Author: hsjventure

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5 through 7 should be regarded as the constitution of God’s Kingdom on earth. It is a masterpiece. The Christians of the first three centuries loved it and lived by it. In fact, one historian, W. S. Kissinger, states: “Matthew 5, 6, and 7 appear more frequently than any other three chapters in the entire Bible in the ante-Nicene writings!”

Augustine also viewed the Sermon on the Mount “as the perfect measure of the Christian life, filled with all the precepts by which a Christian life is formed.” A full in-depth examination of the Sermon on the Mount can be a life-changing experience.

In the introductory section of the Sermon on the Mount, often called the Beatitudes, Jesus invites people with various needs and perspectives into God’s Rule. Then, surprising to me, the first thing He does is to command their involvement. He lets them know at the very start that they need to listen well because He expects them to take action on His words. Think of that! One of the main points in the body of the Sermon is given near the very beginning:

Jesus doesn’t dilly dally or wait till the end of the speech to ask His hearers to act. He makes it clear that the good things they are about to learn must be shared. Their righteousness, their righteous actions, must exceed that of their religious leaders!

Let’s take a minute to go to the term “righteous” or “righteousness.” Righteousness can be interpreted by some as a super holy, ethereal, otherworldly condition. But a little study brings its real meaning down to earth in an everyday way. The Greek word translated as “righteous” is dikaios. This word is translated as “righteous” 41 times in the New Testament and as “just” 33 times. So a righteous man is a “just” man who loves God and is guided in his life by truth, reason, fairness, and justice. In other words, he lives the Golden Rule.

The word “righteousness” has to do with being just, morally upright, and obedient to God’s laws. Jesus expects His followers to be righteous people practicing justice and fairness to all.

The U.S. military at West Point faced a problem in the 1980s. Although unforeseen events occur in most wars, in the world of the 1980s, it was even more so. The West Point people have a saying: “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” So they devised an interesting concept called “The Commander’s Intent.” Every officer in a battle would have his specific instructions for his limited part. But at the top of his page of plans, The Commander’s Intent was set forth.

So now, even if everything developed differently than expected in a certain action, the officer knew the overall objective. With that in mind, he could take alternative actions to help the effort succeed. When soldiers knew the desired destination, they were free to improvise ways to reach that destination.

Chip and Don Heath, the authors of the book, Made to Stick, add: “No sales program survives contact with all customers; no plan survives contact with all teenagers.” A ready-made Biblical solution for every conceivable problem is out of the question. But we don’t need multiple north stars. Only one is needed to guide us—the Golden Rule. Applying it is up to us because now we know it is our Commander’s Intent.

The Golden Rule is not spiritual pablum or just a nice “thought for the day.” Jesus vested us with a Spirit-led conscience. He commands us “use it!” Nor is it just an incidental principle. Rather, it is at the very center of Christianity.

Certainly, your experiences in life might cause you to apply the Golden Rule in a different manner than I would. Jesus knew that. God is the one who made each human unique. Treat others the way you want to be treated. The Commander’s Intent—simple, but not easy. No leader ever commanded more. We can do it with God’s help—every day—guided by the teachings of Jesus Christ. He gave us many examples and illustrations to show us how to live the Golden Rule.

Let us now turn to Jesus’s other teachings to learn more about how the Golden Rule works. Of course, He used first-century examples, but the principles remain the same. We should have no problem applying them to our lives today. The following discussion is not intended to be a commentary on the verses. I simply want to select a few passages that show how the Golden Rule undergirds the teachings of Jesus.

It’s also true that Jesus left the door open for us to stop and get away from certain people if they are truly evil and trample the pearls of the Golden Rule under their feet in the mud. Here is what He said in Matthew 7:6: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces.”

That is good advice. As a boy working on a farm in the summer at Maquoketa, Iowa, I was told to go “slop the hogs” but with the warning “be careful.” A small boy in the area had earlier been bitten and mauled by some huge hogs. When someone actually “tramples” the Golden Rule under his or her feet in the mud, so to speak, you might get badly hurt. In a word, Jesus is saying that there are evil people. Use your head. It may be that the Golden Rule isn’t working at this time on such a person. Get away from such a person.

On the other hand, I can tell you of people who did respond—after a long time. Over time, the Golden Rule can have nearly miraculous results. People are different. We are not judges. Our job is to plant the seed. God can make it grow. As you plan to treat others according to the Golden Rule, you may think: “All right, people are all different. They have so many different attitudes and problems. How can such a simple rule—treat others the way you would want to be treated—possibly be the answer?”

