The Golden Rule Matthew 7:12 Introduction We’ve been studying the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ most famous and most significant message. This morning we come to what one writer has aptly called the “climax and conclusion” of the body of the sermon – what’s called “The Golden Rule.” Turn with me to Matt 7:12. <Read the text> A Common Understanding of the Golden Rule At first, what Jesus is getting at seems pretty straightforward. It’s the law of reciprocity. An ethic built on the “I scratch your back; you scratch mine” principle: since I like to have my back scratched, I should scratch yours. John Calvin called it “a short and simple definition of what justice means.” And what many philosophers, theologians, and ethicists have pointed out over the centuries is that this is the basic ethical assumption that people in general operate from. We look to people’s sense of fair play to call them to do what’s right. There are scores of examples of evidence to this in daily life that I could mention, but I’ll just give you two – one from the parking lot and another from the playground: “You just took my parking space at the mall during the Christmas rush. I had my blinker on and you just snuck in there and took it right out from under my nose. Would you like it if I had done that to you?” “You just ripped your brother’s toy right out of his hand while he was playing with it! Would you like it very much if he did that to you?” The point is that we all basically believe that this is the way things ought to be. C S Lewis points it out in the very first chapter of Mere Christianity: Every one has heard people quarrelling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say. They say things like this: “How’d you like it if anyone did the same to you?" – “That’s my seat, I was there first" – “Leave him alone, he isn't doing you any harm" – “Why should you shove in first?" – “Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine"-"Come on, you promised." People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated, and children as well as grown-ups. More than that, “was a widespread principle of ancient ethics,” and every major world religion has some version of it: Baha’i Faith: Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself. Buddhism: Treat not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Confucianism: One word which sums up the basis of all good conduct....loving-kindness. Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself. Hinduism: This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you. Islam: Not one of you truly believes until you wish for others what you wish for yourself. Jainism: One should treat all creatures in the world as one would like to be treated. Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary. Go and learn it. Taoism: Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss. Zoroastrianism: Do not do unto others whatever is injurious to yourself. Reiteration or Revelation? In light of all this, it seems that as Jesus comes to the end of the body of the Sermon on the Mount, that he’s saying nothing new. And by “nothing new” I don’t mean “nothing new as far as the sermon is concerned,” I mean “nothing new in the world!” C S Lewis sees this as a good thing. He says,  The first thing to get clear about Christian morality between man and man is that in this department Christ did not come to preach any brand new morality. The Golden Rule of the New Testament…is a summing up of what every one, at bottom, had always known to be right. Really great moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is quacks and cranks who do that….The real job of every moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see; like bringing a horse back and back to the fence it has refused to jump or bringing a child back to the bit in the lesson that it wants to shirk. So what Lewis is saying is that Christ, great moral teacher that he was, did not introduce anything new in the Sermon on the Mount. Everything that we have learned, everything that we have read about the Christian ethic and Christian morality in Matthew 5-7, Lewis says we have always known and always known to be right. To which I say…poppycock. Because I want to say the word “poppycock.” But more because I take issue with Lewis. If we could have figured this out on our own – if we had already figured this out (as some of the religions prior to Jesus had figured out), then what’s the point of Jesus coming, living, dying and teaching the Sermon on the Mount in the first place? What’s the point of Christianity if we could have figured this all out on our own? There’d be none. Think of it like this: Christian ethics are not re-iteration, but revelation. Jesus’ message and teaching are not a kind of reiteration of what everyone at bottom had always know to be right. Jesus’ message and teaching are a revelation of truth that we never would have (or could) have come to on our own. Besides, can you imagine the climax and conclusion of Jesus’ message being something like this: “So then, I’ve shared nothing new with you. I’m just telling you what you already know. In fact, you hardly even needed me to tell it to you. In fact, Confucius had it right. Follow him…or whatever other religion preaches the Golden Rule”? Can you imagine that? That’s hardly a fitting climax or conclusion to what we’ve seen so far in the Sermon on the Mount. It borders on the absurd.  