Annual Sermons Volume 1 Sermon 8 THE GOLDEN RULE

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1 Annual Sermons Volume 1 Sermon 8 THE GOLDEN RULE (Matt. 7:12; Lk. 6:31) Therefore whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets...Just as you want men to treat you, treat them in the same way. (Mt. 7:12, Lk. 6:31) This is perhaps the most famous statement Jesus ever made. Men have praised it by naming it The Golden Rule. The name is unfortunate, because it is not a rule, but a principle. It is a way of life by which to gauge our actions. It is an ethical compass to guide us through the troubled seas of human relationships. It is not a rule, but it is golden. It is, says William Barclay, the Everest of all ethical instruction. The Golden Rule is really another form of the grand statement repeated over and over in the Bible. The ancient Book of Leviticus says,...you shall love your neighbor as yourself... (19:18). When a Jewish teacher asked Jesus to name the greatest commandment, He quoted Deut. 6:5 and told him to love God. Then He quoted Lev. 19:18 by saying, The second (greatest commandment) is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:39). Then Jesus added, On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets (Mt. 22:39).This final statement, this is the Law and the Prophets - is astonishing and revolutionary. The Jewish religious leaders were extreme legalists. To dictate the behavior of the people of God they had reduced the Old Testament - called here the Law and the Prophets-to hundreds of petty rules. Jesus reduced it to one word - love! Love God and love your fellow man and you will fulfill the requirements and commandments of the Father written for us in the Old Testament. The New Testament writers took this as their golden principle

2 of behavior toward others. In Rom. 13:8-9 Paul tells us to love one another and then says,...for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In Gal. 5:14 he says, For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Our Lord s brother James has the final word. He says, If you are fulfilling the Royal Law, according to the Scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. (Js. 2:8) In other words, if you and I want to please God, if we want to fulfill His requirements and be obedient to Him, then we will love others the way we love ourselves, we will treat others the way we like to be treated, we will do for others what we want done for us. We will try to understand and implement this Golden Law of Love by looking deeper into its meaning, by examining our motives, and by seeking the manner in which it can be carried out. A. THE MEANING OF THE GOLDEN RULE First, let s probe a little deeper into the meaning. We have seen this as a way of life and as a way of love. Two more things should be added. 1. Positive. This way of life and love must include the positive. The Golden Rule of the world is Do unto others before they do unto you. Sometimes it rises a little higher to the eye for an eye level, Do unto others as they do unto you. A still higher level, popular in morality and religion is, Don t do to others the things you don t want done to you. It is the purely negative idea of not hurting people because you would not like to be so hurt. This last form is the one we are familiar with. How many times, after doing something bad, have we heard the words, How would you like to be treated like that? Now there is nothing wrong with negative rules.

3 It is absolutely necessary for us to be given forbidden lines and to be told what not to do. Please tell your children not to hit my children (or me)! Please tell them not to mark on my walls with a magic marker. Please tell your teenagers (or husband) not to drive eighty an hour. The Ten Commandments are largely NEGATIVE - thou shalt NOT, thou shalt NOT, thou shalt NOT. But negativism, while necessary, is never enough. The Pharisees made this mistake. They felt, for example, that if they didn t kill anyone, they were obedient to the Seventh Commandment. Jesus, however, said this Command, like all of them, was only an open door to the positive. To fulfill it we must not only refuse to kill, but refuse to hate or ridicule (Mt. 5:21-22). And here, and in Mt. 22:39 and Rom. 13:9, the Bible goes on to say we do not really obey the Seventh Commandment until we love our enemies (Mt. 5:38-47) and our fellow men (Lk. 10:27-37). Negative morality is fairly easy. We can do it by doing nothing. But positive morality, where we put ourselves in the place of others, where we look for ways of being kind and helpful, is the morality of Jesus. This runs all the way through the Commandments. Living by love we will not only honor our parents but make life pleasant for them. We will protect them, provide for them if necessary and please them by making their God our God. We will not only refrain from adultery, but go on to have respect for women and men. We will treat others wives the way we would want our wives treated. We will treat women the way we would want our wives, our mothers or our daughters treated. The same would apply to the treatment of men by women. We would not only not steal things from you, we will not steal your time by laziness, your reputation by gossip, your right to work by greed or you influence by temptation. We would reach into our resources and add to you rather than take away. We will not just refrain from lying, but will refuse to tell the truth that will hurt you unless it is absolutely necessary. We will use words that build you up. We will not just avoid jealousy, but