I understand the concern. The first thing is to recognize that the Golden Rule certainly does not give any specific applications. A principle or great truth is not intended to do that. Also, we must remind ourselves that this is love that seeks the benefit and good of the other person. Ask yourself, “What do I need to know about this person in order to really help? What have I learned that could be of long-term benefit to this person? What do I possess that could really help this person?” No one has unlimited finances or wisdom. We do the best we can. Our love of God and truth always helps us.

Now, can I add one more critically important piece of evidence for the Golden Rule? This goes to the heart of the central questions we all must answer: Does the Golden Rule really and truly belong alongside our love of God as one of the two ways to please God and the way to inherit eternal life? Does it really? Listen.

One day at the county jail, an inmate told me, “Mr. Gregerson, I keep trying, but I don’t feel that I am getting through to God in my prayers. Look at the ceiling in this room. See the clouds painted on the ceiling? I think my prayers don’t get past those clouds.” I replied to him, “Let me read you the words of Jesus and see if He helps you!” I read Matthew 6:14 and 15.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.

“My friend, there are no ‘ifs’, ‘ands’, or ‘buts’ allowed here by God. Either we forgive others or God will not forgive us. Period.”

I read it to him again. He sat as if stunned. That was his problem! He told me later that he then prayed and prayed and prayed, forgiving. And at last he was clean! He finally was able to forgive others, and he was forgiven by God! His prayers were being answered! He knew God was dealing with him.

We all want forgiveness from God and others, so we must forgive others. It is a crucially important part of living the Golden Rule. Again, from the lips of Jesus Christ. I am sure you feel as I do. No feeling quite matches the liberating joy of forgiveness! It can be a life changer.

So when we stop to think about living the Golden Rule, the Great Commandment, we see that it obviously includes forgiveness. And so much more. So many issues face us personally, such as dealing with thoughtless or stupid drivers or bad attitudes in stores. Then think of problems in the family, with children, relatives or neighbors, and business problems. All that and so much more at a personal level. Golden Rule living surely requires a life-changing attitude on our part, a new way to live our lives. Agree?

For me, it starts with empathy, putting myself in the other person’s shoes and looking at life through that person’s eyes. Remembering that their attitude has been shaped by their life experiences and by the influence of their parents, teachers, friends, and television. Then I can connect and understand why we are so different—politically, religiously, economically, and on and on.

I then ask myself, “If I were that person, how would I want to be dealt with by someone different?” For her long-term good? I need to figure that out, in my conscience. What would be good for me if I were her? Thank God for the Golden Rule! It makes all the difference in coping with life.

As I stopped to think about all that we have discussed, I asked myself: “What could possibly be better for all of us humans on planet earth than that each one of us would pull up the best in ourselves to think and act sincerely for the good of each other?” It would be “God’s will done on earth as it is done in heaven!”

I asked God to please help me live by the Golden Rule. It is my “why” to live for.

Let us pause for a minute as I tell you now about a conversation I had with a young person in our family. We talked about how we must come to God, not through accepting church creeds, but fervently, optimistically, and confidently, praying for a personal relationship with God. Real faith!  I talked about that way back in the introduction of my autobiography. Jesus absolutely promises that God will respond with his blessings of good for us!

Now, after promising that God would respond and begin His good for us, Jesus’s very next word is “therefore” (Matthew 7:12). What does the word “therefore” mean? As you know, it means “consequently” or “because of that” or “in return for that” (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed.). So what is Jesus Christ telling that young family member and all of us? “In return for God’s answer to our plea for a relationship with Him, yes, because of His loving goodness to us, we, therefore, consequently, must do good to others! The kind of good we would want done to ourselves!” Read it for yourself at Matthew 7:7–12 and feel the impact of our Lord’s words to us. Repeat the word “therefore” when you read it aloud.

What am I saying? That in return for God’s goodness to you, you must love and do good for others! Yes, you are to live the Golden Rule, as a consequence of having been blessed by God’s love and goodness to you! Truly, a life-changing idea!  Truly, a life changer!

The Golden Rule. The Great Commandment. The Supreme Way to live! And the way to “inherit eternal life!” I am glad to say my young family member saw her life ahead in a new way!

Someone might say, “Peter, I am trying to think along with you on this, but honestly, I have a problem. I can’t quite think of it that way. I wasn’t raised that way. For me, when I think about the true Christian religion, I think about worshiping God and Jesus Christ, glorifying them, singing, worshiping, and praising them.” I interrupt to explain, “What you are saying is fine. That’s appropriate, but just keep in mind that it is not a matter of just going through some religious routine because God wants us to love him more and more.”

My friend replies, “Peter, that’s not my problem. It is about making my everyday dealing with people so supremely important to God. I just don’t see how my everyday dealings with people could be that important to God. I try to be honest and truthful and upright with people, but I don’t think of how I treat all the people in my life as being at the very center of my worship for God and Jesus.” I understand his comment.

