Golden Rule

Intro

I couldn’t help but start this text with a reference to the Pilgrim’s Progress. In that book, which is my favorite, there comes a point where young Christian finally gets to the wicket gate that Evangelist sent him looking for. To get there, he had to traverse dangerous ground and persevere through several trials. Beelzebub himself tried killing him before he could get there. But as he passes through the gate, he is told very plainly that there are several paths in front of him: but only one leads to the Celestial city. Its the straight and narrow path, the one that doesn’t twist or turn out of the way that he must follow.

Jesus calls us here to uphold the law by selflessly loving others. The Golden Rule functions as calling, and from the moment you are called to fulfill it, you are given a choice: there are two gates, opening up to two different paths that will take you to two very different destinations. There is a broad gate leading to an easy path of self-righteousness which has death as its end, and a narrow gate leading to a difficult path of faith in Christ that has eternal life as its end. The gate you enter and the path you walk is of the highest consequence. In this case, both paths do not lead to the same destination, and the gate you enter by will determine the path that you walk. Today I want to set these two gates in front of you, and you will have no choice but to walk through one of them. There is no other way, no third option. But first, let’s consider what it is we’re being called to here by our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Golden Rule as a Summary of the Law

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.

Here Christ gives a beautiful summation of the Law and the Prophets. This isn’t the only way that he does it in his teaching, but it is one of the best known summations of morality ever given. It is beautiful in its simplicity and in its practicality. I have been reflecting on why this particular phrasing seems to resonate so strongly with humanity across cultures. I believe the reason that this particular formulation of the Law sticks in our minds because it forces us out of our natural way of thinking. The phrasing of the question asks you about how you think other people should treat you, and this is something that you probably have answers at the ready for. You know exactly how you want other people to treat you, and in fact you spend a lot of time thinking about how other people should and should not treat you. But then the question takes you from a subject matter that you are an expert on (how others should treat you) and it forces you into a thought process that probably doesn’t occur too often — how you should treat other people. It forces you to see other people’s perspective and consider how they might feel about the way you’ve treated them. And this is a bit of a condemning realization. Isn’t the reason that the golden rule is so profound because it forces you to see the world from someone else’s perspective? And isn’t it concerning that that is a profound thing for people to do?

We are a selfish people

The Golden Rule resonates with us precisely because we are a selfish people. We spend such an incredible amount of our existence thinking in terms of our own selves: our days are almost entirely organized around the self.

This necessarily includes how we treat other people. As we go about our days and interact with others, they become just more variables for us to organize to elevate ourselves. We think of how others are able to help us, what they can do for us, how they can somehow advance our own cause. We foster the relationships that are useful, and let the useless ones slowly die. When it comes to how we treat other people, our thinking normally begins and ends with what would be best for us in the long run.

The Golden Rule sticks out to us because it advocates a way of interacting with other people that is totally foreign to our minds. Jesus here calls us to treat other people not how we want to treat them, and not how we can reap the best rewards; we do not treat others for optimal self-advancement. Rather, we are called to treat others with true justice, with a view to their own good as independent from personal gain.

Transition: And what adds even more weight to the beauty of this teaching is the one who is teaching it. In Christ, we see the golden rule put into practice perfectly.

Christ fulfills the golden rule perfectly in his life, death, and resurrection

Here we get to appreciate something truly unique about Jesus: that which he teaches, he practices perfectly. There is no inconsistency between his teaching and his living. With all other men and preachers, you will inevitably find some level of inconsistency between what they proclaim and what they do; not so with Jesus.

When it comes to the golden rule of treating others with their highest good in mind, we find the perfect example lived out by Jesus. If we desire to know what it feels like to be loved with that kind of a love, we need look no further than the way we have been loved by God in Christ.

How would you like God to treat you? Whatever your answer, I promise you that it is lacking compared to the reality of your situation. However you desire to be treated by God, he has treated you better than your desires would have him treat you. He has treated you with the ultimate and highest good through his Son Jesus Christ.

Consider this: that God made us to be his own people, walking with him in holiness and perfection. We would be his own, he would provide for us, care for us, love us, and all he asks in return is that we obey and love him.

Yet the people he made disregard his love, disrespect him in the vilest way, curse his throne, seek to be rid of him, and partner with his enemy to revolt against his throne.

Then, those people continue to insist on this way of living for thousands of years, no matter how much patience and grace God shows them. He continues to call them back, and they continue to openly disrespect him, and even make their own false little gods out of the metals God made with his own word.

Then, after this goes on for thousands of years, God takes on flesh and becomes one of us. The same God which we have openly disrespected and spurned since he made us. And how does he treat us? Is it with fairness? Does he come to give us what we deserve? Does he come to exact his just revenge against a sinful and disobedient people?

Or does he come as a humble servant, seeking to redeem this faithless people? Does he come as one of us, so that he can call us brother? Does he continue to absorb our hatred and return it with love? Does he submit himself to death on a cross, despising the shame, so that he could save a people that have done nothing but hate him?

In Christ, we see the perfect fulfilment of the golden rule. In Christ, we see the God Man treat us with justice, with a mind wholly for our highest possible good; and then he accomplished it.