Now some people, sympathetic to what I’ve said, argue that what makes Jesus’ version of the Golden Rule unique is that it is expressed positively. That is, it’s not “Do not do to others the things you don’t want them to do to you.” You don’t like when people cut you off in traffic. Don’t cut them off. You don’t like that your neighbor borrows your tools and never returns them. Don’t do that to him. You don’t like when people judge you, so don’t judge other people. This, some people point out, is not what Jesus says; instead… It’s “Do as you would have them do to you.” And this is what they see as radical. Listen, for example, to John Piper: Jesus, unlike others in his day, did not say “Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.” He said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” That is even more radical, because it means that we are to become creatively proactive in our relationships…: What things might I do for another person…that I would want done for me in his shoes? The problem with a negative version of the rule is that it could keep you oblivious and indifferent to human suffering. You could see a person in need, and although the negative version would keep you from hurting them in some way, it wouldn’t call you to help them, to relieve their need. In other words, the negative version of the rule doesn’t go far enough. You could actually satisfy it by doing nothing, by leaving people alone. Jesus calls us to take action on behalf of other people. Now this wouldn’t be a bad argument…except to say that “[t]he positive form of the rule appears as early as Homer and recurs in [the ancient Greek historian,] Herodotus, [the ancient Greek rhetorician,] Isocrates, and [the ancient Roman philosopher,] Seneca.” So then, if Jesus is not summing up a kind of natural law that any human being could have come up with by unaided reason. And if it’s uniqueness cannot be chalked up to Jesus putting it positively, then what on earth is he getting at when he says, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”  Well, let me give you three hints from the passage itself that points us to an interpretation that actually needs Jesus in order for it to work. (You see, what I’m arguing here is that this command is distinctively Christian. It only makes sense with Christ at the center; otherwise, we run the risk of missing the point entirely). So let me give you three hints of the distinctively Christian character of the Golden Rule. Three Hints of the Distinctively Christian Character of the Golden Rule Hint #1: The passage just doesn’t work for everyone. What if you’re a sociopath? What if you are a person who likes to be abused? What if you are a person who wants people to start fist-fights with you? What if you’re the kind of person who enjoys pain? Live the Golden Rule and you will wreak havoc on everyone in your path. I want you to step on my chest while you wear your golf shoes; therefore, I should step on others’ chests with my golf shoes? Do we really want a bunch of sociopaths keeping the Golden Rule? There’s got to be something more to this command than at first meets the eye. Hint #2: The phrase “This is the Law and the Prophets.” That should remind you of the teaching that Jesus used to begin this main section, the body of the Sermon on the Mount – 5:17-21. Turn back there with me. <Read the text> Now this is a very theologically rich text, and there’s a lot we could say about it. I would simply refer you to my earlier message on it. For now, what I want you to see is that Jesus understands what he teaches in this sermon to be an example of his fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets – v 17: Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. And the way that Jesus fulfills the Law and the Prophets in the gospel of Matthew is not by explaining them more or by showing us the way to obey them – even though he does these things and much more, but he fulfills the Law and the prophets by being them! So here in this message Jesus is telling us that the Sermon on the Mount is all about him! In Jesus’ life he lives out the ethic of the Sermon on the Mount in absolute perfection; therefore, whoever trusts in him is seen by the Father as if he lived the Sermon on the Mount in absolute perfection. And in Jesus’ death, Jesus absorbs all our failures – how we have failed to live up to the high and right demands of the Sermon on the Mount. He died on the cross because we failed to live out the implications of his message. And because of this, every instruction in the Sermon on the Mount points us to Jesus – drives us to Jesus – to our need of him as our substitute, in life and in death. And this is absolutely essential…because until you see that that the Sermon on the Mount is all about Jesus, it will never be about you. Only as you realize that your sole hope for living the Sermon on the Mount is that Jesus already lived it for you and gives it to you as a gift can you begin to enjoy the life that it describes. Without Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount will only show you your sin, convict you of your guilt, and condemn you to hell. It would only show you your sin and it would leave you on your own without