The Sermon on the Mount: The Right Way - Matthew 7:12-14

Introduction

Read Matthew 7:12-14

Matthew 7:12–14 (ESV)

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Follow the Way of Love

Matthew 7:12 (ESV)

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

As Jesus is bringing His sermon to a close, He ends the main teaching with this final command, which we all know as the Golden Rule.

Other philosophies and religions have similar rules and commands, but most of them say it slightly differently:

Confucius is credited with saying, “Do not to others what you would not wish done to yourself.”

The Book of Tobit in the OT Apocrypha: “Do not do to anyone what you yourself would hate.”

Rabbi Hillel said: “What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else. This is the whole law; all the rest is only commentary.”

It is amazing how similar the different sayings are spanning across the different religions and philosophies. However, are they really the same with what Jesus has just told us here?

The Negative Command vs. the Positive Command

The World’s View:

Most view this as simply avoiding evil or passively showing kindness and respect

If I can just avoid doing anything bad to someone, I can check this off my list.

This goes back to the easy legalism that the pharisees and scribes adopted. As long as I don’t physically murder anyone or commit the physical act of adultery, then I am good.

It is possible for men to live good and moral lives if we kept the command in the negative, to stop from doing anything bad to others. In fact, we often refrain from doing things to others out of an attitude of self-preservation.

We do not commit adultery, not because it’s wrong, but because we do not want the bad reputation and the damaged relationship that occurs. While it is right to refrain, this is not really the right attitude for which to refrain.

We might not commit murder simply because we do not want to face the consequence of prison. Again, those consequences should be a deterrent, but that is not really the attitude we should have when it comes to choosing not to murder, steal, bearing false testimony against someone.

Christ’s View:

Actively showing love

But we are not simply to avoid doing evil to others. We are to actively do good to them.

Of course, we tend to think, if I can just treat people fairly, show basic respect and fair treatment.

But notice what Jesus says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

How do we want to be treated? No one wants to really be treated fairly.

We actually want to be treated preferentially. We do want people to treat us as we deserve, but rather better than what we deserve.

We want people to always assume the best of us. That even when they don’t understand or agree with what we say or do, that they will at least assume that we were doing our best with the choices we made. All the while, we treat people with suspicion always skeptical of why others do what they do.

We want people to go above and beyond in treating us with favor, of giving us more than we could ever deserve. We want them to forgive freely, to give generously, to act graciously towards us.

Jesus commands us this because this is how He treated us. He treated us better than we deserved when He took upon Himself the penalty of our sins. If we were to be treated fairly, He would have let us die in our own sins and all would have been just and right. But Jesus went above and beyond to truly love us and treat us as we all want to be loved!

Once again, we are faced with the weight and difficult nature of this sermon, and we are reminded to ask, seek, and knock for what we need. But even as we ask, we have to ask ourselves…

How are we able to fulfill this and all the other commands Jesus has given to us in this sermon?

Follow the Way of Life

Matthew 7:13–14 (ESV)

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

We fulfill these commands by staying on the right path. As we begin to view the closing comments on this sermon, Jesus describes our response to this sermon as a choice between two paths: a wide and easy path and a narrow and difficult path.

Jesus tells us that the way to life is the narrow and difficult path, which fits with everything we have seen up to this point. Everything Christ calls us to is beyond our ability to actually accomplish on our own.

But why is following Christ and His commands so difficult? We would think that if we are invited into this kingdom of heaven by grace through faith then it would be an easy.

First, the narrow path is not a popular path

While you would think that being saved by grace through faith would be an easy and popular path, it is actually narrow because receiving salvation by grace destroys our pride and our right to boast.

When we truly understand grace and that Christ has treated us far better than I could ever deserve, I no longer have a basis to judge myself as better than others and will cause me to see myself, not essentially as a good person, but as a guilty person who has been pardoned.

For those who truly understand the grace that comes through Christ, this is a beautiful doctrine. But it is repulsive to those who want to claim credit for their own success and goodness.

1 Corinthians 1:18 (ESV)

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

This path is narrow because many people do not want to admit that they are dependent upon the grace and work of another.

And until we recognize that I have no good within myself and the only way I can actually carry out the demands of this sermon is by humbly placing myself at the mercy of Christ, I will never receive the righteousness that exceeds the Scribes and the Pharisees.

And I will never truly be able to love God the way He deserves and to do unto others what I would have them do unto me.

Loving others requires that I take the narrow path of humility knowing that I have received far more than I could ever earn or deserve.

Second, the narrow path is hard and requires sacrifice

What we see here is that the entrance into this narrow path is through the narrow gate.

Jesus is communicating the way by which we must come into the way of life. Because of the narrowness of the gate, there is a limit to what we can bring in with us.

There is a famous scene from the old tv show “Friends.” This is not a recommendation for the show. But in one episode, they are trying to move a couch into their apartment and they are trying to get it up the narrow stairwell. To try and fix the problem, one of the characters, Ross, keeps yelling out “Pivot” to try and manuver it through. No matter how much he yelled “Pivot” though, it just wouldn’t go up.

There’s a lesson here that if we are to follow Christ, it is a very narrow gate and path which means that there are things we must sacrifice in order to follow Christ. In fact, this is what we have seen through the whole of this sermon. Christ is calling us to a life of sacrifice.

It might include our treasures and possessions, as Christ called the rich young ruler to do.

It includes our pride and self-reliance.

It includes our entitlement to an easy and quiet life and our reputation with those around us.

it includes sacrificing safety and health to prioritize loving God’s people and possibly facing persecution, suffering and death. “blessed are those who are persecuted.”

It might be a giving up of friends and family who try to persuade you to turn away from Christ.

