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“The Golden Rule”

Ian Boike
04/06/25 - Sun AM

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This morning, I'm going to be reading from the Gospel of Luke chapter 10.

Beginning of verse 83 and continuing down to verse 37.

And I will be reading from the New King James version.

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, Teacher.

What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He said to him, What is written in the law?

What is your reading of it?

So we 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 answered and 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.

Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place came and looked and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him.

And 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 to Daenera, 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, he who showed mercy on him.

Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.

In China, it's tradition to show respect and sacrificial love to your in-laws.

And there was once a girl in China who got married at a young age and quickly found out that her personality and her mother-in-law's personalities clashed quite a lot.

And it got to the point where they could no longer live in harmony, and it seemed like every day they would fight or argue over something.

And the daughter-in-law got so fed up with her mother-in-law that she decided to go to the local merchant who dealt in herbs.

And the daughter-in-law didn't know that he happened to be one of her friends, one of one of her mother-in-law's friends.

And the daughter-in-law explains to the herb merchant, what it is like to live with her mother-in-law and how difficult it can be because of their clashing personalities.

And after explaining how hard her life is, the young woman asks the merchant to sell her a poison that will get rid of her problem for good.

And the merchant knowing exactly what to do, he smiles and he says, Of course I'll help you.

But you have to do exactly what I tell you to do in order for you not to become a suspect when she dies.

And the young daughter-in-law says, Well, what should I do?

And the merchant replied, Treat your mother-in-law with the utmost respect and obey every command that she gives you.

So that way no one suspects anything.

And as the days, weeks and months continued, she would sprinkle the poison over her mother-in-law's food.

But at the same time she would obey every command and be respectful and kind to her mother-in-law.

And eventually they started to get along a little bit better.

Eventually, they started to feel closer and more like a family.

And seeing this change, the daughter-in-law begins to worry.

And she instantly runs out of the house and runs to the merchant who sells herbs and says, Please give me something to save my mother-in-law from this poison that I have given her.

And again, the merchant smiles and says, I never gave you any poison.

All I did was give you some sugar.

That is what you've been sprinkling over her food.

And the only poison that you were giving her was in your mind and your attitude towards your mother-in-law.

But that has all been washed away by the kindness and the love that you have shown her.

And I'm sure many of you have had similar experiences, disagreements with in-laws, hopefully not the trying to kill them part.

But, The daughter-in-law was initially solely focused on just the mother-in-law's attitude and how she was being treated.

And again, the merchant advised her to change her attitude in order to see a different result in her mother-in-law's behavior.

And the merchant was essentially telling this young woman to practice the golden rule.

And this morning, we're not gonna be talking about a golden ruler, but in fact, we're gonna be talking about Matthew chapter 7 in verse 12, which has been coined as the golden rule.

So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, Do also to them.

For this is the law, and this is for this is the law and the profits.

And a consequence of the golden rule is that the way that we treat people can oftentimes determine.

How they will treat us in return and the daughter-in-law learned this the hard way.

Few purposes of our study this morning.

I first want to discuss the importance of the golden rule by talking about 3 applications or 3 observations, and then we'll give a couple of examples from the New Testament of the golden rule, and then finally, I want to discuss how we can apply the golden rule to our lives.

We'll start this morning by talking about 3 observations of the golden rule, and the first one is that the golden rule sets us apart from the world.

And people oftentimes don't think this way.

People often think, well, if they treat me nicely, well then I'll treat them nicely in return.

That's typically how the world thinks.

But in Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, we see that New Testament Christians are commanded, especially by, by Christ, but in Paul in this situation to be different from the world.

As it says in Romans chapter 12 verse 93, Paul tells us, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Secondly, I believe the golden rule does not wait for others to be kind.

And at the, uh, I believe it was right before me and Kayley got married, Tim and uh Tim and Bev Smith gave me and Kayley a book called Love and Respect written by Doctor Emerson Eggridge.

And it's a wonderful book.

And one of the topics that are discussed in this book is, should the husband start being kind or should the wife?

And essentially what he's asking in this chapter is he's saying, should the wife wait to give the respect to her husband until she receives the love that she needs.

And then on the or and then on the other hand, should the husband wait to give the wife the love that she needs until he gets the respect that he needs.

And obviously, the answer to both of these questions is absolutely not.

If everyone waited for the other person to be kind first, we would live in a society where no one was ever kind to anyone.

And finally, the third observation is the golden rule implies that we should live in harmony with one another.

In Romans chapter 12 and verses 15 and 16, Paul, writing to the church in Rome, tells them, rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another.

Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly and never be wise in your own.

