The Golden Rule Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

We now come to a well-known verse that most of us call “The Golden Rule.” If you remember from last week, I told you that we should study and understand The Sermon on the Mount as having continuity. We aren’t looking at a series of randomly collected sayings that Matthew threw in there or Jesus indiscriminately. Every word and theme is intricately connected.

Therefore, our interpretation will be different (and more accurate) if we study the Sermon in this manner. In reality, verse 12 is the key to the passage, and the rest of the chapter relates to this great truth. This is heart of the Gospel, the heart of the Law, and the essence of understanding all other spiritual principles.

Edersheim, the great Hebrew Christian scholar, said, “It is the nearest approach to absolute love of which human nature is capable.”

Bishop Ryle wrote, “This truth settles a hundred different points. It prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for our conduct in specific cases.”

Now, there are all kinds of ethical and moral proverbs, but none of them equate to the Golden Rule:

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” (Ghandi)

“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” (Aristotle)

“It is reasonable that everyone who asks justice should do justice” (Thomas Jefferson)

"Today, you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!" (Dr. Suess)

But none of these come close to the truth that we need to know in order to have the right relationship with God and each other.

I explained last week that understanding our prayer life as we turn to God for help was not based on our selfish motivations but on living for our Lord before all things. We ask, seek, and knock to receive freely from God all we need to live in the Kingdom today victoriously and as we wait for its culmination at the return of Christ with the Church. Since God is our Lord and Heavenly Father, we can be assured that we are under His constant care. So we don’t need to go about selfishly living, but turn our attention and love to the people around us. Nearly all of our decisions involve an aspect of ‘what is best for me.’ If you think about it, selfishness’s the essence behind every crime.

A young defendant was convicted in his court for gunning down another person, execution style. The murderer had a bad record, was no stranger to the system, and only stared in anger as the jury returned his guilty verdict.

On the day of sentencing, the victim’s mother and grandmother addressed the court. When they spoke, neither addressed the jury; both spoke directly to the murderer and forgave him.

“You broke the Golden Rule—loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind. You broke the law——loving your neighbor as yourself. I am your neighbor,” the grandmother said. "You have my address. If you want to write, I’ll write you back. I sat in this trial for two weeks, and I tried to hate you for the last sixteen months. But you know what? I could not hate you. I feel sorry for you because you made a wrong choice.”

The trial judge, Judge Tomei, later wrote: “For the first time since the trial began, the defendant’s eyes lost their laser force and appeared to surrender to a life force that only a mother can generate: nurturing unconditional love. After the grandmother finished, I looked at the defendant. His head was hanging low. There was no more swagger, no more stare. The destructive and evil forces within him collapsed helplessly before this remarkable display of humaneness." (source: www.preachingtoday.com)

The grandmother was right. The Golden Rule can be broken down into two other laws based on love. In Matthew 22, Jesus said, you can summarize the Law of God down to two:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:18)

It all comes down to our relationship with our Heavenly Father and our relationship with each other. In Chapter 6, we look very closely at the relationship with our Heavenly Father. Because of our relationship with our Heavenly Father, we can better understand and live out our relationship with each other.

This is a passage for believers. It is the essence of the Christian faith. If you want to know what the Christian life is like, it is this. After this passage, Jesus gives us an invitation to choose the path we will go: the broad path of destruction or the narrow path of life. There is no fence-sitting.