and profitable for all mankind what good is a Christianity where a bunch of people get individually right with God and it's all Jesus in me and living for self in a new dimension and they never do good to the world at large if that's Christianity you can have it I don't want it that's religiosity American style but the gospel of God calls us to do good to people because God has done good to us the love of Christ constrains us having concluded this that he died for all so that they who live with him should no longer live for self but for him who died and gave himself up for them all this is what the gospel is about this power of Christ in us the power of grace to transform the power of faith to move ahead even when it doesn't make sense the power of the living Christ who teaches me how to do for others what I want Christ to do for me because I'm now enabled to do it by Christ in me the hope of glory this little simple maxim is bigger than we thought isn't it it's hard to get your your arms around it well let me suggest we think of it this way in closing this little thing and I'll share with you then I'll pray there's a professor up in Virginia named James Davidson Hunter written a number of books you're familiar probably with this most popular one called culture wars written back in the in the 80s 90s was written a new one called to change the world to change the world the irony tragedy and possibility of Christianity in the late modern world and as he comes to the third and final essay of this book he talks about what he calls towards a new city common a new way of living corporately as God's people in the world and he basically says that the golden rule is what he calls practicing faithful presence a faithful presence as individuals and as the church community the congregation in God's world defined he says three ways first of all by fully participating in the worshiping life of a Christian community of local church so that we become involved in each other's lives at the most intimate level in our relationship with God through Christ secondly he said by practicing the faithful presence when we are committed to our tasks whatever that task may be being a banker being a teacher at covenant day school being a parent being a child the things that God is called you to do you do faithfully as unto the Lord and thirdly by a faithful presence committed to all our spheres of influence as witnesses of Jesus Christ school the church the community the military the police force clergymen in the city we get involved in their lives and they get involved in our lives so that we are forced to do for them what God has already done for us a little bit different isn't do under others what you would have them do under you I think Jesus Christ is raising the standard even higher you will do under others what God has already done for you what God has already done for you is to give you his son Jesus Christ so that you with Christ and you can give that son to other people bringing people not just to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ not to pray us in his prayer but to have a gospel transformation in their life where they no longer live for me myself and mine but they live for God's glory and people's good because God has done that in Christ for them this isn't some more of a sweet little fable about four monkeys this is the bottom line of an incarnate son of God in the world who said Father I will do for mankind what I always wanted them to do for you I will give my life for them so that they will give their lives to you and that is the golden rule that is the way of the Christian let's pray Father when we when we approach this golden rule from this perspective perspective of Christ we find that it's more than just a sweet little maxim for getting along with other people it is a new way of life the way of the kingdom we find again that our greatest struggle is not with some foreign power lying within us called sin but with ourselves the fountain head of all that sin the love of ourselves over the love for everyone else including you and your Father in heaven we know that we cannot conquer self just as we cannot conquer sin apart from the power of the gospel but we do believe it is the power of you to save all who believe the Jew first and now as Gentiles the power to transform us to place in us the ceiling holy spirit to give us the presence of Christ in us this hope of glory and this golden way of living no longer for ourselves but living for Christ who gave himself up for us all because we love him and we are called according to his purposes there are people here today Lord who are imprisoned with self they and their children in their houses and their routines or what is the center of their life and they are unconverted even though they may think they're Christian because they've not broken yet this power of self and yielded to the life of Christ inside we pray for them that you would give them an opening of the mind to understand these things a repentance in their hearts a strength of will to trust in Jesus Christ and to surrender to his Lordship and to enter the kingdom of God there are others of us here perhaps all of us who've forgotten all that you've done for us and forgotten this Jesus Christ in us this hope of glory and what he expects and what he gives to us to meet those expectations and to help us live on a new plane of existence regenerate us cause us to be born again renew us if we have slipped back into the way of self cause this golden rule to shine because of the golden one who is in us the son of righteousness himself your son in our Savior Jesus Christ give him to us may he wax strong and prevail in us so that his life and his love flows through us into the lives of other people that they too might be impacted by his presence we might do unto you and to all other people what you have already done for us in Jesus Christ which is good and therefore we ask you these things in that good name the name of Christ our Lord amen