Sight And I think I believe I speak for everyone here when I say that we want to live in harmony with one another.

And Jesus told parables.

Throughout the New Testament about this exact topic.

And the first one was in our scripture reading this morning.

It was from Luke chapter 10.

Verses 25 to 37.

And this is of course the parable of the Good Samaritan.

And of course, Jesus has a lawyer in the crowd who asked him how he could attain eternal life.

What, what do I need to do?

And Jesus asks him, well, what is written in the law?

And the lawyer replies, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

And of course, in an effort to justify himself, the lawyer asks, well, who is my neighbor?

Who out here is my neighbor?

And Jesus then begins to tell the story of a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho.

And then on the way, he finds himself in a very horrible situation where he is robbed of all of his clothing, his possessions, and he is beaten near death.

And of course, there are 3 men mentioned in this story, who saw this poor individual in his in his unfortunate circumstances.

We have the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan.

The priests and the Levite both passed this man over, not having a care in the world, or even stopping to think, if I were in this man's situation.

I would want someone to help me.

I would want somebody to stop and take their time and tend to my wounds and make sure I don't die out in the, out in the, out in the wilderness.

And that is the difference between these two men and the Samaritan.

The Samaritan was the only man in this story to practice the golden rule.

He looked upon this man who had been beaten and robbed and probably thought to himself, I can put myself in this man's shoes.

I can imagine myself in this exact situation in, in the way that I'm gonna help this man, I'm gonna, I would want someone to help me.

And I think a big part of the golden rule is being able to put ourselves and have the ability to put ourselves in other people's shoes.

And Jesus also told parables about men who did not follow the golden rule.

The first one of those is gonna be the parable of the unforgiving servant.

And this one is from Matthew chapter 18 verses 21 to 103.

And at the beginning of this chapter, or at the beginning of this story, Peter had just asked Jesus, well, how many times do I have to forgive someone who wrongs me?

How many times do I have to forgive my brother of his transgression?

As many as 7 times.

And Jesus responds by saying, no, not 7 times, but 77 times.

In an effort of saying this, he makes an effort to make Peter understand that there is no limit to the forgiveness that we should have as Christians.

And Jesus then tells Peter that the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who is trying to settle the debts with his servants.

And the first servant in this parable had a debt of 10,000 talents.

Which would take lifetimes to pay off.

And the king responds to the servant's inability to repay him by saying, well, since you can't pay, I'm gonna take you, I'm gonna take your wife, and I'm gonna take your children, and I'm gonna sell you so that I can get paid on this debt that you owe me.

The servant begins to beg him, saying, Have patience with me.

And I will repay my debt to you.

And out of pity, the king forgives this servant of his lifetime's worth of debt.

If only the story could have ended right there.

But unfortunately, it goes on after being forgiven of this massive. Debt.

The servant goes to one of his fellow servants and takes a hold of him by the throat.

And says, pay me what you owe.

And the other servant replied, have patience with me, and I will pay you.

Having, having no pity for this man, his fellow servant.

Who not two verses ago was in the same situation as him.

He has zero pity for this fellow servant of his, and he throws him into the jail.

Until he can pay off his debt of what he is owed to the first servant.

And seeing this event unfold, it, it makes the other servants distressed.

And by doing this, they rush and tell the king what has happened.

And after hearing this news, the king becomes furious with this first servant.

And in return, this first servant is thrown into prison.

And so we can see that this servant did not practice the golden rule at all.

By forgiving his fellow servants as he would want to be forgiven, is what he should have done.

And as a result, he was punished by his master.

In the third parable, It's gonna be in Luke chapter 15.

In verses 11 to 32, and this is the parable of the prodigal son.

And just for the application that we're gonna be using it for today.

Typically it's just known as the parable of the prodigal son, but I think the most important thing that we're gonna touch on is the older brother and his response.

But of course, this parable starts by the youngest of two sons has decided to take his inheritance early before his father would have given it to him on his own account.

And run off and go to a faraway country to live his life his way in the way that he sees fit.

And as this young man begins to realize his folly, And all the things that he's having to do, be sleeping with pigs and doing very unclean things for what a Jew would have to do.

He decides This is not a life worth living.

I'm gonna go back to my father and hopefully, he will make me a servant.

Hopefully, he'll welcome me back not as a son, but as a lowly servant.

And when the younger brother returns home, his father sees him at a distance, and he runs out to greet him and welcome him home.

And after the father puts a ring on his son's finger, a robe on his back, and shoes on his feet.

His father tells the servants to go kill the fattened calf, so that they may celebrate the return of his youngest son.

And then we get to the account of the older brother.

