The Golden Rule

 Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 7:12

 

There is a story about a rather legalistic Seminary student who wanted to have a Scriptural basis for everything he did. He felt he was on solid ground if he could quote the Bible, book, chapter and verse to okay his actions.  He did all right with that until he began to fall in love with a beautiful girl. He wanted very much to kiss her, but he just couldn’t find a scripture to okay it. So, true to his conscience, he would simply walk her to the dormitory each night, look at her longingly, and then say "Good night."

This went on for several weeks, and all the time he was searching the Bible, trying to find some Scripture to okay kissing her good night. But he couldn’t find one, until finally he came across that passage in Romans that says, "Greet each other with a holy kiss."  He thought, "At last, I have scriptural authority for kissing her good night."  But to be sure, he went to a professor to check it out.  After talking with the professor, he realized that the passage dealt more with a church setting than with a dating situation.  So once again he simply didn’t have a passage of scripture to okay kissing his girl good night.

That evening he walked her to the dormitory and once again started to bid her "Good night."  But as he did, she grabbed him, pulled him toward her, and planted a ten-second kiss right on his lips.  At the end of the kiss, the Seminary student gasped for air, and stammered, "Bible verse, Bible verse."  The girl grabbed him a second time, and just before kissing him again, said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

 

Matthew 7:12 has been described as “The Golden Rule”.  Many people know this passage from Scripture, yet we don’t always fully understand what Christ is saying.  Martin Luther says of this passage, “It is not sufficient merely not to do evil and not do harm, but rather that one must be helpful and do good.  It is not enough to ‘depart from evil’; one must also ‘do good’”.  Basically, what Luther is saying is that it is not enough to just not harm our neighbor; we also must do good to them.

 

The hard part comes when someone hurts us and sins against us.  In a sermon on the Golden Rule, Martin Luther says, “Many say: I will let him go in peace, disengage myself from him, and do neither good or evil to him.  But if in our ill will we say: I will let him go, disengage from him, then I ask whether you also with that God should say to you: I will let you go, I will disengage myself from you and neither give not take anything from you?  Who would wish that?”

 

Thankfully, our Heavenly Father does not disengage from sinful people like us.  Rather, He sent His Son to pay the price for our sin and gives us the grace and forgiveness necessary to reconcile with others, as through Christ, we have been reconciled with God.  As Paul says in Romans 5:11, “We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”