4 will go on to be proud of your achievement, even when it means we lose. Two of our girls at camp desperately wanted the Best Camper Award. The one who lost, with tears of disappointment, hugged her friend who won and said, I am glad the best one of us won. That is positive obedience to the Tenth Commandment. It is the Golden Rule, the Law of Love, in action. 2. Specific. This Golden Rule must also be broken down into workable specifics. We are not to praise it, but to practice it. We are not to applaud it, but to apply it. The negative applications are fairly obvious. Living by this principle we will not kill, ridicule, hit, laugh at, steal from, lie about, take advantage of, or look down on others. But what about the positive side? What about those acts of kindness and love that we appreciate so much I suggest that you make a list and title it, Things People Do For Me That Really Make My Day. We all have certain basic needs - the need for acceptance, for approval, and for a sense of purpose. The people who really love us have a way of meeting those needs. Here are some of the things they do that light up our lives: They ask for our help or advice They listen when we talk They light up when we come in a room They help us when we need it yet are too proud to ask They give us their time without hurrying They pay us genuine compliments. Think about these things. Don t they really turn you on? Our problem is, we seek them and wallow in pity, because we don t get them. Jesus would tell us to keep our list, but change the heading from Things People Do For Me to Things I Should Do For Others To Really Make Their Day. I will ask others for help or advice. I will listen while they talk. I will light up when they walk in. I will help when I know they need it. I will give them my time. I will pay them genuine compliments. Can t you imagine the beauty you would add to this world by behaving like this? It will complicate your life. It will require time and effort

5 plus a restructuring of our priorities. We will have to be willing to die to ourselves and put others first. We will have to pray the prayer of Francis, Lord, help me not so much to be loved as to love, not so much to receive as to give. In so doing we would bring happiness to others and find it for ourselves. We would make our part of the world - our family, our office, our neighborhood, our church - a better place in which to live. B. THE MOTIVE FOR THE GOLDEN RULE We have seen whatgod wants us to do, now let s see why He wants us to do it. Jesus uses the word therefore. This always points backwards to what has been said and draw a conclusion from that. The problem is we never know how far back to go. I believe this therefore points all the way back to Mt. 5:17 where Jesus began this long section on the practical application of the Christian life in an unchristian world. This, to me, is a summary of the whole Sermon. I agree with Martin Luther, With these words He closes up the teachings of these three chapters, and ties them all up in a little bundle. But I want to dig in and find one or two specifics that are closely connected with this text. 1. To Be Like God. I see this word pointing back to the Beatitudes where the Christ-like Christian is described. I see it pointing back to verses 7-11, just before it, to the goodness of God Who meets our needs. God is love and if I am to be like Him then I will go out of my way to help you. As God is patient and kind to me, I must be patient and kind to you. Warren Wiersbie has a beautiful definition of love. Christian love, he says, means that I treat you the way God treats me. 2. To Be Blessed By God. This word also points to the preceding section (7:7-11) which dealt with unanswered prayer. We saw there that prayer is a moral experience in which God makes both conditions and demands. A law of the Bible is that God treats us the way we treat others. Jesus said, Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy (Mt. 5:7).

6 3. To Be Loved By Others. In our text itself Jesus says we are to treat others AS WE WANT TO BE TREATED. Another law of life is that we usually get from others what we give to others. Some visitors tell me ours is the friendliest church in town. Others say it is very unfriendly. The difference is not in us, but in them. One man wore a hat all through a church service. When his wife asked him why, he said, Just once I wanted a church usher to speak to me. If he had walked in with a broad smile, stuck out his hand and introduced himself, he would have no trouble making friends. The best way to get love, patience, kindness and appreciation is to love, to be patient, to be kind and to show appreciation. C. THE MANNER OF THE GOLDEN RULE We have looked at what God wants (the meaning) and why God wants it (the motive). Now we will find out how to do it (the manner). To live a life of positive, specific love is incredibly hard. We must do several things: 1. Look At Yourself. In the mirror most of us see a loveless person. We are filled with selfishness, self centeredness and self interest. This is even true of most Christians. Only a born again person can practice the life of love and only a Spirit controlled Christian can practice it. Love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit s control in our lives (Gal. 5:22). Our first step is to confess our selfishness and put our selfish character in the hands of the Holy Spirit for cleansing (1 Jn. 1:9). 2. Look At God. The first great commandment is not to love our neighbor, but to love our God. We must see Him high and lifted up as the object of our duty and praise. In His presence we will melt, like Isaiah (Is. 6), into nothingness. The loving person is a humble person and only a glimpse of God really humbles anyone. 3. Look at Christ. The perfect embodiment of the Golden Rule is Bethlehem where Jesus became one of us and Calvary where Jesus died for us. That is pure love. That is complete

7 selflessness. The only place our selfishness will turn into selflessness is at the foot of the cross. When we see ourselves at best as pardoned rebels, we will see others in a different light. We will not be quick to speak of our rights or needs. We will look at all love as obedience to Jesus and an expression of love for Jesus. We will love others because we are doing it for Jesus. Many times we will balk at forgiving an offense or being nice to an unlovely person, but when we remember, I am doing this for Jesus, a new motivation and a new power will come over us. 4. Look At Others. Now you are prepared to look at others in a new light that will help you love them. You will see them from the viewpoint of Calvary. You will see them as victims of sin and Satan, in need of the same grace you have experienced. Amen.