The Golden Rule (Part 1 of 2)

You're familiar with the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We've all heard it, most of us have said it, but do we really understand it and are we living by it?

This is Truth for Life weekend with Alistair Begg. Here is part one of a challenging message from Alistair titled, The Golden Rule. Can I invite you then to turn to the sixth chapter of Luke's Gospel, where we resume our studies this morning at the 31st verse. And when you reach the 31st verse, you will notice that we find ourselves at one of the most frequently quoted and misquoted statements in the whole of the Bible. Here in the 31st verse of Luke 6, we have what is referred to as the golden rule. Prior to the time of Jesus, this rule had been pronounced, but only in a negative form. When you read it in the Old Testament, for example, in the book of Leviticus, it is essentially something along these lines. What you do not want others to do to you, do not do to them. In the Hillel, it actually reads as follows, what is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. So it's stated in a negative fashion. Jesus takes it and states it positively. And that actually is the first thing that I want you to notice, that when we consider this rule, we need to understand it as it has been given to us in this positive fashion. Jesus is making it clear that it is not simply enough for us to be passive or to be refraining from recrimination.

The children of God are to be those who are initiative takers in this matter of love. Now the rule is not uniquely found in the New Testament, as you will know. In one form or another, it pops up all over the place. You can find it in the writings of Plato and of Aristotle, of Seneca. You can even find it in the writings of Confucius.

But in every other instance, it is absent the framework which is essential if we are to be able first to understand it and to apply it properly. Now in order that we might do so, I need to make clear to you that the antithesis to which some of us are perhaps prone and which others of us delight to espouse is false. What antithesis is that you say?

This one. The idea that when we read the Old Testament, we have all of these negative commands. And when we come to the New Testament, Jesus sets aside all that negative stuff, as we hear people say, and he replaces it with a positive statement that is far more palatable and doable, apparently, and he replaces it with the law of love or with the golden rule.

And so you will find people saying, well, you know, I'm not really into any of the Old Testament negativity. I am into the New Testament positive dimension as described here in Luke chapter six, verse 31. This is a false dichotomy because Jesus himself makes clear that these negative prohibitions of the Old Testament find their fulfillment in the working out of this positive statement. For example, you take them as they come to mind, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet.

All of that is summed up in this one positive dimension due to others as you would have them do to you. Now Paul actually uses the very terminology in Romans 13, where he is talking about our responsibilities within the framework of our citizenship, and he's talking about indebtedness and not allowing debts to be outstanding, and he is talking about the love for one another that fulfills the law, and then he actually uses the terminology, the commandments, he says, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, and whatever other commandment there may be, which is an interesting catch-all phrase, isn't it? As if he didn't know the rest of the commandments, or after he had gone through four, he ran out of the other six, whatever other commandment there may be, which clearly he didn't.

He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. They're all summed up in this one rule, love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And then he adds, interestingly, and do this, understanding the present time, the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber. He's writing to these Roman Christians, and he says, now listen, fellas, it's really time that you gave yourselves a shake, and you wakened up to this. I've been teaching you all of this doctrine, and I've laid it down as fundamental. Here are these foundational elements of Christianity, and now, he says, I've moved from these doctrinal indicatives to the moral imperatives, and the moral imperatives, which I now confront you with, are grounded in all that I have laid down before.

And I want you, he says, quite kindly, to waken up and make sure that you are loving your neighbor as yourself. So in other words, we need to understand the rule, not only positively, but we need to understand it precisely. We need to see what it doesn't say, as well as what it does say. And it does not say, treat others as they treat you. Now, you're going to need to look down, if your Bible is open, to check whether that's accurate or not. If you'd sit and listen to me teach the Bible, without your Bible open, you do yourself a disservice, because I'm saying things that you need to verify, because I'm not infallible.

And therefore, you can catch me out from time to time, provided your Bibles are open. But I could stand up here and tell you that the golden rule says, treat others as they treat you. And you may be tempted to say, you know, I think that's exactly right, because that's what I hear people saying in the market.