a savior. Now keep this in mind as you turn back to 7:12. Notice that Jesus says that the Golden Rule is the Law and the prophets. Now in light of what we’ve seen in Matt 5:17 what does this mean? Think about it. If Jesus fulfills the Law and the prophets and if the Golden Rule fulfills the Law and the prophets, then Jesus fulfills the Golden Rule, too. In his life and in his death is the sum total of the Golden Rule. But what does this mean? Did Jesus keep the Golden Rule? No and yes. No, because he did not treat us as he would wish to be treated. He wants worship. And he did not worship us. There’s the “no.” And the reason he did not worship us is because he loved his heavenly father and he loved us too much to give us what we (in our sin) so craved. Instead, he kept the Golden Rule by doing to us what was in our best interest – he died for our sins and was raised again for our justification – so we could be acceptable to God, and enjoy life as it was meant to be lived. This, I think you can see, shows that the Golden Rule is an even higher standard than at first it may have seemed. The Golden Rule is a call to do unto others as Jesus has done unto us. It is to do for others what is objectively in their best interest. It is a call to love – something that Jesus has already addressed in the Sermon on the Mount cf. 5:38-48. You can turn back to 7:12. So Jesus kept the Golden Rule (as interpreted by his life and death for us) – not as interpreted by our subjective desires, our cravings. Hint #3: The word “therefore.” This means that the Golden Rule is based on what Jesus has said in vv 7-11. <Read the text> Since you are a beloved child of a heavenly father, live like this. Our adoption is the only thing that will free you up to live like this. <Talk about what adoption means> And because of this, we are liberated to love as Jesus did. We are liberated to keep the Golden Rule. As you remember that you are a child of the heavenly father by grace alone, you will love others with the same love. It will be continually offered to the undeserving, even if they should continually reject you. What keeps me from living the Golden Rule is that I feel superior to people; they don’t deserve that kind of love. As you remember that you are a child of the heavenly father, you will not be afraid of the consequences of loving people in difficult or threatening situations. What keeps me from living the Golden Rule is fear that it won’t be good for me, that it will cost me too much. You have a heavenly father who loves and cares for who and who will let nothing happen to you that you can’t handle by his grace. So then, in light of these hints, what is the Golden Rule? The Golden Rule is a call for us children of the heavenly father to do unto others as Jesus has done unto us. <FIGURE OUT A TRANSITION> Four Common Misunderstandings of the Golden Rule This approach will keep us from misunderstanding the passage in at least four ways: As a ticket to heaven – it summarizes the moral life of someone who already has the kingdom of heaven (see 5:3). This is the default way we live. I’m pretty sure that you can even hear me preach week-in and week-out and still conclude that I’ve said something like, “Be a good person.” Keep the Golden Rule and God will love you. Keep it real good and God will love you more. Keep it really, really good and God will love you most. As just one more equally valid moral code by which to live. Chet Babij illustration. We cannot divorce this Golden Rule from Jesus and the gospel. Otherwise, it looks exactly like every other religion and philosophy. As subjective rather than objective. Remember my creepy golf shoes illustration. It is not subjective. The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is never subjective – see 5:20, 48. Chris West illustration. What if I want other people’s lives to revolve around mine? What if I want my family, say, to cater to my every whim and make sure that I am comfortable and hassle-free at all times? What if I want everyone who works for me to do whatever I say, no questions asked? If my heart is dark, the Golden Rule will rust. This leads me to the fourth point. As able to keep apart from a change of heart, without becoming a Christian. If, after all, all these other religions have their own Golden Rules, and if most people in the world more or less keep it, then I should conclude that we can keep this. But, if the Golden Rule really means something more like: Do unto others as Jesus has done unto you, then you can see that you need something supernatural working inside you even to get you to approach living like this. You will always tend toward selfishness. We’re all sociopaths in that regard. If you really think about it, there needs to be a change in the “you” in order for you to do to them what ought to be done with you. We need to be new men in order for this “law of reciprocity” to tend toward godliness and justice. Otherwise, it won’t – it won’t work. Society, social relationship of every kind will come unglued as the “you” gets progress. Conclusion So let me call you today, like Jesus did so many years ago to live out the Golden Rule. To see in the call to do to others what we would have them do to us The Golden Rule is a call for us children of the heavenly father to do unto others as Jesus has done unto us.