Better Than Gold

• Scriptures: Matthew 7:12; Romans 13:8-10; Luke 10:25-37
• How to Treat Everyone

• “Empty Religion” America Through the Eyes of Isaiah
• Proverbs 12 “10 n 10” 10 Proverbs in 10 Minutes Devotional Series

Transcript

Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
The Sermon on the Mount contains some of the most well-known sayings in the Bible. The salt of the earth. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies. No man can serve two masters. Judge not that you be not judged. And we would have to include in there Matthew chapter 7 verse 12. We call this the Golden Rule. The Bible itself doesn’t use those words, but it’s fitting. It is an apt description, because this encompasses, this involves so much of your life, that we call it this Golden Rule.
It says, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets.” This should be a guide for how you think, how you act, how you talk toward other people anywhere at any time. It ought to be at the forefront of the decisions that you make from day to day. Many times, we can solve a difficult situation if we just ask this question.
If we only ask, what would I want somebody to do to me? How would I want somebody to treat me or to talk to me? It would settle a lot of those decisions that we sometimes struggle with. And if most people follow just this one verse in the Bible, the world would be a much different place, and it would be a much better place.
So, let’s look at these words in Matthew chapter 7, verse 12. And what we need to do is to look at them slowly, and think them through carefully, so that they sink in, and so that we can remember them later and apply them. Jesus said, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you…” The King James Version says all things whatsoever.
So this covers everything. It covers everybody; it covers every situation. It covers you wherever you are, in whatever you’re doing, and with whomever you are around. So for instance, the golden rule ought to be the rule at home. It ought to be the golden rule in the family. If you’re married, this ought to be the rule in your life.
This ought to be the guide. It ought to be the standard. This ought to be the way that a husband talks to his wife. It ought to be the way that a wife talks to her husband. They should consider Matthew chapter 7 verse 12 when they talk to each other. This ought to rule the way that a husband treats his wife and the way that a wife treats her husband.
It should decide how the parents treat their children and how the children treat their parents, whether they’re in the home or whether they’re grown. If they practice the Golden Rule, then a lot of problems will be avoided. As a matter of fact, can you just imagine how many troubles we wouldn’t have if people would just practice this one verse in their families?
You wouldn’t have so much meanness. You wouldn’t have so much neglect. You wouldn’t have the arguing and fussing and bickering and the divisions that you have in homes today. Now you would have troubles and you would have problems to work through. But if the people and families would just obey this one passage of Scripture, you wouldn’t have the troubles that we have so many times today across the nation.
You would have much more peace in the home. But it’s not just in the home that this needs to be practiced. Imagine what would happen if this were really taught and practiced in schools. Now if you turn back the clock about 150 years ago or 200 years ago, this is exactly what children were taught. And they were taught these very words.
You didn’t have people complaining about the Bible being taught in schools in this way because the Golden Rule was recognized as being good for society in the early days of this country. As a matter of fact, some of the founding fathers of this country were deists. They believed in God, but they didn’t believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and they didn’t believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible.
But at the same time, they did recognize that the Bible contains much useful information and teaching and instruction for society. They understood that if people followed things like the Golden Rule and other precepts in the Bible, that the country would be better. People would treat each other better.
There would be more peace in the land. And they recognized that this came from the Bible. Matthew 7 verse 12, Mark chapter 12 verse 31, “Love your neighbors yourself,” and many other passages of Scripture. And those precepts, I’m talking about the precepts of the Bible, were oftentimes included in the textbooks that children were taught in public schools.
You go back and read the Old McGuffey Readers, or you look at the Blueback Speller, and you will find that there are quotations like this in those books. In other words, children were taught to respect each other. They were taught the Golden Rule. They were taught to ask the question, “Would I want somebody to do this to me?”
And if the answer is no, then I shouldn’t do it to him. So fast forward back to the present. Look at the situation today. Look at how the Golden Rule has been ignored and neglected. It’s not being taught like it once was in the home or in the schools. And look at the children. Look at the young people.
