(Asking the audience) What Is Golden Rule? “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.” That’s a simple and yet powerful statement that has caught the imagination of the world, and it’s almost as if nobody (before Jesus) had ever thought about that!
ILLUS: Several years ago, there was a school district in Richmond, Virginia that decided to sell 1000 of their used notebook computers for $50 apiece. On the morning of the sale, people began lining up at 1:30 a.m. By 7 o’clock that morning, the crowd was estimated to be 5,500 people (for 1000 computers). When the gates opened, the crowd turned into a violent stampede. There were people getting thrown to the pavement, being beaten with folding chairs, and some nearly driven over. Seventeen people were injured …and four of those were taken to the hospital. Witnesses reported that people threw themselves forward screaming and pushing each other. One man said he was one of those people. He pushed and he shoved and he used a folding chair to beat back anyone who tried to cut in front of him. He said, “I took my chair and threw it over my shoulder and I went, ‘Bam.’ They were getting in front of me - and I was there a lot earlier than them - and so I thought it was just to do what I did.” (AP $50 Laptop Sale Turns Into a Free-For-All, 8/17/05)
It’s almost as if these people had perverted the golden rule to say: “Do unto others FIRST before they do unto you!”
Down through history, people have lived as if this was the ways things should. Someone commented that “It's ruthlessly competitive out there, so you've got to fight to get yours.”
Another noted that: “Either you learn how to play the game and win or you will get dominated and lose and be left in the dust.”
Somebody even made it about Evolution and the survival of the fittest: “Some species compete with each other for mates and resources. The stronger animal will dominate the weaker animal. Some species thrive, and some go extinct. Humans are the same. They compete for power, wealth, mates, status, etc...”
And yet Jesus said - that’s not the way I want YOU to live. Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you! THAT is how Jesus wants us to live. So, the question is: how do we do that? How do we live our lives according to the Golden Rule?
Well, the first thing we need to recognize is - the Golden Rule is not just a good idea, it’s GOD’S idea. This is not only how WE should behave - it’s how God behaves. Jesus said: “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for (God) is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:35-36
Do unto others… as GOD does unto others. He’s our example. As He shows mercy, we should show mercy. We want to grow up to be like our Father!
Now, it’s interesting, much of the ancient world had their own version of the Golden Rule. They’re called the “Silver Rules” because they’re not quite like the Golden Rule… but they’re close.
• Confucius (some 500 years before Jesus) said: “Do NOT unto others what you would NOT wish done to yourself.”
• The Buddhists have a saying, “Putting oneself in the place of others, kill NOT, nor cause to kill.”
• Hinduism teaches - “Do NAUGHT unto others which could cause you pain if done to you.” Mahabharata, 5, 1517
Now, notice, these sayings have one significant difference from the Golden Rule. They all (basically) say “DO NOT DO unto others… what you would NOT want them to do to you.” Essentially, they’re all saying: Leave folks alone; Don’t touch them; Don’t bother them; Don’t upset them; You live in your corner - let them live in theirs - and everybody will be happy. The only problem with that is - that’s not what Jesus said. Jesus did not say “DON’T do”. He said: “DO do unto others.”
On the internet I’ve seen folks try to explain what Golden Rule meant to them.
One person said “If you are unkind to others it will catch up to you and cause others to be unkind to you as well.”
Another person said it this way: “If we want others to be kind to us, we must be kind to them. If we want others to treat us with respect, we must treat them with respect. If we want others to be patient with us, we must be patient with them.”
Another compared it to the phrase: “What goes around comes around” – There are natural consequences that come from our actions and decisions. So, if you DON’T do to others what you’d want them to do to you, it’s going to “come around” and it’s gonna “getcha”.
Now, while these replies aren’t necessarily wrong – they do miss the point. The point of the golden rule is NOT about doing good to someone, so that they will do good for you in return. That's not even implied in the Golden Rule.
