SERMON ON THE MOUNT
THE GOLDEN RULE
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 7:12
JANUARY 6, 2002
There are more than 1,700 J.C. Penney Department Stores across the United States of America. One month ago, I told the story of J.C. Penney. I shared with you how J.C. Penney grew up in poverty in the state of Missouri, how his father worked the farm six days a week and then preached in the local church on every Sunday. I shared how J.C. Penney asked Jesus into his heart when he was very young and how he loved Jesus Christ all the days of his life. I shared how he grew up to love the retail merchandising business and how he began with one store in the state of Wyoming and built a national department store chain from that one store. I shared how, in the beginning, J.C. Penney department stores were called The Golden Rule Stores because J.C. Penney wanted to practice the Golden Rule in business. In 1927 there were 750 Golden Rule Department Stores in 45 states.
Now, what I didn’t share with you one month ago was this. J.C. Penney never understood the Golden Rule. J.C. Penney department stores never practiced the Golden Rule. In fairness to J.C. Penney, I want to say that most people do not understand the Golden Rule. Indeed, there is not a business or a corporation in the world that practices the Golden Rule because if a business were to practice the Golden Rule, it would not be in business for long. You see, the Golden Rule was not intended or given to the corporate world. It was not intended for the corporate world. It was not given to the world of business. The Golden Rule was given to the Christian world. It was given to you, and it is meant for your individual lives as you live out your personal relationships with your neighbors.
This Golden Rule, which we examine this morning, is one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible. There are a lot of people who think the Golden Rule simply has to do with the concept of fairness, that we are to treat people fairly. People think it means that if we treat people fairly, we can expect them to treat us fairly. “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Be fair to others and they will be fair to you. But that’s not really what the Golden Rule is about.
So, what is the Golden Rule about? Well, it’s about two things when we look at the Golden Rule biblically and contextually. We see, first of all, the Golden Rule is all about mercy. It’s all about mercy. “Be merciful unto others if you want others to be merciful to you.” In the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule is a summary statement. Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” This is the sum of the law and the prophets, and so this sums up everything He said thus far in the Sermon on the Mount. It is a summary statement.
There is one other occasion on which Jesus taught the Golden Rule. It was in the Sermon on the Plain, found in Luke’s Gospel in the 6th chapter. There, Jesus taught the Golden Rule in a specific context of mercy. We need to see that passage. Jesus said, “I say to all who hear, love your enemy. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those that abuse you. Bless those who curse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other as well. From him who takes away your shirt, do not withhold even your coat. Give to everyone who begs of you. If anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. But as you would have people do to you, do so to them. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, for if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again. But I say to you, love your enemy. Do good. Lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great and you will be called Children of the Most High. For He is kind even to the wicked and the ungrateful. So be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful.”
You see, the Golden Rule is all about mercy. There’s no business in the world that could exist by practicing the Golden Rule. A business cannot give a coat to everyone who steals a shirt. A bank cannot lend money expecting nothing in return. This was not meant for the corporate world. It was meant for you in your relationship with your neighbor. The word mercy in the Bible is the Greek word “eleos.” This word refers to “compassion given to the afflicted” or “forgiveness given to the guilty.” So, in the Golden Rule, Jesus is saying, “Be compassionate to those who are afflicted if you want others to be compassionate to you when you’re afflicted.” In the Golden Rule, Jesus is saying, “Forgive others when they’re guilty if you want others to forgive you when you’re guilty.” Forgive others as you would have others forgive you.
This last Wednesday, Barb and I, my wife and I, had lunch together right here in Highlands Ranch. Barb was driving down Highlands Ranch Parkway to meet me at the restaurant. As she was driving along, she was thinking about becoming a grandmother because our daughter Heather and her husband Chris are expecting. Barb was just so grateful (as she was driving in her car) and so thankful that she wasn’t really thinking about her driving. She was going down Highlands Ranch Parkway and down one of the hills. The speed limit is 45 and somehow she got the car up to 60. That was when she saw the blinking lights.
A cop pulled her over. He said, “The speed limit here is 45. Did you know that you were going 60 miles per hour?” She said, “I’m so sorry.” She said, “I really wasn’t paying attention. I was thinking about becoming a new grandmother.” The cop said, “You know, you don’t look old enough to be a grandmother.” Barb was thankful for that. The cop said, “and you don’t drive slow enough to be a grandmother.” The cop gave her a ticket. He wrote her up.
