INTRO.- ILL.- After Confederate General Robert E. Lee retired from military life, he was named president of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Originally named Washington Academy because of a $50,000 gift from George Washington, the name of the school was changed in 1871 in honor of Lee who served as its president from 1865-1870.
While Lee was president of the University, a new student came into Lee’s office and asked for a copy of the school’s rules and regulations. Lee replied that the school had no printed rules. He said, “Our only rule is kindness.”
How great is that? Kindness is certainly something good to live by. If we all lived a life of kindness to others what a different country this would be. And if all countries around the world would practice kindness what a different world it would be!
Luke 6:31 “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Some people, however, have twisted the words of Jesus, saying, “Do it to others before they do it to you.” That’s the way of the world, but it’s certainly not the way of Jesus.
ILL.- All traffic tickets issued in Rockville, Md., were imprinted with these words: “Drive Towards Others As You Would Have Them Drive Toward You.” I guess it was the idea that you should drive with courtesy as you would want others to drive with courtesy toward you.
I think, however, that’s not the rule of the road that many people go by. That’s why we have what is called “road rage.” Many people are not courteous toward other drivers. They run stop signs and stop signals. They show no courtesy by not using their turn signals when changing lanes. They pull out from side roads like they own the road and you’d better slow down or hit your brakes and let them go on. Kindness is one rule that should rule our driving habits and our lives.
If You Were Busy Being Kind
If you were busy being kind,
Before you knew it, you would find
You’d soon forget to think ’twas true
That someone was unkind to you.
If you were busy being glad,
And cheering people who are sad,
Although your heart might ache a bit,
You’d soon forget to notice it.
If you were busy being good,
And doing just the best you could,
You’d not have time to blame some man
Who’s doing just the best he can.
If you were busy being right,
You’d find yourself too busy quite
To criticize your neighbor long
Because he’s busy doing wrong.
Sounds good to me. Be kind to others. Cheer up others as best you can. Do good to others. These are good rules to go by.
“Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule. THIS ONE RULE.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have so many rules and regulations to go by in life? It would be nice if there was just one basic rule that we could live by that would apply to everything we do in life. THERE IS SUCH A RULE! It’s the rule of love.
I Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” The greatest way to live and the greatest is the rule of love.
PROP.- This one rule covers many areas.
1- Because you love, you pay your debts
2- Because you love, you do no one harm
3- Because you love, you fulfill the law
I. BECAUSE YOU LOVE, YOU PAY YOUR DEBTS
8 Let no debt remain outstanding.
ILL.- A young college co-ed came running in tears to her father. "Dad, you gave me some terrible financial advice!" "I did? What did I tell you?" said the dad.
"You told me to put my money in that big bank, and now that big bank is in trouble." "What are you talking about? That's one of the largest banks in the state," he said. "There must be some mistake."
"I don't think so," she sniffed. "They just returned one of my checks with a note saying, 'Insufficient Funds'."
Let’s hope the banks don’t run out of money. It’s bad enough that there were times when we had insufficient funds.
Have you ever floated a check? Meaning have you ever written a check, knowing that you didn’t have the money in your bank account but you knew it would be there by the time they cashed your check? Many of us have done that. And this is not a bad thing if you know the money will be there. BUT have you ever written a bad check, knowing the money was not there and wasn’t going to be there? THAT’S NOT GOOD BUSINESS. That’s not good Christian business. That’s not paying your debt.
Back in the old days, whenever they were, you didn’t buy something if you didn’t have the cash. That’s almost unheard of today. Most people live on plastic credit known as credit cards.
And I do charge my gas to my credit card each money but fortunately, I am able to pay it off in full each month. Some people can’t do that so they make payments. IS THAT BAD? If you are faithful in making your payments at least you are paying your debt, but you may be paying out a lot of extra money in the long run because of high interest. You may well pay thousands of dollars more than you initially charged.
ILL.- I remember that I had a rude awakening the first time I ever charged something. It was back in the 1960‘s and it was a console stereo that I bought. I think I paid some money down and promised to make payments. What was my rude awakening? It was when I made my first payment and found out that they charged me interest. I thought it was a ripoff! I didn’t realize that was the way they did business. If you bought something on time then you had pay interest and back then it was a very small amount, but I still thought it was totally wrong. THAT’S LIFE AND THAT’S BUSINESS. Businesses are in the business to make money! That’s how they stay in business.
Since that time I’ve charged a lot over the years and I’m sure I’ve paid out a lot of money in unnecessary interest. If I’d been more restrained in my buying habits and waited until I had the cash then my purchases wouldn’t have cost me extra money.
I think people who are smart money planners say that you should never charge anything except big items like a car or a house. That would sure save us all some headaches and some money.
8 Let no debt remain outstanding. What’s the meaning? Because we love others and we especially, love the Lord we pay our debts. God wants us to be honest people and pay our bills.
ILL.- I know of a preacher who got into some kind of trouble with the IRS and ended up owing them quite a bit of money. At the same time he had only one car with tons of miles on it. He continued to drive that old car until he paid off his bill to the IRS. It took him several years but he did it. After he paid that bill he was then able to buy a better car. But he did the right thing. If he hadn’t then IRS would have been after him! Let no debt remain outstanding. Pay your bills.
