The Golden Rule
We’re almost at the end of the Summer Together series, where we have been walking through the Sermon on the Mount together for the last 14 weeks. Last Sunday, we covered the first 11 verses of Matthew 7, but ran out of time before completing the message. So, today, we get to rest on one single verse. One of the most memorable and used verses in the entire discourse - Matthew 7:12, also commonly referred to 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.” Matthew 7:12
The message here is a simple; Jesus gives us a rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Now that sounds simple enough, but if it were really that simple, we’d be better at it. We’re not good at it, but we can be with the help of the Spirit of God. In fact, another way to think about the Golden Rule is to see that we want want to be treated in a spirit-filled way. Remember the fruit of the Spirit?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
We ALL want to be treated with kindness, goodness, and gentleness, right? We all want others to have patience with us, to love us, and to be faithful and loving. This is how we want to be treated when it comes down to it. This is a good list of how we want our wives, husbands, kids, co-workers, neighbors to be with us, and of course if they oblige, then we’ll reciprocate…right?
Now, let’s dig into the verse for a moment. First, it’s worth noting that Jesus invokes the Law and Prophets at the end of the verse to make sure the hearers would recognize it from the Old Testament. The Law usually refers to the Torah, or the first 5 books of the Bible, and the Prophets refers to the rest of the Old Testament, which was understood to have been written by the prophets. This means that this verse is summing up what God wanted from His people in relation to their neighbors, and this is not new content, this has been taught from the Old Testament up to the mouth of Christ. God desired His people to live out love among their neighbors.
The first word of the verse is “So” or other versions might use “Therefore” - this is what’s called a Logical Connector. It connects this verse to the passage before it, drawing an application in context from the section of scripture just prior. In this case, the previous versus are describing God’s gracious and loving provision for others, so the application would be that if the disciples (you being one of the disciples) are following the Golden Rule of verse 12, then you are resembling your Heavenly Father.
And so what is the command? Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do that to them. This is the Golden Rule, you’ve all heard a version of this before. This is one of those verses that even non-Believers, people who have never picked up a Bible before have heard of. Their mom or their grandma said it to them growing up, do unto others as you would have them do unto you - that’s the southern KJV translation of that verse.
But doesn’t this verse ring a bell to something we’ve heard before?
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Leviticus 19:18b
This is what Jesus refers to as the Greatest Commandment in Matthew 22 and Mark 12. And it’s the same idea. Love others as you yourself want to be loved. You know, this verse would have originally been written in Greek, and the Greek here indicates that the command is comprehensive, emphatic, positive, and continuous. “In every last thing, you must continually do for others whatever you wish they would do to you.” And the YOU is emphatic - disciples (you and me) will do for others, even when no one else will. The scope of the command is unlimited, and it’s in the continuous present tense, meaning the obligation continues unending. Love others as you want to be loved. Serve others as you would want to be served. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Always.
This command in its negative form was already around in Jesus’ time and that form is known to many religions, for example:
“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow creatures. That is the whole law. All else is explanation” – Rabbi Hillel, probably quoting the book of Tobit in the Apocrypha which says: “Do not do to anyone what you yourself would hate.” (Tobit 4:15)
Eastern religions have a similar saying as well: “Do not to others what you would not wish done to yourself.” – Confucius
But these and others are found in the negative form: “Do not do anything to anyone that you would not want him to do to you.”
That’s good advice and all, but Jesus is asserting something different: the positive and intentional activity of love being poured out on a neighbor, not merely wrong being withheld.
There is an operating principle within the Golden Rule: Initiate, don’t wait! Jesus does not qualify this command with a stipulation that we wait for someone to do something nice for us before we step out and do something nice for them. Let them show love first, and then I’ll show it in return. He also doesn’t give a quid-pro-quo with this command. I’ll show the love, but they better respond in kind. If they don’t, that’s it. Cut off. Never again. I’ll take my love and kindness elsewhere. No, this command is continuous and unlimited. In fact, let me give you two things that love does to accomplish this command:
Love steps up to act first – often unprompted and unearned - this is a good segue into grace, which is love played out as an unwarranted and unmerited gift that we didn’t and couldn’t earn. It’s by grace that Jesus saves us, a gift, not of ourselves, but only by his love as demonstrated by the death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus didn't wait for humanity to get their lives in order, he didn’t wait for us to become more pious and more devoted, he stepped into this world, put on a skin suit, got into the dirt with us, and for us…he loved first, he made the first move, pouring out unearned grace on us.
Love initiates often in spite of the conditions. It’s not always the most convenient time to love someone the way that you would want to be loved. The conditions are not always right. You know, we use a phrase in the church world (well maybe more in the charismatic church world) we talk about divine appointments. And that’s not a bad phrase, I’m not telling you to stop using it or stop praying for them, but I think we have a misconception of what these are. When we think of loving our neighbor or a stranger, and God sets up a divine appointment, we envision: finishing a nice meal at the restaurant of your choosing, pulling out your wallet to pay the bill and low and behold, a blessing from the Lord, a crisp $20 that you didn’t know you had, and then as if Moses himself were at that restaurant, the people part to the left and right and a light from Heaven shines down on a man in tattered clothes that is clearly hungry and was looking for a meal that would cost approximately $20…But that’s not how it works. Basically never. Often, it’s your last $20 and someone is in need, you’re in a time constraint and someone needs love and grace, love steps up in spite of the conditions and circumstances, because my goodness if the shoe were on the other foot, wouldn’t you want that same love?
Well, the shoe was on the other foot. Jesus left Heaven, left the Father’s side to come and pour his love out on you. That wasn’t convenient, that wasn’t easy. To leave perfection, to leave a pure and holy place and come kick it with us in this sin-filled world?! There was nothing convenient about it, but he so loved, and he loved first, he initiated the love now and forever. And he sets the example and the bar with which we operate from.
Keep in mind that the Golden Rule is not the total sum of Christian truth, nor is it Gods plan of redemption. We can’t boil all of Christianity down to this simple phrase, although it does pack a lot of power. In fact, Warren Wiersbe once said:
“We should no more build our theology on the golden rule, than we should build our astronomy on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” - Warren W. Wiersbe
This great truth is simply a principle that ought to govern our attitudes towards others. We should approach others in love. And by the way, love initiates; love steps out in faith.
