Our Practice of The Golden Rule

Meditations on the Sermon on the Mount 

June 17, 2024

Our Practice of The Golden Rule

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.

This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

Matthew 7:12 

Jesus said the essence of all of God’s law and the teaching of the prophets is, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.” Wow! That’s quite a statement. It only seems like such a radical assertion when the Golden Rule is taken out of the context of the entire Sermon on the Mount. When we keep it in the Sermon, we then recall how Jesus took the prevailing norms of his culture and turned them upside down. He gave his followers a new perspective, a new way to pray and new ways to live in right relationships with God and their neighbors. When we put into practice all that Jesus teaches us, then what we do unto others, and what we want others to do unto us, reflect Kingdom values.

Jesus removes any doubt about the application of the Golden Rule when later in Matthew’s Gospel he again distills God’s law and the teaching of the prophets: “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).

My Takeaway: How may Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and about the greatest commandments, inform our practice of the Golden Rule? If today we are seeking “the new way of living in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6), which is to live in the reality of God’s grace and mercy for us, how can we offer grace and mercy for our neighbors as an expression of the Golden Rule?

Sē’lah

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.