Christ calls us to follow his example

When we consider the Golden Rule, let us first consider the man who taught it to us. Let us consider Jesus Christ, and how he has shown us love by how he has loved us perfectly.

And only then let us consider that he calls us to now go and do the same.

For this is what Christ does here: he calls all of us to treat one another with the same kind of love that he has shown us. We are being called to act towards others in a way that seeks their highest possible good. We are being called to abandon a life that seeks only self-advancement, and instead live one that is for the good of our neighbor.

transition: how you seek to follow the example is of the utmost importance. As I said at the beginning, there are two paths which stand before you at this point, with two different paths behind them, leading to two very different destinations.

The Broad Gate and Easy Path to Death

Matthew 7:13 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.

Before turning people loose to walk this path of love though, he gives them a warning. He tells them that there are two gates, two paths they can walk in response. The first is a wide gate leading to an easy path: many people see this gate and walk this path. This is the path of natural morality, it is the way of common sense in our world today.

It is the gate of self-righteousness, leading to a path of self-strength. This is a path that asks for little to no sacrifice, and is one that can be walked on one’s own terms.

And let us be clear: this command that Jesus gives is not unique. The golden rule exists in many cultures across many times. When Jesus uttered the golden rule, it is likely that the hearers have already heard it before from someone else. Judaism teaches it, the ancient Greeks had a version of it, and the ancient far east has a similar teaching as well. At its core, the golden rule encompasses the system of morality that is written on the human heart: we know that we ought to live that way.

But the fallen condition of humanity deceives us and twists its meaning.

Even when we act in ways that seem to be selfless, it is often just another version of selfishness masked as charity. We will often act selflessly because we believe it will benefit us in the long run. We give away so that we can receive later, we lend a hand when we expect to receive help later, we walk on eggshells to preserve a relationship because we expect that it will be useful for us down the road. Even our “charitable” acts become something of an investment that we can collect with interest later in life rather than actions done out of a true interest in the good of another. Those who are spiritually inclined will do good, but only so far as they believe they are earning a reward in the afterlife.

i.e. the Judaizers. They would use other people to elevate themselves.

Galatians 4:17 ESV

They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

the flattery of the Judaizers was really just selfishness masked as charity and love.

This is the broad path to follow the commands of Christ: self-righteousness through self-strength, but it is robbed of its love, and so it leads to death.

The Narrow Gate and the Difficult Path to Life

Matthew 7:14 ESV

For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

What makes the path of life so narrow? Why is it so difficult to find?

It requires that we die to ourselves - both at the outset and every day afterward.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only entrance to this path

Only the gospel gives us true freedom to act in this selfless way

Support text: do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

Galatians 5:13 ESV

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

The immense grace that we find in the gospel is sometimes used to teach that the Christian life is easy — but it isn’t. If anything, the immensity of God’s grace is a commentary on how difficult the Christian life is for us.

The Christian lifestyle is unsustainable for the non-Christian. If you desire to live our the morality of Christ’s teachings, but you do not rest in the finished work of Christ, you will find yourself burnt out in no time. If you accept the call to pick up your cross and follow Jesus to the grave every day, but you do not rest in him for new life, you will simply lay dead in the grave. This is the wide path, the natural one. The narrow path not only accepts the call to holiness, but rests fully in Christ for the ability to live it.

Jesus Christ bids you to uphold the law by loving people with justice and sacrificial service: and there are two gates in front of you.

There is a wide gate and an easy path: the path that allows you to keep your illusions of self-righteousness as you masquerade your selfish intentions with works of charity. This path will inevitably lead to death in the end.

There is a narrow gate and a difficult path: a gate so narrow that you must be willing to die and worship the Lord Jesus Christ to enter it. A path so difficult that unless you are sustained by the power of God himself, you will not make it. A path that will call you to die to yourself every single day and live a life of love as you serve God and neighbor, sustained by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This path will most certainly lead to eternal and ever-blessed life with God in Christ.

Which gate will you enter? which path will you walk? If you seek the narrow gate, and the difficult path, then you must seek for Christ both today and every day, for the rest of your life. Your life is with him, and with him alone.

FCF: We act selfishly and treat others unjustly, putting us on the wide path of destruction.

CFC: Christ acted with ultimate love by walking on the narrow path to life, and gifted that life to us.

Call: Follow Christ on the narrow path to life by caring for others

Big Idea:

Christ gives one of the most beautiful, simple, practical, understandable expressions of the law: do under others as you would have them do unto you. Even our little ones can understand this.

Why does this phrasing make so much sense to us? Because we often think of how we would like to be treated, and rarely about how we ought to treat others.

We are now being called to act in this way towards others. He laid down his life for us we ought to lay down our lives for the others.

Another rephrasing of the question could be: Just as God has treated you in Christ, so also treat others.

It will ultimately be grace that causes us to walk in this narrow path to life.

Living holy lives, entering the narrow gate, walking the narrow path

Living holy lives

Choosing the right path

entering the narrow gate

walking the narrow path

Jesus is the one who perfectly fulfilled the golden rule. Because he has, we have been made able to walk the narrow path and follow his example.