Barb really was wanting mercy. She was wanting mercy. She wanted him to just rip the ticket up or perhaps just give her a warning. Sometimes that’s what police officers do. Sometimes they show a little mercy. Sometimes they just give you a warning. Even in this case there was some mercy because the police officer told her how she could reduce her points from four points to two. But, you see, a cop can’t rip up the ticket every time. A police officer can’t always give out warnings. If a cop did that, he would lose his job (or she would lose her job). You see, the laws of society would not be enforced. Law enforcement cannot function on the basis of the Golden Rule. Neither can the criminal justice system in America. Judges cannot simply forgive the guilty. There are times when in a court of law there may be some measure of mercy, but the legal system cannot function on the basis of the Golden Rule any more than the corporate world can.
You see, it’s meant for the world of believers. It’s meant for you in your relationship with your neighbors. I think to understand this, we need to go back to the Old Testament and take a look at a man named Manasseh. If you’ve read the Old Testament and if you’ve studied it, you know that there came a point when the United Kingdom came to an end. Saul, David, Solomon… Israel was united during their reigns, but in the year 922 BC, the kingdom was divided into a Northern Kingdom and a southern kingdom. The Northern Kingdom was called the Kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom was called the Kingdom of Judah.
One of the most wicked kings during the period of the divided kingdom was this man Manasseh. He lived in the 7th century BC. He was one of the worst kings the Holy Land ever saw. He ascended the throne upon the death of his father Hezekiah. Hezekiah had been a great king. Hezekiah had called the hearts of the people back to God. Hezekiah had reinstituted temple worship, and he had reestablished the celebration of Passover as a national holiday, a national celebration. He had called the people back to the one true God.
But, you see, Manasseh, upon the death of his father, when he ascended the throne, hated the ways of his father. He entered into alliance with the Moabites and the Ammonites and the Edomites. He became a kind of connoisseur of pagan religions. He established Baal worship in the land of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem. He built high places of worship to the pagan deity Baal. He established the cult of Astarte in the city of Jerusalem in the kingdom of Judah. Astarte was a Canaanite fertility goddess. Manasseh actually erected an altar and a statue of Astarte in the Temple of David on Mount Moriah.
Worst of all, Manasseh established in the Kingdom of Judah the religion of Molech. Molech was a pagan deity associated with human sacrifice, and particularly the offering up of children. In the worship of Molech in pagan cultures, children were sacrificed as they were made to run through fire. It’s believed that Manasseh established Molech worship just outside of Jerusalem in the Valley of Hinnom in the Valley of Gehenna, and that is one of the reasons that Gehenna began to be synonymous with hell. This was a wicked king. He led the people into moral depravity and debauchery. Incense offered in worship to Egyptian and Assyrian deities rose from the rooftops of Jerusalem homes. Necromancers and sorcerers were welcomed as guests at the royal palace of King Manasseh.
During that period of time in Judah, the military lost its discipline as the military became lax. The Assyrians came in, and the Assyrians ran over and conquered Judah and they took Manasseh captive. They took his crown from his head. They took his royal robes from him, and they beat him. They stripped him and they flogged him. They chained him and they made him march to the city of Babylon. There they threw him into a dungeon. As he was in that dungeon, an amazing thing happened, we’re told in the book of 2 Kings in the Old Testament. Manasseh began to cry out to the God of his father. Manasseh began to pray to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Manasseh began to cry out to the one true God. He begged for forgiveness, and he begged for mercy.
Then a more incredible thing happened. The Bible tells us that God, holy and righteous, looked down on Manasseh with compassion. Incredibly, God forgave Manasseh. God forgave this wicked man. God forgave him. God freed him up from his incarceration, returned him to Jerusalem, set him on the throne and reestablished his kingship. It’s one of the greatest manifestations of mercy in the whole of the Bible. If you think that mercy is only found in the New Testament, you need to go back and start reading the Old Testament. It is true that in the New Testament we see the supreme manifestation of mercy. We see the cross of Jesus Christ where Jesus Christ went and died in substitutionary atonement, offering forgiveness for the sin of the world.
