The Gold Standard
Notes
Transcript
It’s one of the most famous concepts in the Bible. Though it’s fame is getting less and less as generation Z and Alpha are not being raised in a moral society.
Most people have heard of the 10 commandments, though they may not be able to say one of the 10 commandments. Most people have heard of the cross, though they do not understand the significance. And most people have heard of the Golden Rule.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Or as the King James writes:
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
People have taken the Golden Rule and applied it to everyday life, which is good. They have applied it to how God view us, if we don’t keep the Golden Rule we will bring God’s wrath down on us. And they have even applied it to our salvation: unless we keep the Golden Rule, we will not be able to work our way to paradise.
It’s amazing how humanity can take a few simple words completely out of context, and twist them to mean whatever they want them to mean.
Today we are going to discuss Matthew 7:1-12, in light of the Golden Rule, which is found at the very end of our passage for today.
Let’s read that.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Today, we are going to talk about the Golden Rule, God’s Example for Us, and a Practical Result. We are actually going to work through this passage backwards.
Before we start, will you pray with me?
1. Golden Rule
1. Golden Rule
First, let’s talk about the Golden Rule.
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
My folks, and my siblings, love to tell a story. I don’t know how old I was. I was pretty young. We came back from church. I had learned the golden rule that day, but hadn’t quite understood it. Well, as my folks were getting ready for lunch, they heard a door banging, my brother yelling: Peter, and my cackling maniacally through the house. They asked what was going on, and I said: I learned in Sunday school today: Do to others what they have done to you!
Best day of my life. But, my parents quickly squelched that concept and taught me what the Golden Rule actually is.
We are supposed to think about how we want to be treated and treat others that way. Say that you don’t like people being late to meet with you, so you make sure that you are on time with others. You don’t like being cheated, so you don’t cheat others. You want people to pay the full price for something that you are selling, so you pay the full price for something that you are buying. Maybe that is hitting it a little closer to home. We’ll back away from that discomfort.
You get the picture.
Jesus says that this rule sums up the Law and the Prophets. He is pulling this from lev 19 18.
“ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
This is in the center of a huge section of the Law given by God to Israel, everything before this verse points to this verse and everything after this verse points back to this verse. We show our devotion to God by how we treat those around us.
Jesus said it this way:
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
If we are followers of the kingdom, we are to live drastically different than the world around, we are to seek the good of others even if we could have gotten some good by treating them wrong.
Fascinatingly, this Golden Rule concept is repeated in all of the other major religions and cultures.
The Eastern Religions are good examples of this, being given before Jesus walked the earth.
• Confucianism: "Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you"
• Hinduism: “This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you”
• Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful"
But, there is a stark difference in Jesus’ wording and these sayings. “These are stated negatively and rely on passivity. Jesus’ Golden Rule is a positive command to show love proactively. The Eastern religions say, “Refrain from doing”; Jesus says, “Do!” The Eastern religions say it is enough to hold your negative behavior in check; Jesus says to look for ways to act positively.”
Two chapters ago, at the beginning of the sermon on the mount, Jesus talked about our heart, that we were not suppose to murder, or even get sinfully angry, we were not to commit adultery, or even lust, instead to show the righteousness of God.
Here, Jesus says: a fulfillment of all these laws and prophets, as we think about our heart, is loving our neighbor as ourself. “If we succeed in not murdering and in not hating or verbally abusing others, we still have not completely obeyed [God, his law] until we earnestly seek others’ well-being.”
This Golden Rule packs a bigger punch than we normally teach in Sunday School.
Jesus said: Do to others what you would have them do to you.
2. God’s Example
2. God’s Example
And he said it because of the example of our Heavenly Father.
Jesus said right before the Golden Rule:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
It’s seems out of place in the current context for Jesus to return to praying. However, Jesus is explaining something about God’s character.
God is the God who gives good gifts. He doesn’t withhold our needs. When we ask for something that is beneficial, he will not give us something that will harm us.
As Paul says:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
He brings good to those who seek him.
You might say: Well, God hasn’t given me anything good.