Who is not too happy about how he feels that he has been treated by his father.

And the older brother goes on to say, Dad, I've never disobeyed you.

I've been here the whole time.

I've never left you.

I've been faithful to you this whole time, and yet you have never killed a fat and calf for me and my friends.

What, why is that?

And of course, the Father responds.

By saying that his youngest son is now found when he was lost and that he should be joyful with them.

But that's the problem with the older brother.

He is selfish and thinking only of himself and his jealousy of his younger brother is seen in his comment about not getting a party for him or his friends.

And because of his selfishness, he didn't treat his brother.

The way that he would want to be treated if the roles had been reversed, if he had been the one who had gone and made his life hard and come back and begged for forgiveness.

He didn't act according to the golden rule.

And now that we've seen 3 instances in the scriptures and where Jesus tried to get the golden rule across, How can we apply the golden rule?

Well, I think salt needs to be involved when applying the golden rule to our lives.

In the first Is being the S in salt stands for serve.

We must be able to serve others like Christ.

We are not called to be served, but to serve others.

Just as Matthew chapter 133 verse 25 tells us, but Jesus called, called to him, called them to Him and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they're great ones exercise authority over them.

It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be a great, whoever would be great among you must be your servant.

And whoever would be first among you must be your slave.

Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Our gifts, our talents, and our abilities are not just for our benefit in this life.

They are for the benefit of others and to bless others.

The A in salt stands for appreciate.

We need to show appreciation to others.

We need to be able to applaud good efforts and recognize the accomplishments of our fellow brothers and sisters.

Some examples that Paul gives, and first one being in Romans chapter 16 and verses 3 and 219, Paul tells Paul tells the, uh, Paul tells the brethren, greet Priscilla and Aquilo, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well.

And then in Philippians chapter 22 and verses 27 to 28, we see where Paul is talking about giving thanks for Epaphroditus.

Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 29, so receive him into the, in the Lord with all joy.

And honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.

And even just saying thank you on a daily basis, on a regular basis, it can be a simple way to let people know that we appreciate them for what they do.

The L in salt stands for love.

And we need to love the way that Jesus loved.

In Luke chapter 210 and verse 13 to 21, we're told that we need to have a love that is sacrificial, that is open, constant, and that does not respect anything in return.

Luke chapter 22 and verse 224 to 36 tells us, if you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?

For even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you?

For even sinners do the same.

And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount, but love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return.

And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and evil, and to end the evil.

Be merciful as your, as even your father is merciful.

And finally, we need to, T as in treasure and salt.

We need to value others around us, especially our fellow Christians.

We need to show them that kindness and respect, even.

And regardless of their past or their background.

In Galatians chapter 6 and verse 10, Paul tells us, so then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

And in Ephesians 4:32, we're told, be kind to one another.

Tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.

And in Philippians chapter 2 and verses 23 and 5.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but to the interests of others.

Having this in mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

By looking out not only for our own interests, but the interests of others, you can show just how much you treasure someone.

And when we treat others like that, we are constantly serving others when we are appreciating love and treasuring, when we are producing salt.

To our fellow man, we are living out the golden rule.

And when we live our lives this way, we become the salt of the earth that Christ has called us to be.

The golden rule is well known.

But it's not widely practiced.

Before I even realized that the golden rule was in the scriptures as a young boy, and I, I'd already heard it out in the world, just a common saying, treat others the way you want to be treated.

And even though it's so widely spread across this world, it's not widely practiced by many.

And the importance of the golden rules that it underlies the way that we should treat everyone is absolutely fundamental.

In order to bring others to him.

And finally, Christ lived the golden rule.

He lived it every single day.

In 1 John chapter 4 and verse 19, we're told of the instance where we love because he first loved us.

And in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 7 and 8, he looked out for our own and he looked out for our interests above his own.

And in Matthew chapter 9, verses 10 to 13, Jesus showed kindness and care for the souls of others and everyone around him regardless of their background and their past.

In Christ's love for us.

It was so sacrificial that he bled and died on a Roman cross so that you This morning would have the opportunity to be forgiven of your sins as we're told in 1 Peter chapter 2 in verse 24.

And there are conditions that must be met in order to receive his free gift of mercy and forgiveness of sin.

And we have everything here ready this morning to make you his child.

And if you're already a Christian, perhaps your life has become mired in sin once again.

Christ's death on the cross continues to cover your sin as well.

And it gives you the ability to seek his forgiveness, which we are told that the Lord is willing and able to forgive us if we seek and ask for his forgiveness.

If you are subject to the invitation this morning, please come to the front as we stand and as we sing.