I tell him, “I know how much you want to please God and Jesus, so think about it this way: When God was setting up His approved worship with the Jews, at the base of it all were the Ten Commandments. Three Commandments were about dealing with God. One was about rest. But six out of the ten were about how you deal with people!

“Six out of ten! The majority of the cornerstones of approved worship were about how to deal with people: ‘Honor your parents. Don’t commit adultery or steal or kill or lie or covet.’

“These six commands about how to deal with others are the majority of the basics of the approved worship, as prescribed by God himself! What does that say to you?”

My friend says, “Okay Peter, I’ve got that, and it’s a great point, but I also think when Jesus came along, He spiritualized everything more, so maybe it isn’t quite that way now for Christians?” 

“Well, think through this with me. Jesus came as the founder of true and pure worship, and the Sermon on the Mount is regarded by Bible scholars everywhere as the way Christians are to live under God’s rule. As to its critical importance, you can read the writings of Tertullian, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Calvin, Luther, Billy Graham, it doesn’t matter, all these authority people regard the Sermon on the Mount as the description of the way Christians are expected to live in worship of God and Jesus Christ.

“Now, if I read the Sermon on the Mount to you, it takes 13 minutes. If I take a little time with it, it takes 15 minutes. The Sermon contains things about worship of God, but this short 15-minute message has 25 instructions about how to deal with people—25 instructions about dealing with people in a 15-minute speech! In the greatest speech ever recorded and from the lips of Jesus Christ himself!”

We need to rethink the question: What is Christianity about?

Just how important to God is the way we deal with one another? The Sermon on the Mount by Jesus Christ answers that question as shown above. 25 in 15! An instruction every 36 seconds to emphasize the importance of human relations!

Also, please remember how, in that sermon, Jesus himself gave us a specific example to show the correct priority a Christian must have. This example by Jesus proved once and for all how important agape love and the Golden Rule are to Christianity! Don’t miss this!

In Matthew 5, Jesus tells how important it is to not judge others or insult them or smear their reputation. Then he says at Matthew 5:22, “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and then remember that your brother has something against you…”

Stop! What do you think that man should do? This is a great day for that man as he brings a special gift to God. A great and special day in his religious relationship with God. Then he remembers that some person has something against him.

Here is Jesus’s astonishing answer, “Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift to God.”

What?!? What is Jesus telling us? How important are our relations with people? What is our priority? Here it is. WE CANNOT BE RIGHT WITH GOD UNTIL WE ARE RIGHT WITH PEOPLE! “First, go and be reconciled, then come with your worship to God!” That is how important our Great Commandment and our agape love for other people is!

Here, Jesus forever opens our minds to a fuller understanding of what true Christianity is: more and more love of God and love of others. Two things.

That is what Christianity is about, according to Jesus Christ. From his lips.

Compare the Great Commandment “love others, as you love yourself,” with the Golden Rule, “treat others the way you want to be treated.”

They are the same! I got it!

Both commands require each individual to use his own conscience— “as you yourself would want to be treated!” or “as you love yourself.”

For me, a great truth had finally sunk into my heart. The Golden Rule is the same as the Great Commandment! No commandment is greater! And it is the way to eternal life!

And now—this is exciting!—here is the one thing that absolutely knits the two together, that absolutely welds them together as one and the same thing! As you remember, Jesus used that Supreme Accolade in referring to the Great Commandment by saying, “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Now, listen: the only other time, in all his preaching that Jesus ever used that same Supreme Accolade was when he described the Golden Rule! He said, “for this is the law and the prophets!” Jesus gave that same supreme honor for both!

Finally, as I prayed about it, the Golden Rule—the Great Commandment—became the supreme guide in my life. Directly from the lips of Jesus to me.

We want to talk about the second part of the Great Commandment —“loving others as you love yourself.” Honestly, somehow, that’s a problem. I’ve listened to hundreds of sermons on television and in real life. I’ve seldom heard anyone preach about the Great Commandment. And I think part of the reason is that the average person has a problem with the word “love” and “loving all others.” To begin with, I personally didn’t like to think of loving myself. When I thought of love, I thought of romance or my family or my good friends. But, love myself? Love everybody? I could see why people would have a hard time with that. Don’t you agree?

The answer proved to be with the Greek language, the language of the New Testament. They say the Greeks have a word for everything. They have four words, all translated by our one ambiguous English word “love!” Four kinds of love! They have eros for sex, storge for family love, philia for comrade and special love, but they also had another word for love: agape. It’s not like any of the other three terms, but it is a certain kind of love. It is an attitude, not just an emotion, a mindset of deeply wanting to do good and acting to do good. Agape love can simply mean to want and to do what is good for others. 