Sometimes our sinfulness and our rebellion cloud our minds as to what God has done for us. We don’t see all the amazing things that God has done for us as he is wooing us to himself, because we are caught up in seeing all things that we have done to our lives, the messes we have made because of our sin and our rebellion. Perhaps we don’t see God’s blessing because we see all the things that the enemy has done to keep us away from our God.
Whatever the reason is, we don’t see God’s blessing, we don’t see the food that we have, the family that we have, the houses, the heat, all the thing that we sometimes take for granted, but are a direct result of God’s blessing.
We talked about this concept last week: God supplies our needs.
One of my favorite services of the year is testimony Sunday, when we live out the teachings of Psalm 107.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people
and praise him in the council of the elders.
God has blessed us so much, being that good father who gives good things, that we should turn around and overflow with thankfulness to him.
Part of that thankfulness is giving him our praise.
Part of that thankfulness is telling others about the amazing things he has done.
Part of that thankfulness is turning around and living his example in other people’s lives.
I think it fascinating how we teach the Golden Rule but hardly ever tie it in with the previous context.
There is a little word in verse 12.
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
So. It’s actually therefore, and as my older pastor used to say: if you see a therefore, you should see what it is there for. Look at the context. What is leading up to this.
Because God is the God who gives us good things. Who listens when we ask, who allows us to find what we are seeking for. Who opens the door when we knock, who gives us good things instead of harmful things, Because God does all this:
We are to do to others what we would have them do to us. Because God is so awesome, we are to use him as our example for how we live, instead of the world around that does not teach proactive acts of love and kindness.
Because God has treated us with love and kindness, we go out of our way to do the same to those around us.
And we do it all the time, therefore in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.
Because God does it in everything. And we are to mimic him.
3. Practical Result
3. Practical Result
Leading up to the Golden Rule, Jesus gives a practical result of a life focused on imitating God.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Judge others with the standard you would like to be judged with.
Oh, this is hard. Especially for conservative Christians. We have our principles, we have our Bible verses, and we know distinctly when people break those. Especially when other people break them.
We hear about the person who committed adultery and we shake our heads at them, and we forget that we lusted yesterday, which is the same as committing adultery. But, we will condemn them!
That parent isn’t discipling their kids right. If that were my kid, you know what I would do in that situation. Yeah, well, what happened the last time that you had a really stressful week. How did you treat your kids then? Was that godly?
Did you hear what that girl and boy have been doing? Can you imagine? They were raised in the church. They know better! And we know better than to gossip, but we do it anyway.
We know our standards and we will gladly level them at anyone. But, we would rather that those standards were not leveled at us. Because if they were, we would be found wanting.
As Jesus told the religious leaders when the woman was caught in adultery:
When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Before we can judge others, we must be able to look at ourselves and confess the truth, state before God and others that we are sinners, not just vaguely, but concretely, specifically, repentantly.
We can take the beam out of our eye, and then we will be able to see clearly to help others.
Some people take this to mean that we shouldn’t judge. However, even in this passage, Jesus calls us to be able to judge. God judges.
But even above judgment, Jesus calls for discernment.
Jesus says:
“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
In our truth, once we have examined ourselves and repented, we must be able to discern who is able to receive truth and who isn’t. Who is following Jesus and who isn’t. Those who are not, we allow them to go their way in their sin, because they do not know any better. Until Jesus gets a hold of their heart, they will not change.
But, once Jesus gets a hold of their heart, he will begin to change them and they will accept the truths of the Scripture with care and humility, just as we should be doing.
As David Turner writes about this paragraph:
“Jesus’s disciples should be neither inquisitors (Matt. 7:1–5) nor simpletons (7:6). Neither censoriousness nor naïveté helps the church (cf. Kollmann 1997). Yet unless one has removed the log from one’s own eye, one will not be able to discern the difference between a fellow disciple with a relatively minor problem and an enemy who will do great harm to the kingdom. If genuine introspection does not occur, a disciple may blunder on the side of judgmental hypocrisy or naive gullibility. Ignorance of oneself is often mixed with arrogance toward others (W. Davies and Allison 1988: 673), with disastrous results.”
Judge ourselves first with the judgment that we want to judge others. May it teach humility, to truly love the person in front of us, showing God by treating them as we would like to be treated.