Look at the grownups who have grown up in a society where they have not been taught this simple precept in Matthew chapter 7 verse 12. We need to get back to it. And it’s not just needed in homes and schools; it’s needed on the job. It’s needed in workplaces. Those who are employees need to practice the golden rule with their employers.
Employers need to practice the golden rule with their employees. If they treated each other the way that they want to be treated, then you’d have a whole lot more peace in the workplace. And if fellow employees treated each other the way that they want to be treated, if they talk to each other the way that they want to be talked to, then you’d have a whole lot more peace and a whole lot more productivity on the job, whatever that job is.
And we need to make sure, as Christians, that we practice the golden rule in the church. Now, that ought to be a given. That ought to be assumed. That ought to be something that we all know and practice so well that it has become a habit in our lives. But I wonder about that. Do we practice that in the church?
Do we follow the golden rule in the way that we talk to and talk about each other? Do we ask the question, how would I want someone to talk to me? What would I want someone to say about me? And then do we practice what Jesus said? Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them. So this is very important in the church.
It’s important in the church as to how we talk to and about each other and with each other. It’s also important as to how we treat each other. If you don’t want people treating you in a certain way, then don’t treat them in that way. And if you do want people to help you, or to treat you in a certain way, make sure that you treat them in that way.
Make sure that you’re there to help. Sometimes Christians are very short-sighted. Sometimes they’re very selfish. They get their feelings hurt because somebody didn’t pay them attention. Nobody was there to sympathize with them when they were down. Nobody was there to lift them up. Nobody was there to encourage them, and yet, we have to ask the question: When we’re in that situation and we have that kind of feeling, we have to be honest with ourselves and ask, “Am I there for other people? Have I been there for other people? Am I guilty of the very thing that I’m criticizing others of?” You know, it’s awful easy to see the faults of others, especially when it’s about us.
But it’s so hard to see our own neglect toward other people. The Bible says, whatever you want men to do to you, you do also to them. This is not just a statement here that Jesus is making to defend you. It’s not all about you and what others do for you and in behalf of you. Jesus is talking about how you treat them, and you treat them the way that you would want to be treated and the way that you would rightfully want to be treated.
And it’s sad today that so many people have gotten so far away from the Bible on this simple teaching of Jesus. Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them. Most people have some kind of rule or some kind of rules that they follow in their life. They have some kind of standards that they live by.
Now, those rules may be entirely wrong. Many times, they’re just very selfish. People say, “Well, this is just who I am, and this is how I live my life, and this is how I treat other people.” And they follow those rules in their life because they’re trying to maintain some kind of order or consistency or maybe even control in their lives.
But if you listen to them carefully, you’ll find that those rules come out, and oftentimes when they do, you find that those rules are entirely the opposite of what Jesus says. Now, for instance, some people do unto others as others do to them. So, if somebody lies to them, they feel free to lie about and to those people.
If somebody steals from them, they steal from that person. If somebody curses them, then they curse that individual. They do the same things to others that others do to them. Now, Christians are to be better than that. In Proverbs chapter 24, verse 29, the Bible says, “Do not say, I will do to him just as he has done to me. I will render to the man according to his work.: Solomon wrote those words 3000 years ago. He said we are not to say, “I will do to him just as he has done to me,” and yet that is the very maxim that some people live by today. “Well, if he treats me bad, I’ll treat him bad. If he does good to me, then I’ll do good to him. But if he does something bad to me, I’m going to get him back. I’m going to pay him back.” The Bible shows that if you do that, you have stooped to his level. You’re acting like him. He has changed you, when you, especially if you’re a Christian, ought to be trying to change him by your attitude and by your work.
And then there are some people that have a very selfish rule of their life because they basically say, I’m going to do to others if they do to me. So, in other words, I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine. I will help those who help me. This is a selfish, it is a worldly way of looking at things. And God tells us to do better than that.