So how are we supposed to “do unto others”? Jesus explained right here in Luke 6:28-31. In verse 31 Jesus recited the Golden Rule: “As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” But just before He said that… He said this: “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.”
That’s how we should live the Golden Rule
A famous writer named Garrison Keillor (“The Keillor Reader”) said it this way: “Do unto others who don’t like you as you would have them do unto you, but you know they won’t. Do this before they can do the devious deed to you and that they would do if given the chance. Shame them with goodness. Kill them with kindness. Cut their throats with courtesy.”
That’s almost sounds like what Paul wrote in Romans 12:20 “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
In other words - don’t be RE-active, be PRO-active – with your enemies. Beat them to the punch. Don’t let them define the terms of engagement. Go on the offensive. It might make them uncomfortable… but it will change how they think of you.
ILLUS: When I was in Bible College, I interned at Sault St. Marie, Michigan under the preacher at the Church of Christ up there named Roy Chenowith. He told me once about a difficulty he had there with a man in the town that hated him, but Roy didn’t know why. Whenever Roy would see the man on the street walking his dog - if they were both on the same side of the street, the other man would deliberately cross the street to avoid having to say anything to Roy. It was fairly obvious the man was avoiding him. Well, Roy prayed about this for a couple of days… and then had an idea. The next day he saw the man walking his dog… and Roy walked up to him. He said that was thinking of getting a dog, and told the man how much he admired his dog. A day or so later, Roy saw the man again and asked where he got the dog groomed and what kind of food he fed him, etc. It wasn’t long until the man would cross the street to talk to Roy.
Why did the man’s attitude change? Because Roy practiced the Golden Rule. He treated the man the way he would like to have been treated. He wanted the man to talk with him, so he decided to initiate a conversation dealing with something important to that man.
Notice again: Jesus said: “Love your ENEMIES, do good to those who HATE YOU. Bless those who CURSE YOU, pray for those who ABUSE YOU.” (Luke 6:27-28) These people Jesus is asking me to be nice to… don’t even like me, and there’s a good possibility they never will!
Jesus said “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.” Luke 6:32-33
Jesus is saying – follow ME! Do what I ask with this Golden Rule - not so people will be nice to you; or so that THEY will treat you the same way you’d like to be treated; or because– if you don’t do it this way - what goes around will come around… and you’ll regret it! No, this isn’t what this about at all! By doing unto others … you’ve proved that Jesus has touched you. He’s changed you. You see, the Golden Rule is not instinctive. It’s not “normal” for us. Normal is – you push me - I’ll push you back!
But Christians aren’t supposed to do the Golden Rule because it’s instinctive to them. We do what we do, because we know it will please God! And here’s the deal, if you do this for Jesus, God will reward you because you trusted Him. “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and YOUR REWARD WILL BE GREAT, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. (Luke 6:35)
ILLUS: Years ago, I preached in a church where the minister (we’ll call him Harry) who’d preached there 2 preachers before me was an angry man. When Harry retired the church hired the next man for a larger salary than he had had. That embittered him to the new preacher (even though the church had bought Harry a car when he retired). Then when the church hired me, they payed me even more money than that other preacher… and that angered Harry at me. In addition, the church had made Harry an Elder - which they never should have done. Harry had a nasty habit of blowing up in Board meetings when he couldn’t get his way. He’d cry and literally rush from the room. With that kind of temperament, it was only a matter of time before Harry would blow up at me. Sure enough, one Sunday after church, he blew up about something I’d announced. Unfortunately for him, the leadership was meeting the next night to re-up their Eldership (they had a 3-year rotation) and Harry lost his eldership. Harry blamed that on me (I should have been guilty of it, but I had no hand in the decision) and he left the church for the next 2 months. He meant to show his disdain for me by his absence. When that didn’t seem to work, he and a small cadre of friends would have a grand re-entrance to show that I couldn’t push him out of church (yeah, this was weird).
