Full Transcript

Welcome to Share the Word. We are a Great Commission project bringing you the big ideas of the New Testament chapter by chapter. Today, Pastor Paul Nitz continues with part two of the Gospel of Matthew chapter seven and goes deep into, are you ready? Do unto others. Ring a bell? Keep listening.

I know it will. Matthew 7, part 2: The Golden Rule. Some of you may wonder probably why I am so well informed. Well, I’ve read a lot of books in my life. Are you impressed? It’s true.

But would you still be impressed if I told you most of the volumes I’ve read are titled things like Olivia the Owl Learns About Opposites, or The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Oak Tree, or one of my favorites, Baby’s Day Out. One deep and challenging series I worked through years ago is the Help Me Be Good series by Joy Berry. There are about 30 books in that series. Titles include A Children’s Book About Throwing Tantrums, A Children’s Book About Complaining, A Children’s Book About Tattling, A Children’s Book About Showing Off, and so on. The purpose of the series was stated as, if your child has a particular problem with a specific wrong behavior, we’ve created an entertaining book to read and discuss with them on that specific issue. Well, in the process of rearing my four kids, we ended up getting the whole series.

One example: if the volume was on selfishness, the book would simply illustrate by showing two little kids, say, playing together who both wanted the same toy, and how that could turn into fighting, and then that could turn into lasting hard feelings, and so on. The text would always eventually lead to the ending lines. If you don’t want others to be selfish with their things, you must not be selfish with yours. Sharing is the best way to have fun together and keep good friends. Remember, it’s important to treat others the way you want to be treated. It’s important to treat others the way you want to be treated.

That sounds familiar. The whole book series is built around a key text from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 7, verse 12, where he taught this timeless principle. So in everything, therefore, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets. By the way, guys, you may want to get a few of the titles in that series I mentioned for your wives, like, say, the one on complaining, or maybe the one on interrupting. So when she is always trying to talk to you during an important game, you can hand her the book and say, Please read this, dear. Or to be fair, some of you girls may find your men could benefit from the ones on being bossy, or maybe being forgetful, or how about being messy.

By the way, this book series is still available, I checked. Pick up a couple applicable titles for your significant other’s birthday or Christmas present. We’re talking this episode about what’s come to be known as the Golden Rule. It might surprise you to hear, or if you’ve studied philosophy and world religions, not surprise you to hear, that some form of the Golden Rule is found almost universally. Buddhism puts it like this: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Yudana Varga 5:18.

Confucianism says, Do not unto others what you would have them not do to you. Confucius Analects 15:13. Hinduism also has this form of the principle: This is the sum of duty: Do nothing unto others which would cause you pain if done to you. Mahabharata 5:15-17. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates taught his followers, Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others. And also, the Jewish Talmud includes this instruction: What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man.

So, did you notice? Jesus put it slightly differently than all of these because he said, So in everything, therefore, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and the prophets. I found that interesting because I noticed that the instructions from the others each state the principle in negative terms. By that I mean, what we should not do, that is, do not do anything to someone else that you would not like done to you. For example, if you do not enjoy being cursed out, and who does, then what? Don’t curse other people out.

If you do not like being lied to, and who does, then what? Don’t lie to others. That’s a wonderful way of giving you good life advice. I agree with that for sure. And I think it’s included in what Jesus said. But as usual, he goes a little further.

Don’t treat someone else in a way you would not like to be treated is the negative side of the principle that Jesus said in his sermon. He said, Do unto others what you would have them do to you or for you. That’s a positive and even more encompassing statement. You can’t live up to that by simply disengaging from others, by living a self-centered life of unoffensive behaviors. Jesus is expanding the principle. It’s not just, If you don’t enjoy being criticized, then don’t criticize others.

It’s now, from Him, If you enjoy being appreciated, praise others. If you enjoy being encouraged, build up others. If you enjoy receiving things, then give to others. You appreciate someone letting you go first, then intentionally let them go first. Do you see the added dimension? What would you really like done for you?

Then do that for others. On what kind of a standard have you learned or grown used to treating other people? Well, the lowest standard, level zero, we could say, is to be purely selfish all the time, treating people however you need to to get what you want. The only consideration then is, What’s good for me? What advances my goals or my immediate needs? Other people are just pawns in our lives to be used toward our ends.

This is the basest standard for depraved human beings. Sociopaths are good with this. Narcissists are good with this. A step above that might be the standard of treating people according to what is required of us, or as well as you have to, we could say, the obligatory standard. This we’ll call level one. In this case, the heart is governed still by selfishness, but at least there is some consideration that lifts one’s behavior above completely being selfish all the time.

This person treats others as they are obligated to according to the minimum standards of decency in their society, but rarely any better than that. They ask themselves, What is the least I can do here to not look like a complete goon? Third, we come to level three, where many of us live, or a person living at this level, the standard is, What do others deserve? How do they deserve to be treated? Every person and situation we judge differently according to what we think a person deserves. If we really like them, we treat them well.