That's what I hear people saying in my office. They say, you know, somebody does this to you, you do that to them. You just treat them the way they treat you.

And that's not what it says. Jesus says, do to others as you would have them do to you. Don't treat them the way they treat you. That gives you a mandate for all kinds of behavior.

Treat them in the way in which you would like to be treated by them. The followers of Jesus are to be distinctive in this regard. Now, as you think about it in terms of precision, it is also important to make sure that we do not view this statement here in verse 31 as simply a requirement, which an individual is able to fulfill in their own strength. That is what people customarily believe. They think that you come to church and you can pretty well summarize it and give it to me in a sentence, they say. And if there is to be a sentence, then it is going to be love your neighbor as yourself or do to others as you would have them do to you.

And they say to themselves, that is excellent. Now, I'm going to go out and have a very good try at that. And religious people are doing it all the time.

And you may have come here because you've decided to turn over a new leaf and you've decided to, quote, get back into religion and you're looking for somebody to summarize it for you as helpfully and concisely as possible so that you may go out and simply do it. Let me tell you, you cannot do it. You can make an attempt at it, but you cannot achieve it. Because what Jesus calls for here is not the natural response of natural men and women, it is the supernatural response of ordinary men and women. How then can I, who by nature I'm merely natural, respond in a supernatural way?

Answer, I cannot, unless of course, I should be introduced to the power of God in the person of Christ and that that power may come and live within me so that his love may flow from me. Now, if I may quote John Lennon, which I haven't done for a while and feel a quote coming on, maybe I can make this clear. You take the song from way back, we can work it out.

You know, think of what I'm saying, only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong. And do I have to keep on talking until I can't go on? Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend. I mean, let's just be honest. There's no time for all this fussing and fighting. He says to his wife or to his business colleague or to his member of the sports team or to his doubles partner in tennis or whatever else it is, he says, you know, there's really no time for fussing and fighting, but we can work it out. So let's just work it out. And that's what men and women are saying all the time.

You know, we can work this out. And they can't. Lennon couldn't and didn't.

And nor can you or I. So you see, that's why religion as an external code of practice presented to well-meaning religious people Sunday after Sunday after Sunday is the most dreadful tyranny. Because the pastor then stands and says, now go out and love your enemies. And the people wanting to be jolly good people say, you know, I think I'll go out and have a good try at that. And they go out and they have a miserable week.

And they come back and say, you know, I never tried hard enough. And furthermore, they think that by doing that, they actually make themselves the sons of the Most High God. So if I do this, I will become your son.

It's the absolute reverse as we'll see when we conclude. Until I become his son or his daughter, I cannot do this. You cannot bear the family likeness until you become a member of the family.

And how do I become a member of the family? As a result of God's goodness and grace to me in the person of his son as he comes to confront me with my inability to make me distinctly uncomfortable in order that I might know what it is when my heart accuses me to have the peace of God in my heart. It will only be as God works it in that we can work it out. That's Philippians 2 12 and 13, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works within you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Also we need to understand that it is wrong for us thinking still in terms of the precision of the application of this rule, it is wrong for us to think of separating the rule of love for man from the commandment of love for God.

Now this is abroad all the time, indeed for part of your homework do this, for the next seven days listen for how many times you hear the golden rule in some of its forms. You will hear people saying this to you, you know, well, all that really matters is that, you know, we love our fellow man, isn't it? And it's so often the kind of concluding statement when you've been having a serious conversation over a cup of coffee and you've been trying to argue for the defense of the New Testament documents and the reality of Jesus in a pluralistic world and so on and you think you've been making great gains and eventually the person says, well, I'll see you next Thursday and by the way, all that really matters is that we love our fellow man. And you say, and you say nothing and then five minutes later in your car you go, oh, I thought of something to say now, too late, they're gone. And they left you dumbfounded before the golden rule.