If you’re a Christian, there’s a sense in which you’re like Manasseh because you’ve experienced, at least in some measure, the mercy of God. If you’re a Christian, there was a moment when you came to the foot of the cross and you cried out for mercy and you cried out for forgiveness and you were washed whiter than snow and the righteousness of Christ was imputed to you. That’s mercy—incomprehensible mercy, amazing mercy. And now what does Christ require of you and what does He require of me? That we would do unto others as we would have others do unto us; that we would be merciful unto others as we would have others be merciful unto us; that we would be merciful unto others as God has been merciful unto us. The Bible says, “Judgement will be without mercy for those who have shown no mercy.” So, we are called to the Golden Rule, which is all about mercy—forgiving the guilty, compassion to the afflicted.
There’s a second teaching this morning, because the Golden Rule is not only about mercy. It’s also about grace. It’s about mercy and it’s about grace. In Greek mythology, Zeus, King of the Gods, had three daughters who were called the “Graces,” from the Greek word “charis,” which is the biblical word for “grace.” Why were the daughters of Zeus called the Graces? They were called the Graces because they were the givers of gifts. It was believed in the Greek world that the Graces were the givers of gifts. These daughters of Zeus made women beautiful and they made men handsome. They gave other gifts to people. They gave talents, skills, abilities, and aptitudes. All of it came from the Graces. They were the givers of gifts. Biblically that’s the primary focus of the word charis, the word grace. It has to do with the giving of gifts.
You see, if mercy has to do with forgiveness, grace has to do with giving. Grace is about giving and mercy is about forgiving. If you would practice the Golden Rule, you must be giving even toward your enemy. When you look at the Golden Rule contextually in the Sermon on the Mount, it’s clear. We must be giving even towards our enemies, as we must be merciful even towards our enemies.
The question is sometimes asked, “Was Jesus the first person to teach the Golden Rule?” The answer is no. Other people prior to Christ had taught the Golden Rule, but in the negative form. “Do not do unto others what you would not have others do unto you.” That was taught by Confucius. That was also taught in the Buddhist Hymn of the Faith. And it was taught by Greek philosophers like Epictetus and by Socrates. It was taught in Jewish Book of the Apocrypha. It was also taught by the Hillel, the Jewish Rabbinical School.
Again, in all of these cases, the Golden Rule was taught but in the negative form. “Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you.” But Jesus, historians tell us and scholars tell us, was the first person to state the Golden Rule in the positive. “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.” He moved it, really, from mercy to grace, so that it wasn’t just about not avenging yourself or not doing evil to another person, but it was about doing wonderful things for people. It wasn’t only about mercy, but now it’s about grace, giving and forgiving.
There’s a wonderful story I read in a book by Max Lucado. I know that Max Lucado is widely read, one of the most popular Christian authors, and he is a pastor of a church in San Antonio, Texas. He tells how, ten years ago, he was sitting under an oak tree reading a book in his yard. It was a real hot summer day. There are a lot of hot summer days in San Antonio, Texas. He was feeling really good because his daughters had set up a little lemonade stand. He had helped them, and they were selling lemonade on the street. It was all part of an experiment in free enterprise that he encouraged his daughters to do. They had written a sign, “Lemonade 5 cents.” Some of the letters were upper case, some were lower case, but people could get the idea.
His oldest daughter who was at that time 6 years old, was running the cash register. She was giving the change. The youngest daughter, who was 4 years old, was the hostess. She was putting ice in the cups and pouring the lemonade. Then Dad was just sitting under the tree watching. Well, so far seven people had come by and purchased a cup of lemonade in the neighborhood. Max Lucado knew them all because he’d arranged for them to come. It was all part of this experiment he was conducting. But then another car drove up and it was a stranger. It was somebody, for some reason, just driving through their neighborhood. The stranger comes up to the lemonade stand and the man smiles at the girls and greets them and says that he’d like to have a cup of lemonade. Max Lucado thinks, “I’m going to watch how the girls deal with this.”
The youngest daughter reaches for a dirty cup, one that she had already used with one of the seven who had come before. The stranger just smiled. Then they went to put ice in the cup and realized they were out of ice left. The stranger smiled and said, “Hey, that’s alright. I don’t need ice. In fact, I really prefer it without ice. This is just perfect.” Then they went to pour the lemonade and it was virtually all gone. It was just the gooey sugary remainder and it only filled one-third of the cup. The stranger started laughing and he said, “Hey, you know, that’s just perfect. That’s exactly how I love it. That’s just what I needed. I love it sweet like that.”
