top of page
Writer's pictureRobert Phillips

The Golden Rule

Remember the two recurring themes of the Sermon on the Mount:

  • Theme 1: “You have heard it said, but I say unto you.”

D.A. Carson has written, “'You have heard it said' is very different from 'it says'.”Jesus wanted the hearers of this sermon to remember that the standards of the law are heart standards, not external or physical standards.

  • Theme 2: “the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”

Jesus wanted the hearers to understand what the people of His kingdom would look like and live like. That is why He began with the beatitudes.


So, let’s look at the teaching in Matthew 7:12-14, the Golden Rule:

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."


The Standard Of The Law


The Golden Rule is the standard of the law. Verse 12 says, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."Carson points out that this is a positive emphasis, not a negative one (Carson, Jesus's Sermon On The Mount,148). Some translate this as things like “Don’t hit if you don’t want to get hit.” Jesus is saying something more. He is saying to be a person who delights in blessing others with the same kind of blessing you want to be blessed with. In this sense, the golden rule is active rather than passive. We aren’t supposed to just sit back and not offend, we are to actively pursue people in an effort to show Christ’s love. Kindness belonged to Christianity before it was ever taken over by society. Kindness is not about you blessing me, it is about me blessing you as if you were me. Kindness is not a club to control society. Kindness is a Christ-like care for the human soul.


“The Law and the Prophets” was a phrase Jesus repeated throughout His teaching ministry. Jesus did not replace the Old Testament, He expounded it. That is what He said He was doing in Matthew 5:17:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

In fulfilling the law, He did not abolish the law. In fulfilling the law, He gave the law its purest meaning: righteousness from the heart. Herein lies the problem--our hearts are wicked. As Jeremiah 17:9–10 says,

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

My deeds "out" the true condition of my heart and show me that what I really need is the righteousness of Jesus in my heart. Jesus used the same phrase “the Law and the Prophets” in another famous teaching found in Matthew 22:24-40:

"But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets'.”

So, if righteousness is a heart issue, not a physical issue, then why is the Golden Rule important? The are three reasons we need the Golden Rule:

  1. The Golden Rule reminds me how Jesus loves me and how Jesus treats me.

  2. The Golden Rule reminds me to treat others with the kindness and love of God.

  3. The Golden Rule invites me to see the unkindness of others as a response to how they have already been treated themselves.


My deeds "out" the true condition of my heart.

Not An Easy Standard


The Golden Rule is not an easy standard. Verse 13 says,

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many."

This is not simply a statement about our salvation. This is a verse about how hard it is to keep Christ’s elevated standard for law-keeping, or love-keeping! Love-keeping is a sincere proof that we are true believers.


If it was easy to treat people with kindness, everyone would do it! Imagine the money that is spent to make the world friendly, from “say no to hate” commercials, to the United Nations itself. Our very political system is built on demonizing our differences; why would we be surprised that people are hateful?


For many of us, our first thoughts towards people tend to be negative. We tend to think the worst about people, not the best.Think about the phrases we use in culture that show our view of humanity:

  • “Where there is smoke, there is a fire.”

  • “What goes around comes back around.“

  • “She had it coming.”

  • “I’ll bet he’s got skeletons in the closet.”

  • “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

By contrast to this, How often do we practice a verse like “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things"(1 Corinthians 13:7)? You will recall that Matthew 5:11–12 says,

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."


What God Expects


The Golden Rule proves we are one of the few who understand what God expects. Verse 14 continues,

"For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

This verse introduces to us the doctrine called “the perseverance of the saints”,  as well as the doctrine of “eternal security,” and we will discuss these doctrines over the next few weeks as Jesus will talk about knowing the proofs of our sincerity in salvation in the next few verses.


The gift of the Sermon on the Mount to true believers is that it invites us to be honest about the state of our life and look for evidence of sincere salvation. Luke 6:43–45 reiterates this idea:

“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."


There is a difference between fire insurance and fruit assurance. That is why we all need to ask ourselves these three evaluation questions:

  1. Do I see evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in my life?

    (See Galatians 5 for a list of fruit of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit.)

  2. Is that fruit merely external or is it growing out of inner love for God?

    To know this, you need to know what motivates you, inner peace from the Holy Spirit or outer praise from other people. Matthew 23 addresses this struggle.

  3. Am I convicted to keep trying to grow and change when I produce improper fruit?

    • 2 Corinthians 4 motivates us to remember the treasure is housed in broken flesh so that we can see God’s power in us.


References

Carson, D. A. (2018). Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount And His Confrontation With The World: A Study Of Matthew 5-10. Baker Books.

16 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page