If another person strikes us as a jerk, we treat them in kind. To live according to this standard, we sort of make ourselves God. We determine who will be treated kindly and who will be treated roughly. A person living according to this standard is quite likely one person at church and often another person at work or at home, or almost always online. One way when close friends are around, another way entirely when it’s people you don’t know very well. One way when those are our equals or our superiors are around, and probably a very different way, if we are honest, with those we consider are beneath us.

This is the standard for many, probably the norm for most if we’re honest. I treat people the way I feel they deserve to be treated. And treating someone rudely or ignorantly, you may even hear them say, That’s what they deserve. Sound familiar? And then there is level four. This is the standard of the kingdom, the gold standard, Jesus’ standard given to guide his followers, the citizens of his kingdom.

Do unto others what you would have others under the same circumstances do to you or for you. And the negative that is still included: don’t do to other people which under the same circumstances you would not want done to you. That standard is the precise opposite of living purely selfishly, and it is definitely a long way above the level of just treating people how we must to be considered decent human beings, and it’s even well above treating people how we judge they deserve. Jesus obliterates that as an acceptable standard with the two little words, in everything. In everything, he said, do to others what you would have them do to you. That in everything makes this pretty hard to get around, doesn’t it?

It means in every circumstances, with everyone you run into, in every situation. It means when you feel like it or not, when you are with those people you appreciate or those you feel don’t deserve your time or respect. It means, well, in everything, all the time. This standard is always the standard for those claiming to be Christ followers. This is the rule that should govern our behavior every day and all day. Wow.

By the way, for those who want to be law keepers who imagine they can earn God’s favor and deserve their way into the kingdom of heaven, realize Jesus said this principle perfectly distills, summarizes the law and the prophets. That is, all the Old Testament’s moral and ethical and relational principles. When I think about that, I can only exclaim, Thank God salvation is by grace, and it is. But at the same time, we need to remind ourselves, and often, the golden rule is the standard our Father in heaven has set for his children. This is what he’s looking for in us, so that this is the standard that we should be striving after. So, how could we better live up to this?

Well, first it calls for some renewing of our minds, as the Apostle Paul might put it. We have to learn to view ourselves in the exact places of other people we find ourselves dealing with. Whoever it is that’s on the receiving end of our actions and words. Practice doing this mental exercise before you react in situations. Pause for a brief moment at least and imagine best you can what it would be like to be in that other person’s shoes in that situation. Whatever you do or say next, would you be happy or unhappy treated in the same way in the same circumstance?

Second, if you fail to pause and think it through and just instinctively do the wrong selfish thing, in other words, if you violate the golden rule, apologize. I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t have done that. Better yet, God convicted me about what I said to you or what I did to you. Will you forgive me? We’ve already learned what a godly trait humility is and how God values it in us.

When we realize that we have broken the golden rule by saying, doing things to people that are wrong, we humbly admit that and seek their forgiveness. That’s a pretty powerful thing in our inner world. It sets a precedent. It heightens our sensitivity. It makes our conscience more sensitive, deepens this pattern of godly behavior of treating people the way we would like to be treated. At the same time, getting this right strengthens our testimony as a follower of Christ to whoever was involved or who even observed us.

Because God has put a moral compass inside us, we all recognize and admire when the golden rule is demonstrated. As well as recognize when it’s not. Let me give you a couple of contrasting examples of that. When the Summer Games, the Olympics, were last in Athens, Greece, it was an especially big deal because that’s where the Olympic Games began more than 2,000 years ago. Millions of people tuned into the Olympic Games, especially that year. Maybe it’s because we like to imagine what it would be like breaking the tape as the fastest man in the world, or scoring a perfect 10 on the ice, or in the gym on the floor exercise, standing on the medal platform as our national anthem plays.

I think we’ve all dreamed about what it would be like to be a champion in something. That summer in Athens showcased some really, really great athletes who made a lasting name for themselves as real champions. And maybe, I think about 20 years ago now, but I especially remember the Summer Games that year for a couple extreme situations that came up, situations in which the golden rule came into play. You may remember that the competitor who won the most medals at the Games that year was a swimmer named Michael Phelps. I think he won six gold medals and eight medals overall that year, the most dominant performance by a swimmer ever. He considers his best event, his personal best event, to be the butterfly, the butterfly stroke I’m talking about.

But he was narrowly beaten in that event the previous year at the World Championships by another American swimmer named Ian Crocker. That loss made Phelps train harder than ever for the Olympics. In fact, he said he kept a picture of Ian Crocker getting the medal at the World Championships in his locker where he trained every day to motivate himself for the upcoming Olympics. At the Athens Games, Phelps and Crocker finished one-two again in the butterfly, with just a couple hundredths of a second separating them. But this time, Phelps won the race and got the gold medal. He achieved his goal and was back on top, having beaten his number one rival.