This decision was telegraphed to the whole church and word of his decision soon was shared with me. Now I liked Harry. I really didn’t want to hurt him (he’d been a faithful preacher of the gospel for years), but this was not a healthy situation and I sensed I had to deal with it somehow. I spent time in prayer, asking God for guidance on what to do… and I swear I got nudged. Into my mind came a Scripture. THIS Scripture: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And I thought to myself “what would I want Harry to do for me?” Well, I would have wanted him to come up to me and shake my hand and tell me everything was OK. So, that’s what I decided to do for him. That Sunday I was up on the stage making last minute corrections to things when I saw Harry and his friends enter the sanctuary and take a pew about 2/3’s of the way back on my left. So I came down off the stage and made my way toward them. They saw me coming, and as one man they rose from their seats and moved all the way across the sanctuary. And you know what I did? I followed them. In fact, I’d have followed them all the way out into the parking lot if I’d had to. But I caught up with them just as they got sat down – I stuck out my hand (to his credit he took my hand) and shook his hand and told him how glad he was there that Sunday. Then I turned and went to take care of other things.
Now, Harry never did like me. I’m convinced he hated me till the day he died. But because I obeyed Jesus in keeping the Golden Rule, I treated Harry the way I would have liked to have been treated… the crisis was averted and Harry never brought issue up again. God rewarded me because I trusted Him, and I was KIND to a difficult man. God rewards us when we are kind to our enemies.
CLOSE: Now, one last point. It occurred to me that there was one last thing we needed to know. There’s one last aspect of the Golden Rule that I’d never thought of before. "Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you." Remember… Jesus is stating the Golden Rule right in the middle of telling His disciples how they should treat their enemies.
Then I realized Romans 5:10 tells us “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son...” So, before we became Christians we were… WHAT? We were enemies of God. While we were still God’s enemies, He reconciled us to Himself… by the death of His Son! But now - our status has changed: II Corinthians 5:17-20 says “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ - God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are AMBASSADORS for Christ, God making his appeal through us.”
We are ambassadors for Christ. We are the workers God uses to reconcile His enemies to Himself. And one of the tools He gave us to accomplish that goal was the Golden Rule.
IF YOU were a non-Christian talking to a Christian, and you doubted that God loved you. Let’s say you were troubled and shamed by your past and you were pretty sure you weren’t going to heaven - what could that Christian to tell you that would be something you’d want to know?
Do unto the enemies of God what you’d want them to do for you, if you were lost!
ILLUS: There was a young woman who was attending a conference on witnessing. and she and her friends had just heard about the importance of listening to people they were trying to witness to. That day’s session was done, and Jan and her friends were relaxing in the whirlpool at their hotel. Just then, 2 young girls joined them in the tub. One of the teens, named Brittany, was passionately telling her friend about an upcoming Wiccan gathering she was planning to attend. (Wiccans have made up a religion that believes in many gods under a mother goddess. Their religion includes the use of herbal magic and witchcraft.)
Jan said: “Normally we would have tried to counter the girl’s ideas, but we’d just been in a session where they taught us - that we should listen to people FIRST. So she said something simple like, ‘Wow, you really sound excited about this!’ That was all the encouragement Brittany needed to launch into a 5-minute explanation of why she was so attracted to neo-pagan rituals. The bottom line was that she’d had a really traumatic time in high school, and the Wiccans accepted her. Brittany said: “I’ve gone through so much stuff just trying to make it through high school that I’ll probably be in therapy for the rest of my life!” So, Jan said “It must be hard for you to even imagine a future where you’d be free from all of the pain you’ve gone through?’ Then, with tears forming in her eyes, and in complete sincerity, Brittany said, ‘Sometimes I wish I could be born all over again. I’d really like to start over from scratch.’
After a long pause, one of the other girls asked if she would really like to be born again. She said, ‘Yes, I really would.’” {The book Irresistible Evangelism (Group Publishing) includes the story of Jan, a staffer with Athletes in Action.}
INVITATION