It includes sacrificing having your needs met so you can sacrificially meet the needs of your spouse. It’s the sacrifice of continuing on in a difficult marriage in order to show the love and grace of Christ.

It includes the sacrifice of the illicit pleasure of a sexual relationship outside of marriage.

It includes sacrificing what you see as your sexual identity to adopt the identity Christ has given to you.

It might include sacrificing your promotion or even your job to do what is right and to stand for truth.

It might include sacrificing your position on your sports team because you refuse to compromise your relationship with Christ.

The 1924 Summer Olympics were hosted by the city of Paris. A devout Christian, Liddell withdrew from the 100-metre race (his best event), because the heats were going to be held on a Sunday.[7] The schedule had been published several months earlier, and therefore his decision was made well before the Games.[citation needed] Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400-metre race, though his best pre-Olympics time of 49.6 seconds, set in winning the 1924 AAA championship 440-yard race,[8] was modest by international standards. On the morning of the Olympic 400-metre final, 11 July 1924,[9] Liddell was handed a folded square of paper by one of the team masseurs. Reading it later he found the message: "In the old book it says: 'He that honours me I will honour.' Wishing you the best of success always." Recognising the reference to 1 Samuel 2:30, Liddell was profoundly moved that someone other than his coach believed in him and the stance he had taken.[10]

It includes sacrificing the praise of men to practice the spiritual disciplines behind closed doors where no one else can see you.

No matter how much you might try to “pivot” to fit these things into your relationship with Christ, they will never fit through the narrow gate as long as you’re determined to hold on to them.

The grace Christ offers us is free, but it is not cheap. Luke 14:26-28

Luke 14:26–28 (ESV)

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

Jesus is telling us that we must love Him more than we love anything else, including our own life. There is a high cost to following Jesus and to walking through the narrow gate that leads to life.

This is why the way is wide that leads to destruction. The cost that comes from following Jesus is often too high for many to consider following after Him. Our natural desires do not want to let go of the things that keep us from following Jesus.

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” - Deitrich Bonhoeffer

We are called to despise our sin, to put it to death so we can experience the life that Christ has given to us.

Does this mean that if we sin we are not walking on the narrow way? Not necessarily. We are told that we are going to struggle with sin on this side of eternity. But what do you do when you sin? Do you ignore it, thinking it unimportant? Or do you recognize your sin and grieve over it and hate that you have stumbled and fallen? The sign that you are on the narrow path is the Holy Spirit’s conviction and revulsion over your sin when it occurs.

How do we fight against our natural desire to take the easy and wide path which leads to destruction?

Follow the One and Only Way

It is not by trying harder that we take the narrow way.

It is not by legalistically giving up wrong behavior and bemoaning what we have given up to follow Jesus.

This path is also narrow, because there is only one way on this path.

The popular thought is that there are many ways to find life. However, Jesus tells us that the wide gate, the gate through which many paths goes to, leads to destruction.

We find this way as we follow the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

What happens when we follow Jesus Christ Who is Himself, the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

Matthew 19:27–29 (ESV)

Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

As we follow Christ on this narrow way, we will begin to discover that what Christ has to offer to us is greater than anything that we will sacrifice to go through the narrow gate.

If you are still bemoaning what you have given up, its because you still haven’t realized the greater and infinite value of the treasure that Christ has given to you.

If our hearts are still longing for the sins we have “given” up, then we have not experienced the true gifts of Christ.

What is this gift? What is it that He supplies a hundredfold for those who sacrifice everything to follow Him?

Himself! As we follow Christ, we experience the beauty and goodness that He alone can give.

As we go further on this narrow path, we can begin to experience and see how good and beautiful Jesus is to us.

We are not called to a blind and religious obedience to Christ. That kind of obedience will not last.

We are called to truly experience Christ and who He is and to see that the cost of following Him is worth it because what we get in Christ is worth far more than anything we have given up.

This is why the Psalmist says,

Psalm 34:8 (ESV)

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

We can “Taste and see” that the Lord is good. This is a call to experience by grace through faith the goodness and beauty and holiness of our Lord and Savior. It is daily waking up and saying, “Lord I need You today. Help me to see how good You always are to me!”

The only way we can take the narrow path by sacrificing everything to follow Christ is by first seeing that Christ Himself is our only Way of fulfilling the commands He has given to us.

Here’s the amazing thing, as we humble ourselves and daily place our trust in Christ and in what He has done, He will show us how beautiful He is and He will give us a new heart that longs to sacrifice everything else in order to know Him and to make Him known.

This is why Paul lived a life of self-denial and sacrifice.

Philippians 3:7–8 (ESV)

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

He learned to see Christ as supremely valuable over anything else he could have. So walking through the narrow gate became easy because what he sacrificed to follow Jesus did not feel like a sacrifice.

Men, in regards to your wife, if you ever feel like it is a burden to sacrifice your relationship with other women simply because you are now married, you have not truly come to love your wife. A man who loves his wife never considers what he has given up in order to be with her. He only thinks of the joy and the blessings of all he has gained because he is with her. He so loves her that she is the only woman on earth he could ever think about that way. So while technically he is sacrificing other potential relationships, there is no sacrifice because of how he views his wife.

In the same way, when we come to Christ and truly see Him for who He is, as the Savior, Lord, Creator, Redeemer, Holy, Just, Loving, Gracious, All-knowing, all-powerful, unchanging, faithful, etc, our eyes will quit being drawn to the sin we once struggled with because now we count all those things as rubbish. And as we gladly let those things go, we will begin to see how Christ is fulfilling this sermon in us, to rightly love God with our whole being, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, as we follow Him down the narrow path.