Remember in the Sermon on the Mount what Jesus said about this in Matthew chapter 5, verse 45? He said to love your enemies that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, for if you love those who love you—now there’s the swapping kind of love that we’re talking about that many people practice; He said—if you only love those who love you, what reward have you? In other words, you really don’t have a reward. You’ve not done anything special. Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And the tax collectors, which the King James Version calls the publicans, collected taxes for the Roman government.
And oftentimes they were evil people. They were greedy people. They were unreliable, untrustworthy people, and they were not respected by the Jewish people. And Jesus said, even they treat others the way that others treat them. So, He said if you want to be better than them, then you’re going to have to practice something higher.
And if you greet your brethren only, if you salute, if you speak to your brethren only that are in your circle, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors so? So, this idea that I’ll help others if they help me, and I will do for others because they have done good to me is not the Christian way.
The Bible says that God is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. And thank God that the Lord himself isn’t like this. Thank the Lord that he doesn’t have this kind of attitude: “Well, I’ll do good to the human race if they do good to me.” The Bible says that He’s the one that loved us first. In 1 John chapter 4 verse 10, the Bible says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
The Bible says in 1 John chapter 4 verse 19, “We love Him because He first loved us,” not the other way around. And then, of course, you have some people who are so rebellious and so ungodly that they have the audacity to say, “Well, I don’t follow the golden rule, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them. My rule is to do to others before they do to me.” And this twisted, perverted, foolish little saying is hardly worthy of any response. But it just shows that some people will disrespect anything that God says, even the golden rule.
Let me spend a little bit of time talking about the wanting here. Jesus says, “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you…” his is qualified. This has to be understood in light of the Bible. In other words, you can’t just say, “Well, I wouldn’t want people to do this or say this to me. So I don’t think that we should do it or say it to other people.” For example, there are many people that don’t believe in the death penalty. There are people that say that they’re Christians that don’t believe in capital punishment. And if you ask them what they have against it and why they don’t believe in the death penalty, sometimes they’ll take you to Matthew chapter 7 verse 12. Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them. And they will say something like this: “If I were to be guilty of a crime, let’s say like murder, I wouldn’t want people doing that to me. I wouldn’t want for people to put me to death. So, if I don’t want people putting me to death, why would I want them to be put to death? Why would I want that to be done to others? Isn’t that the golden rule? No, it is not. That’s reversing what Jesus says. Jesus is not telling you that you can pick out what you want to be done to you or for you and ignore what the Bible says.
The Bible teaches that a man who murders has given up the right to live. The Bible has taught that from the very beginning. In Genesis 9, verse 6, the Bible says, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He man.” In the New Testament, Paul said himself, when he was before the Roman government, in Acts chapter 25, verses 10 and 11, “If I be an offender, or have committed anything worthy of death,” then he says that he does not refuse to die.
Now, Paul had not committed anything worthy of death, but he uses that expression, which shows that there are some crimes that are deserving or worthy of death. So a man who’s committed a capital crime like murder is in no position to say something like this: “You wouldn’t want me to put you to death. So why should you put me to death? Isn’t that the golden rule?”
That’s absolutely absurd. Then there are others that turn the golden rule upside down with something like this. They say, “I don’t believe in getting on to people who are wrong. I don’t believe that you ought to judge people and tell them that they’re sinning and hurt their feelings.” And if you ask them why, they will tell you, “Because I don’t want people telling me that. I don’t want people telling me that I’m wrong and hurting my feelings, so I don’t believe that you should do that with other people.” In other words, they make their rule for themselves, the rule for everybody. And they have this non-judgmental attitude toward everything in life.
Now, oftentimes, what they’re trying to do is to cover their own sins. Sometimes you’ll have people that are liars, they are adulterers, they’re committing all kinds of sins in their lives, and they don’t want to be known. They don’t want to be exposed. And so they come up with this rule that you’re not supposed to do that about anything with anybody.