Then the stranger went to pay and he only had a dollar. He gave them the dollar and asked if they had any change. They didn’t have the change. All they had was seven nickels because the other customers had all given exactly a nickel. Well, at this point, Max Lucado thought, “Oh man, I’d better help out.” He reached into his pocket, and he didn’t have any money on him. Before he could get up, before he could do anything, the man said, “Hey, just keep the dollar. It’s great.” He complimented the girls on doing a wonderful job, got into his car, and drove off. Max Lucado said, “You know, I had intended it to be a lesson in free enterprise and it turned out to be a lesson in mercy and grace.
When you think about it, that’s what God wants each of us to believe in His Son Jesus Christ to provide in this world. He wants your life to be a lesson in mercy and grace. He wants people to look at you and see the mercy of God. He wants people to look at you and see the grace of Christ. He wants you to be a lesson in mercy and grace. He wants me to be a lesson in mercy and grace. And are we? Do people see the mercy and grace of Christ in us and do we really live by the Golden Rule?
Before we come to the communion table, I want to share one final story. I read it about a man who was in a supermarket. He was in the grocery store, and he was in the checkout line. He had purchased a half-gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. That’s all he had in his cart. The gal at the cash register said, “We’re having a kind of raffle, kind of a contest. If you take one of those pieces of paper out of the basket, one customer today is going to win free groceries. Whatever they buy is free.” The man reached into the basket, pulled out the piece of paper and, to his amazement, it was the one for the free groceries. The gal at the register said, “You’re our winner! Congratulations! Your purchase is free!” But he looked down into his cart. Just a half-gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. He thought, “What a waste!”
He was kind of a quick-thinking guy. He looked at the woman behind him in line. She had a cart just laden with groceries, just stacked way up. It was just filled to the max. He turned to her and he said, “Dear, can you believe it? We won!” She didn’t know how to respond at first, but he winked at her. She kind of picked it up and went with it. The gal at the register believed it all. Everything was free in his cart and everything was free in her cart. Then they went out into the parking lot and kind of divvied some things up to make it more fair. Then they went to their homes feeling really clever. But, you see, that was grace abused. The free gift provided by the supermarket was abused. The unmerited favor, the generosity of the grocery store, was abused.
We live in a world like that. You might be thinking, “If I lived by the Golden Rule… if in my relationships I practice mercy and grace and I’m giving and forgiving, won’t people abuse that? Won’t people take advantage of me?” The answer is most certainly yes. Some people will do that. But, you see, this is the commandment of Christ laid upon His people.
The Golden Rule is not for every situation. We’ve seen that it’s not for the corporate world. We’ve seen that it’s not for the world of criminal justice. Even in the home and in the context of parenting, we need to be careful how we apply the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule was never meant to be a substitute for parental discipline. We need to discipline our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. If we do not discipline, the Bible says we do not love them. But we are to teach our children the Golden Rule and we are to model it in our behavior so that the children we’re rearing might see the mercy and the grace of Christ in us and they might practice it when they go out into the world.
With regard to our neighbors, we are to live by the Golden Rule. This is the teaching of Christ. Our neighbors are not our children. We are not their parents. We are not their judges. We are to show mercy and grace to them. They may at time take advantage of it, but we’re going to impact their lives far more through the love of mercy and grace than we would through judgementalness or through constant rebukes. I mean, there may be moments, rare moments, when the Spirit of Christ might lead us to rebuke a neighbor, but that’s the exception rather than the rule. The rule, you see, is the Golden Rule. If we live by the Golden Rule and we live lives of mercy and grace, the power of the gospel will be great in us as we go forth to serve Jesus Christ.
We come this morning to the communion table. As we come to the communion table and as we come to the cross, we see the supreme manifestation of mercy and grace; the mercy of Christ’s forgiveness, the grace—the free gift—of eternal life. As we come to the bread and the cup this morning, we come with gratitude for God’s amazing grace and His great mercy. We also come in consecration, dedicating our lives today to live by the Golden Rule—that we go beyond fairness and we would treat people with mercy and with grace; that we would be giving and forgiving; that we would have compassion for the afflicted, forgiveness for the guilty, and gifts for all. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.