Live by the perfect golden gate

Rev Enoch Thompson | MARCH 1, 2023 | MATTHEW 7:12

KEY VERSE:

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12 (NIV)

MESSAGE:

Our verse for reflection seems to stand on its own in the immediate context. The need to guard the sacred callings and giftings from wrong influences is stressed in verse 6, followed by the invitation to pray and expect God to answer prayers (verse 7-11). Then comes the instruction in our verse; “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” What is expressed here is what has become known as the Golden Rule.

There was a woman whose husband was sick and unable to look after himself at a point. The woman after some time decided that she was not going to waste her life looking after a sick person, who, apart from all the attention he would demand would not be able to provide her with what he used to provide. She had married for the better, and not for worse. She, therefore, packed her bag and baggage and walked away to find newer loves. As the narrative goes, over time she also fell ill in turn, and after her new love had spent quite some money on her, he decided to abandon her and move on with his life. She wept and begged, but the man moved away anyway. What a sad story, but it happened and happens in our fallen world.

The message for us today from the lips of the gracious Lord Jesus is that as citizens of His holy Kingdom we learn and commit ourselves to showing other people the same level of good treatment we would expect to be exercised towards us, or put in other words not to do to other people the evil that we would not be happy to have done to us. This is most stressed when other people are at the disadvantage, or when we have the power over them to hurt them.

Why must I live by the Golden Rule? We must live by this sacred universal rule because we are all made in the image of God. When we treat our neighbours wrongly, we offend the God in whose image they are made. We must do this because our fellow human being is of equal worth as ourselves, irrespective of our different nationalities, races, tribes, social and economic statuses etc. We must obey the Golden Rule because rather than merely rising to the high standard of respecting the humanity of the neighbour and the image of God in them, the Kingdom lifestyle requires of us an even higher standard; “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Phil 2:3 (NIV). Finally, we must do this because it shows our love for our neighbour, and fulfils the demands of the Law and the Prophets; “³⁷Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matt 22:37-40 (NIV).

FEET AND HANDS FOR THE MESSAGE:

Decide under God to evaluate everything you say to or about the people in your circle, everything you do to, do for, or do against your neighbour, and in all of your interactions, to live by the Golden Rule, and you will become more and more a true citizen of the Kingdom of God.

PRAYER:

Lord, I am grateful for the Golden Rule. I confess that I have not lived by it as I should and ask for forgiveness. Please give me the consciousness to keep the Golden Rule before me, always, and to live by it, so that I will please you, and be a blessing to all around me, in the home, in the Church and in the larger society. In Jesus’ loving Name, Amen.

THERE SHALL BE SHOWERS OF BLESSING.

SHOWERS! BLESSINGS!