And so that’s why we’re in this non-judgmental society in which we live. You’ve got politicians who are guilty of all kinds of sins, but they don’t want to be discovered, so they say you shouldn’t say anything against someone. You shouldn’t judge other people and we need to stay away from hate speech and all that kind of talk.
They’re really trying to cover their own tracks. And that is a perversion of the golden rule. It’s the opposite of what Jesus is teaching here. Remember, Jesus is talking about things you have a right to want others to do to you. We can’t just go to Matthew 7 verse 12 and say, “Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them” and then define the word want in any way that we choose.
We have to take the Bible in context. We have to be honest with this. We have to look at the Scriptures as a whole and not just take this one Scripture and then turn it upside down or twist it around. When Jesus says, “Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them,” He’s talking about rightful expectations of other people.
For instance, do you want people to lie to you? Or do you want people to tell you the truth? Do you want people to cheat you? To deceive you? Or to be honest with you? Do you want people to take advantage of you or to be fair and open with you? Do you want people to pay back what they owe you or not? Do you want people to add to or change what you said? Or do you want them to tell exactly what you have said? Do you want people to be kind and courteous to you or to be rude and harsh with you? Do you want people to be patient with you or impatient? Do you want people to be loyal or disloyal? Do you want people to talk about you behind your back, or do you want people to defend you? Do you want people to criticize you when you’re down, or do you want people to lift you up? Do you want people to help you when you’re down, or do you want people just to ignore you? These are just a few of the situations where the golden rule applies. It covers so much in your life.
It’s no wonder that Jesus said this is the law and the prophets. The “law and the prophets” is just an expression that the Jews used to refer to the Old Testament. Now we call it the Old Testament. They didn’t call it the Old Testament because at the time they didn’t have a New Testament. They just refer to the Old Testament as the Word of God, or the Scriptures, or the oracles of God.
And most often they would call the Old Testament the Law and the Prophets. And that’s why you see Jesus talking about this so much. Back in Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 17, He said, “Do not think that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets.” That is, I have not come to undermine the Old Testament Scriptures, and especially the prophecies that were made about Me.
In Luke chapter 16 verses 19 through 31, Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.” He’s talking to the rich man about his five brothers on earth, and he says those brothers have the Old Testament Scriptures. They need to listen to those Scriptures, which he calls the Law and the Prophets.
This was just a usual way that the Jews talked about their Old Testament Scriptures. But what does Jesus mean when He says that the golden rule is the Law and the Prophets? He’s saying that the Golden Rule summarizes, or it sums up, the teaching of the Law and the Prophets. Now, He’s not talking about everything that you read about in the Old Testament.
He’s not saying that the Golden Rule summarizes, or includes, the animal sacrifices that they made at the Temple, keeping the Sabbath, all the washings and ceremonies of the Law of Moses. He’s talking about the moral principles of the Old Testament. He’s talking about your treatment of other people, and He’s saying that is all summarized in this one statement: whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them.
That actually encapsulates, that is a comprehensive statement of, everything that you read about the moral relations of people to each other in the Old Testament. Now there are similar statements found along this line that serve as a great commentary on this. If you want to see a great commentary on Matthew 7 verse 12 when it says this is the Law and the Prophets, here are some verses.
In Matthew chapter 22, one of the scribes came to Jesus and said, “What is the great commandment in the Law? And He says, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” So if you just envision a nail in the wall and you’re hanging things on that nail, the law and the prophets, all these old Testament Scriptures hang by, they hinge on, these two commandments: love God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Now, loving your neighbor as yourself is basically just another way of saying whatever you want men to do to you, do you also to them. Another good passage on this is Luke chapter 10. In Luke chapter 10, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus asked him two questions.
He says, “What is written in the law” and what is your reading of it? So he answered and said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, You have answered rightly, do this and you will live.”
“But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor?” Then Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. Now this is a story about loving your neighbor as yourself, or you could say this is a story about the practice of the Golden Rule. Two men did not practice the Golden Rule, and one did.