II. BECAUSE YOU LOVE, YOU DO NO ONE HARM
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to its neighbor.
The idea of this scripture is because we love others, we will do them no harm. If we truly love people like we are supposed to, we will not commit adultery or lust after someone. We will not murder anyone or fight with them. We will not steal from them or try to cheat them.
ILL.- A man goes into a bar and seats himself on a stool. The bartender looks at him and says, "What'll it be buddy?" The man says, "Set me up with seven whiskey shots and make them doubles." The bartender does this and watches the man slug one down, then the next, then the next, and so on until all seven are gone almost as quickly as they were served. Staring in disbelief, the bartender asks why he's doing all this drinking.
"You'd drink them this fast too if you had what I have." The bartender hastily asks, "What do you have pal?" The man quickly replies, "I have a dollar."
What do we call that? First, it’s called stupid. Second, it’s called cheating or stealing. The point of scripture is that if we truly love the Lord and love our neighbors as ourselves, then we won’t cheat them or steal from them in any form.
Did you ever buy something from a so-called friend and that item turned out to be a dud? They sold it to you with the idea that it was a good deal or a good bargain for the money and it turned out to be “not-so-good.” That’s not acting from love on their part.
ILL.- I’ve bought a few dud cars in my time but I can’t honestly say that the car dealers from whom I purchased them knew they were duds or not. That’s a different matter. If they knew, however, that they were dud cars and still sold them to me then that’s wrong.
ILL.- My son-in-law and daughter, for example, recently traded their old Chrysler town and country van for a used 2009 Ford Flex. In the process of the trade the dealer where they were trading did a Car fax on their van and found out that it had been in a wreck and the airbags had been deployed. Well, that told the story as to why they had been having a lot of trouble with that van. In fact, they had spent thousands of dollars repairing one thing after another. And it says that the dealership where they originally bought was not completely honest, BUT WE ARE TO BE HONEST IN ALL OUR DEALINGS WITH PEOPLE.
Whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to its neighbor.
Because you love others, you do them no harm. You don’t steal from them. You don’t cheat them. You don’t harm them. You don’t covet or lust after what they have. Instead, you live for their good. You treat them with kindness and love.
ILL.- John Wesley had this for his rule of life:
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.
Why did he have and practice this rule? Because he loved God and he loved his neighbor as himself.
III. BECAUSE YOU LOVE, YOU FULFILL THE LAW
10 Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. (in order words, obey God’s Word) This is tough one. Love fulfills God’s law in all ways, at all times, and as best as you can.
ILL.- An unmarried Jewish Rabbi is on an empty train when a sexy, beautiful woman walks into his empty carriage, carrying a foot long, BLT, Subway sandwich and proceeds to sit down opposite him.
After twenty minutes of embarrassingly trying to avoid looking at the sexy woman opposite the train comes to a sudden halt and a voice comes over the speakers explaining that the Five Minute Warning has just gone off and that soon the UK will be under nuclear attack.
Shocked at this dreadful and sudden news the Rabbi's thoughts quickly turn to the fact that he will probably be dead within the next five minutes. However instead of taking comfort from his faith and religious training he begins to consider all the things he never did and all the experiences he missed out on due to the religious life he chose to lead.
He quickly realizes that he is going to die a virgin too, as he is quite a young Rabbi and he never married. Feeling close to despair at this thought and all the other opportunities he has wasted in his life the Rabbi looks up and sees that the sexy woman opposite is looking at him and smiling in a very sexually seductive manor.
Why not? The Rabbi thinks to himself. After years of leading a relatively good life and obeying the laws of his religion, why shouldn't he enjoy the last five minutes of his life on earth? Surely even God would forgive him five minutes of pleasure and sin after many years of obediently following his divine laws.
With this thought in mind the Rabbi decides that he is going to just go for it and forget the consequences and enjoy his final five minutes on earth. He therefore looks back at the girl and begins to smile too. Feeling a little awkward about this highly unusual and unexpected situation the Rabbi gently leans over towards the gorgeous woman and says, "Excuse me Miss, but are you planning on eating that sandwich?"
For that Jewish Rabbi eating that bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich would be a sin against God. Of course, it would have been a sin if he had done that other thing. Both would be a sin against God for him.
But love is the fulfillment of the law. Love means you do what you know God has said in His Word. Love is a matter of obeying God’s Word as best you can. AND HAVE YOU DONE THAT? I would say we all are guilty of a certain amount of disobedience to God and His Word. Therefore, we have failed to love as we should. But we all can do better. We all need to work at obeying God’s Word as best we can, because this means that we are growing in our love for God and for others.
CONCLUSION-----------------
This one rule. This one rule is actually two rules. Do you know what they are?
Matthew 22:36-39 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Brothers and sisters, if we try hard to live by the law of love; love for God and love for man, in this way we will honor God, obey Him, and do no wrong to our neighbors.
Steve Shepherd, Cape Girardeau, MO
shepherd111@hotmail.com