Now you see, that's why we're studying it so that next time we may at least be able to say something remotely helpful. The golden rule is not a form of, for he's a jolly good fellow, you know, that kind of thing. That Christianity is about becoming a jolly good fellow, that there is not a jollier fellow who ever walked the streets of earth than Jesus of Nazareth, he was a jolly fellow and if you jolly well try your hardest, you can be a jolly fellow too because after all, isn't that what he said?

Be a jolly nice person. No, that's not what he said. He did not distinguish, separate love from God for love from our fellow man. Now if you doubt this, you only need to go forward a couple of pages to chapter 10 and verse 25, and the story of the young man who is the testing agent here, actually we don't know the age of the young man, but he was an expert in the law, probably a young man. The older you get, the less of an expert you become, I hope.

Most older people don't think they're quite as expert as they used to think when they were in their 20s. That's a sign of not the onset of some senile dementia, that's the onset of humility which comes with time, but anyway, he stood up to test Jesus. That's why most of us are hoping we might grow a little older before we die so that we might learn that humility, but anyway, he stood up to test Jesus and he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says what's written in the law and he replied, I love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, that's absolutely right. The point I'm making is simply this, the guy did not stand up and say, the summation of the law is love your neighbor as yourself, be a jolly good fellow. No, he said, you love God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. You see, humanism is very, very happy with love your neighbor as yourself. So is Confucianism, so is Buddhism, so is everybody else.

Every person that is remotely interested in ecology or any kind of new age nonsense is quite happy with, you know, love your neighbor as yourself. Where they get off the boat is when it says, you will love the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul and all your strength. And the commandment to love God is never separated from the commandment to love our fellow man.

Well, I've spent more than enough time on that. I think the rule then is to be understood positively and it needs to be understood precisely, otherwise we will fall foul of a lot of these cliches, which are so easily baptized into orthodoxy. We need also to understand this rule practically, which of course brings us now to the verses that follow. Because Jesus begins to explicate the significance of verse 31 by the question which comes in verse 32, 33, and 34. I think you would agree that this is an important question because Jesus asks it three times and his question is, what credit is that to you?

What credit is that to you? Now, if you simply allow your eyes to scan 32 to 34, you read it through just very briefly, and perhaps you will agree with me that Jesus is making clear one essential fact. Namely, that the test of real love is that it should be unselfish, that it is a love which is not focused upon reward, a love that is not driven by the anticipation of being paid back.

If you just read what he's saying there, I think if you're honest, you will agree that is exactly what he's saying. The love of which I'm speaking, says Jesus, is not driven by these things with which we are most familiar. Which then, of course, allows him to say on the strength of the reciprocal relationships, which are so much a part of the fabric of the society that he addresses, if we love only in return for love received, why would that ever be worthy of recognition? If something's very loving to us and we love him back, where do you want to walk around with a bumper sticker on the back, or drive around with a bumper sticker on the back of your minivan on the strength of that? I am an honor student in the school of love.

I love those who love me. Jesus says, big deal, what credits that to you? Or if we do good only to those who do good to us, how would that distinguish us from the practice of anybody else around us? That's fairly common fare. And if we operate financially on the basis of you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, then we're actually no different at all from the culture in which we're living.

Now think this out. Jesus is calling for a radical lifestyle that is dramatically different from the framework of the surrounding culture, both in his day and in our day. What credit is that to you, he says? I mean, do you really think that you can put your head on the pillow at night and say to myself, you know, I'm so glad that I'm a member of the family of God. I'm so glad that I am a son of the most high because I've been loving those who love me.

I've been doing good to those who do good to me, and I've been lending my money provided I'm getting the right kind of percentage return on it, and at least as strong as something that I would get back from a certificate of deposit. One commentator puts it like this, if those people who are now listening to this sermon do not rise above such self-centered ethics, they cannot expect God's special favor to rest on them. This is quite staggering, isn't it? Do you grasp what Jesus is saying here? I wonder do I grasp what Jesus is saying here? Listeners who love merely those who love them, who do good only to those who do good to them, and who are prepared to make loans that are safe, aren't any better than the sinners that they like to look down upon. See this distinction here is so classic.