Jesus said, “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now, by chance, a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.” He did not practice the golden rule.
Then in verse 32, Jesus said, “Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side, he ignored the man.” He did not practice the golden rule. He did not love his neighbor as himself, and of all people in the Jewish nation, this priest and this Levite should have known that.
Remember that Jesus said that the whole Old Testament was summarized by the Golden Rule. So they should have recognized that. They knew better. But then in verse 33 Jesus said, “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, Take care of him. And whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you. So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?And he said to him, He who showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.”
Here’s another passage which is really a strong commentary on what we’re looking at in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s found in Romans chapter 13, beginning in verse 8. Here the Bible says, “Owe no man anything except to love one another. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Now listen very carefully to what he says and how he explains it beginning in verse 9. “For the commandments, You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
So Paul quotes several of the Ten Commandments. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal, and so forth. And he says that all these commandments, and any other commandment, notice that these commandments that he specifically mentioned, and if there is any other commandment, they are all summed up, they are summarized (the King James says they are briefly comprehended), they are listed under this one heading: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
So Paul is teaching us here that when the Bible says you shall love your neighbor as yourself, it is at the same time saying, You shall not commit adultery. When the Bible says, love your neighbor as yourself, it includes the commandment, you shall not murder. When the Bible says to love your neighbor as yourself, it is the same as saying, don’t steal from your neighbor, or don’t bear false witness against your neighbor, or don’t covet what your neighbor has.
And, if there is any other commandment. It’s all summarized in this one statement, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. It is a comprehensive, it is an all-encompassing, it is an inclusive statement that summarizes this moral teaching found in the Old Testament. And here’s another great commentary that just gives several everyday examples of how you apply the Golden Rule or loving your neighbor as yourself.
It’s found in Leviticus chapter 19. So in Romans chapter 13, we find that Paul says the law is summarized in this one statement and he quotes from the Ten Commandments, which you find in Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy chapter 5. If you look at Leviticus chapter 19, you find practical everyday situations where the Golden Rule is needed.
So I would say. At the golden rule is written all over Leviticus 19. At the same time, you will find the words “love your neighbor as yourself” in this chapter. But before we look at those words in that verse notice all these things he said about how these Jews were to treat each other. In verse 9: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest, and you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God.” That is the golden rule. In verse 11: “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie one to another.” That’s the golden rule. Verse 13: “You shall not cheat your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not remain with you all night until morning.” That was a Jewish practice, and that was applying the golden rule. In verse 14: “You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the Lord.” In other words, you are not to mistreat people who are handicapped.
In verse 15, he talks about being honest and fair in your business dealings. He says, “You shall not do injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness, you shall judge your neighbor.” Then in verse 16, listen to what he says. “You shall not go about as a tail bearer among your people, nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor, I am the Lord. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, you shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord.” So, this is a chapter that unfolds for us the meaning of the Golden Rule, the meaning of the statement, love your neighbor as yourself, and it gives us the practical application of this principle.
When you get to the prophets, one of the things that you’ll find so many times when you read Isaiah and Jeremiah and all these prophets is that they tell the Jews that they must treat each other right if their worship is to be accepted by God. But if you will read Isaiah chapter 1, Jeremiah chapter 7, Amos chapter 5, and many other passages, you will see God saying to these Jews that they can worship Him all they want, but if they don’t treat each other right, if they don’t help the widows and the orphans, if they mistreat each other, if they lie to each other, and so forth, then their worship will not be accepted by Him.
Again, Isaiah 1, and Jeremiah 7, and Amos chapter 5, and other passages. One of which is Micah chapter 6. I’m going to begin reading in verse 6 and go through verse 8. And I want you to notice that God says if you’re going to worship Me properly and expect Me to accept your worship, you have to treat each other right. You have to practice the golden rule.
Micah chapter 6, verse 6: “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” That is a great companion Scripture to Matthew chapter 7, verse 12 which we call the Golden Rule.
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