As I thought about this, I said to myself, “If that is a form of love, then I could honestly say that ‘I love myself’ because the truth is, I want what is good for me. I don’t want less for anyone else; I just want what is good for me, and I want that attitude toward me from others.” Now, if I applied that agape to other people, then I could say that I could love others! I could possibly “love everybody,” even people who are enemies, if I, as a Christian, sincerely want what is good for them and that they will change. “Agape love” is something I think a person can develop if he or she thinks about it, with God’s help! It is a very powerful attitude of wanting what is good and right for others, as well as for myself. (see “Agape, the Greatest of the Virtues,” pages 17–23, New Testament Words, William Barclay).

That is what Jesus was saying, that we must love others, care about them, be deeply and honestly concerned and act for their best interest, just as we want for ourselves.

Understanding this attitude began to develop in my mind like a beautiful flower in bud that then started to flower out. It all began when I began thinking about loving others the way I love myself. So just as I want good for myself, “loving myself,” I want that “good” for others too.

Then came these brilliantly mind-illuminating words of the Golden Rule from Matthew 7:12: “therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, you also do to them, for this is the law and the prophets.” I asked myself, “Just how would I want others to do to me?” I know I want to be respected. I want to be dealt with honestly. I want their genuine goodwill for me. I want people to have high expectations of me. I want them to say, “Peter may be different, but if I had gone through his life, maybe I would feel the same way he does.” And, now, I need to think that same way about them! This is agape love in action!

When I started thinking of “love” as having this “agape” attitude, looking for the good in others and asking how can I do good for them. Finally, it struck me! The Golden Rule is exactly the same thing as the second part of the Great Commandment!

Let’s examine the Great Commandment a little more. God commands us to love Him. Someone might say, “Well, Peter, I love God.” But, He didn’t say love God. He said, Love God with all of your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind. Now, who does that? I don’t know anybody who does. So, to me, He is, at least, saying “I, God, want you, to love me more, and more, and more.”

Furthermore, God is not commanding us to possess thoughts of love about God, but rather, to love him, and here love is a verb denoting action on our part. Each one of us must have a personal relationship with God.

Question: How do you and I grow to love God more and more? I read somewhere that a lawyer or a counselor was talking about people who had trouble in their marriage, and he said a fellow will sometimes insist, “Well, I love my wife, but I don’t love her as much as I should. I can’t help it, I just don’t love her as much as I would like to.” And what the counselor said was instructive. He said, “Take a pad of paper and number 1 to 20 on it. Then write down a numbered list of what you do admire, what you do like, and what you do appreciate about her.” He said a man sometimes will say, “I can’t think of a single thing.” But when he puts his mind to it and starts thinking about it, he changes his mind. He finds much to write down. Those written thoughts of appreciation can help us act in love to one another.

I think we could do that with God—think expectantly and be confident in our search. If we are really looking for reasons to love Him, we could love God more tomorrow than we do today, if we put our mind to it. I think that is what God is telling us. It’s almost as if He is saying to us, “Love me more and more. Keep looking for reasons to 

love me. Your happiness depends on it. Your success in life depends on it. I know what is best for you. It is most important.”

I think of Albert Einstein once saying there are two kinds of people in the world. People who say they never have seen a miracle, and people like Einstein who say, “I see miracles everywhere.” So if we start looking for the goodness of God, we will find reasons for loving God more tomorrow than we do today. And remember, God really, really, wants that from us. He made it the First and Greatest Command to His people!

God is commanding His people to love Him! When you think about it, it strikes you that He must really, really want us to love Him! I believe Jesus was thinking, “I don’t know whether my listeners realize how important this is,” so he applied the most supreme accolade or honor he ever used when he said, “On these two commandments hang the Holy Scriptures!” Imagine that. Two things. Just these two things. Loving God with all of your heart and loving other people as you love yourself. On these two commandments alone, the Holy Scriptures hang!

That statement would have astonished those Jewish listeners. It should astonish us too (Matthew 5:17).

It almost seems Jesus understood that people were going to be uneasy with that priority (I was). Again, in Mark 12: 28–31, Jesus talks about the Great Commandment. This time he makes a crystal clear statement. He says, “There is no commandment greater than these!” This is it! Nothing is greater than that in God’s communications with humans! Think about that.

Consider now the account in Luke 10. Somebody asked Jesus a different question, but the answer was the same. Here is the question. “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” What is more important to us than that? And here is the answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” There can be no doubt about it. These two commandments are supremely important to you and me. Do you agree?