What credit is that to you? Even quotes, sinners do that. And it's interesting that sinners in your Bible will have two little gizmos around them, whatever those things are. Even sinners do that. Even sinners lend to sinners. Now you've got to understand the way in which these people would be inclined to spit out the word sinners. Because religious people are always so glad that they're not sinners. You go forward again to Luke chapter 18, the story to which we refer with frequency because it is almost epigrammatic of the whole emphasis of the Gospel of Luke, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, and what was the Pharisee saying? Well, the Pharisee was saying, God, I thank you that I am not like other men.

That was his big claim to fame. I'm here and I have my robes, I'm here and I have all of my religious stuff. I've just come from a very good biblical conference and I've been listening to a number of sermons and of course my tithing is up to snuff and I've been really fasting twice as much as anybody would be expected to fast. And I am so glad that I am not like that tax collector over there. I thank you that I'm not like her.

I thank you that I'm different from him. Now Jesus says, okay, fellas, listen to the end of the story, he's talking to his disciples. He says there's going to be a quiz at the end of this. Now let me finish the story. There is another guy, he shows up and he simply says, without lifting his eyes up to heaven, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.

Now he says, here's the quiz. Which of the two men went down to his house justified or accepted by God? Now the answer of religion is obviously and always going to be the man who was not like the other man, who was a wretched sinner. If that had been the answer they had given, then they would have gotten it wrong.

Fortunately, they got it correct. They said, the guy who wouldn't lift up his eyes to heaven, Jesus says, you're absolutely right. It's really too bad that there is so much of the spirit of the Pharisee that rises in my heart, and I don't know about yours.

How I can take comfort in the fact that I am not like her, or I didn't do what he did, or I haven't been there like them. And as if somehow or another that by the sheer externalism of that, I have now advanced my cause with God and simultaneously condemned these poor souls to a dimension of life, which is virtually hopeless. Jesus says, listen, if you're tempted to play that game, let me tell you, if you love those who love you, if you do good to those who do good to you, if you lend only safe loans and always with the prospect of getting a buck at the end of it, then I want you to understand this, you are actually no different from the very riffraff that you're condemning. You are giving no evidence, he says, of the radical difference that is to mark the follower of Jesus Christ. To listen to the words of Jesus without corresponding action is to simply show ourselves that we're in the same class as the others. Do you realize how crucial this is?

I hope you do. That is Alistair Begg helping us understand the golden rule and explaining what it means for us to live it out. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend. At Truth for Life, we are passionate about teaching the Bible every day in a way that is clear and relevant for daily living. Our prayer is that God will use the messages on Truth for Life to convert unbelievers, to root established believers more deeply in their faith, and to encourage pastors and build up local churches. Along with Alistair's messages, we recommend books to help every generation learn more about the Scriptures, to grow closer to God, to glorify Him. That includes the youngest members of your family, and that's why we're recommending a book called Little Pilgrim's Big Journey. This is a wonderful book that presents the realities of the Christian life in language that young sons and daughters are able to understand. You'll be able to talk with your children or grandchildren about tough lessons like the importance of focusing on the greater reward of heaven rather than the opinions of others or the things of the world. Little Pilgrim's Big Journey even makes it easier to talk about sin or fear, even death, in a way that's filled with hope and not fear. The book comes bundled with a coloring book, with stickers, with a map, but this is the last weekend we'll be offering Little Pilgrim's Big Journey. You can find out more about the book when you visit our website, truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for listening. Join us again next weekend for part two of today's message. We'll learn the evidences that mark followers of Jesus, and it's more than attending church or doing religious activities. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the learning is for nothing.