What happened next was what has to do with the golden rule. The winner of the 100-meter race butterfly, or each of the other strokes, in each event earns the right to represent their country in the final and biggest competition in swimming at the Olympics, the team 4 by 100 medley, it’s called. It’s a race where the four best swimmers each country has, their best individual swimmer in each stroke, compete together in a final nation-against-nation team race. By winning the 100-meter butterfly, Phelps earned his spot on that relay team to represent the U.S. at the final swim of the Games. That also meant his chance to win a seventh gold medal. Are you with me?

The surprising thing was, he gave up that spot, and so a chance at earning a record seventh gold medal. He gave it up in favor of Ian Crocker, and here’s how it happened. He said later that after he came out of the pool from that swim where he narrowly beat him, he learned that Crocker had a touch of the flu that day, was not feeling 100%. Although Phelps had beaten him, he wasn’t sure he had beaten Crocker at his best, he said. And when they climbed out of the pool after the race, he embraced his rival and said, I really want you to swim the butterfly for the U.S. in the final relay. And Crocker did, and the U.S. swimmers won the gold medal in that relay, and Michael Phelps was at poolside cheering them on.

Wow. When I read about this, I thought that is a perfect example of the golden rule in action. Phelps put himself in Crocker’s shoes, or in this case, swimming trunks, and he thought, how would he feel if he lost a race of this magnitude so closely because he was not feeling 100 percent? And then he treated Ian Crocker the way he’d want to be treated in exactly the same situation. The commentators at the Olympics couldn’t quit talking about it. And when you and I live up to the golden rule, people won’t quit talking about us either.

That’s how God wants His children to be known. Whenever we do, how well that reflects on our heavenly Father. Contrast that with another example from the very same Olympic Games. Paul Hamm trained his whole life to compete in gymnastics and was the USA’s number one gymnast at the Athens Games. He won perhaps the most prestigious gold medal that year in the men’s individual all-around competition, and he did it in dramatic fashion, coming back from well behind after falling earlier on his vault to finish with a near-perfect performance on his floor exercise and his high bar routine. He won the men’s all-around by just two one-hundredths of a point over a Korean gymnast whose name I cannot pronounce.

And I believe Hamm was the first American man to ever win that all-around gold medal. And then they discovered the next day there had been an error by a couple of judges in the scoring. If the scoring had been tabulated accurately, Paul Hamm would have lost to the Korean by a couple hundredths points. The Korean team protested, but apparently not in the time frame required to lodge a protest according to the technical rules of the Olympics. And as far as the committee was concerned, Hamm was the winner. What did Paul Hamm and the U.S. gymnastics team do in response?

Nothing. Nothing they didn’t have to. Technically, they won. Tough luck to those Koreans. I remember thinking, even though as an American I wanted our athletes to win, I hope Paul Hamm and his coaches and whoever’s in charge of America’s team thinks better about this because what they did was exactly the opposite of what Jesus taught in the Golden Rule. How golden is that medal going to be down the road when they know in their hearts Hamm did not really win the competition that day.

He only got the gold because of a scoring glitch. Jesus’ Golden Rule is not just for governing conduct at international competitions. It’s to govern our conduct every day in the real world for his followers. It’s to govern questions like, who gets to the empty parking place first, and who gets the last word in an argument. It’s to govern situations in your business that come up where many people would reason, what the customer doesn’t know won’t hurt them. Is that what Jesus meant when he said, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you in the same circumstances?

Our Heavenly Father wants us to apply the principle in our relationships. Apply it with our children. Apply it with our parents. Apply it at our job, in our work environment. Apply it with our friends, or even with strangers, or even with enemies. Apply it in public or when in private, at church, at a restaurant, at a golf match, wherever.

The Golden Rule always applies, Jesus said, in everything. So do you want to pursue the gold medal in the game of life? If so, even if people are often unreasonable, illogical, self-centered. Love them anyway. Treat them better than they deserve. Realize that if you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Be kind to them anyway. The good you do for someone, they may not even remember tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty will make you vulnerable and could cost you. Be honest anyway. Many around us are in need physically, certainly spiritually, and they may not seem deserving of our time and efforts.

Help them anyway. People around us need to hear the gospel, but some may scoff if we share our faith with them. Hey, share your faith anyway. In the final analysis, what we do is always between us and our Heavenly Father too. At its essence, it’s never just about us and that other person. Living by the Golden Rule is much more profound than that.

It’s kingdom living, here and now. Thanks for listening. This is Paul for Share the Word. Thanks, Paul, and thanks again for joining us. Please keep in mind that Share the Word is a nonprofit, crowdfunded organization with the goal to share the gospel around the world. But we can’t do it without you.

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