The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12

Baxter T. Exum (#1789)
Four Lakes Church of Christ
Madison, Wisconsin
June 22, 2025

Good morning and welcome! If you are visiting with us today (either here in person or online or on the phone), you are our honored guest, and we’d like to ask that you fill out a visitor card – either online or on a card from the pew in front of you. And we also invite you to pass along any questions or prayer concerns in this way as well.

We are here this morning to share the good news that Jesus died in our place, giving his life for ours, he was buried, and he was raised up on the third day. We obey this good news by turning to God in faith, by having a change of heart concerning sin, by publicly confessing our faith that Jesus is the Christ, and by obeying the Lord’s command to be buried with him in baptism. At this point, we are born into God’s family, and the Christian life begins. As usual and as our encouragement to you, we are sharing several examples of what this looks like, and we are starting this morning with an update from Green Valley Bible Camp, near Rogers, Arkansas. Danny Boggs is an old friend of mine who now serves as one of the camp directors down there, I believe. Danny preaches in Neosho, Missouri, and he actually preached here a few years back when we were out of town. But, they posted a few days ago and they say that, “Jessa Millarr was baptized by her brother Zach.” That is so awesome!

This next one comes to us from the 9th and Pierce congregation in Purcell, Oklahoma. They posted this week, and they say, “Welcome our new brother in Christ, Scotty Peery. 95 years old in the world and a brand new babe in Christ.” I don’t know what it is, but I just love everything about this picture! These are just real people – from the walker, to the kid with a giant cup, to the ball caps, to the woman with an awesome smile, to what looks to be a bird’s nest under the church’s drive-thru, to the heavy-duty suspenders with shorts. I just love all of it, but great news out of Oklahoma this week.

This next one comes to us from a congregation in Raleigh, North Carolina. They don’t have a picture, but they do have a graphic along with a pretty good explanation. They say, “Late last night, while many of us were sleeping, a man decided it was time to be baptized in our church building. He was convicted, and it was time. It doesn't matter the time, it doesn't matter who is there, it doesn't matter where it is. We rejoice along with Heaven for our new brother! If you are interested in studying about baptism, we would love to study with you. And if you are ready to be baptized, we want to remind you of the words of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:36, ‘See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?’” Good news from North Carolina!

There are others, but this last one comes to us from Jodee Sherrell. Brian and Jodee worked with us at camp for many years, and Brian preached just north of Detroit for a number of years before they moved to south-central Missouri. Their son,  Hayden Sherrell, is a former camper and now preaches down in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. John Long, one of our former elders, worshiped in Gatlinburg a few weeks ago and got to meet Hayden and his family. Well, Jodee passed along the good news that Hayden baptized Trevor Overholt a few days ago. Jodee explains that Trevor works with Hayden’s wife, Michelle, and that she planted some seeds, they talked a lot, Hayden and Michelle started studying with him and he obeyed the gospel. She says, “Oh what being a Christian still at work will do.” That is exactly right, and we are so happy for Trevor this week.
As always, though, we share these images by way of encouragement. And if you have any questions about this, if you are ready to obey the good news right now, if we can help with that in any way, we invite you to get in touch. You can send a message to info@fourlakeschurch.org, you can give me a call or send a text to 608-224-0274, or you can simply pull me aside after worship this morning, and we would love to help in any way possible.

Today we continue in our brief series-within-a-series of lessons from the Sermon on the Mount, and today we come to Matthew 7:12, a verse that is commonly known today as being the “Golden Rule.” It’s never called that in scripture, but the first printed reference to the Golden Rule goes back to a couple of English preachers from the early 1600’s. The passage, though, is one of the most well-known verses in the entire New Testament. Some of you may not realize this, but we have this reference displayed in several of our middle schools here in Madison. I’ve been to a few of our middle schools from time to time, and I can tell you that in one of the stairwells there is a print of a Norman Rockwell mosaic. We don’t have permission to display it here due to copyright restrictions, but I would encourage you to look it up on your own. You have my permission right now to search online. The original was commissioned for the United Nations building in New York, so just search for “Norman Rockwell golden rule UN,” and I am sure you can find it in a matter of seconds. But, one of our local schools has a print of that mosaic. It is a beautiful piece of work, it pictures people from all cultures around the world, and the Golden Rule is printed in gold lettering toward the bottom of that artwork. It’s not attributed to Jesus, of course, but the words of Christ are at least framed and hanging in one of our local schools.

Another middle school has a poster with the Golden Rule on it; however, the quote is attributed not to Jesus, but to Barack Obama. And I do find that interesting, because Jesus said it first. In an interview with President Obama on ABC News back in 2012, by the way, Mr. Obama cited the Golden Rule in explaining the shift in his policy toward supporting gay marriage. And speaking of the Golden Rule in the news, more recently, you may also remember that Tim Walz used the phrase “Golden Rule” during his speech at the DNC last August (less than a year ago). There was some profanity thrown in, but his point in referencing the Golden Rule was that there should be no restrictions on reproductive rights (including abortion), which is another rather unfortunate application of the Golden Rule.

As I was preparing today’s lesson, these were the first few modern applications of the Golden Rule that came to mind, but then I thought, “You know, I haven’t offended everybody yet,” so I did a quick search online for “Donald Trump” and the “Golden Rule,” and two recent occurrences popped up. First, going back to an official White House fact sheet posted to whitehouse.gov on April 2 of this year, the administration suggested that he is the first President in modern history to “...ask other countries to follow the golden rule on trade: Treat us like we treat you.” The release then has an entire section under the heading, “The Golden Rule for our Golden Age,” going into great detail about how we are now asking “other countries to treat us like we treat them.” And then, in a Truth Social post on April 20 of this year (in all caps, of course), and on Easter Sunday, no less, he personally posted, “THE GOLDEN RULE OF NEGOTIATING AND SUCCESS: HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES. THANK YOU!” And there we have it: Multiple misapplications of the Golden Rule from both sides of the political spectrum.

However, I discovered something even more unfortunate as I studied this week, and this one’s on me. I discovered that the last time I preached on the Golden Rule was back on August 6, 2000, nearly 25 years ago! We were still meeting at Elvehjem Elementary School back then, but what shocked me is that we have not looked at one of the most important verses in the New Testament in nearly 25 years, so we plan on fixing that today.

This morning, therefore, I’d like to have us take a look at what Jesus actually says. Again, the passage is Matthew 7:12, where Jesus says, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” As we allow these ancient words to change us today, I want to start today by noting what Jesus does NOT say here (by dealing with some misconceptions and misapplications), and then next Sunday we’ll plan on wrapping it up with a series of four observations concerning what he DOES say. Today, though, let’s just briefly note what Jesus does NOT say in this passage. And there are many things he did NOT say, and yet there are other ways of interacting with people that may sound somewhat similar, but are actually quite different.

    1. For example, some have said that “IF YOU ARE KIND TO ME, I WILL BE KIND TO YOU.”

We had a member (a former member now) to actually post this on her Facebook page a number of years ago, but it was a meme passed along from somewhere, that I will respect you if you respect me; I will be kind to you if you are kind to me, and so on. Let’s remember, though, how Jesus addresses this back in Matthew 5:46-47, when he said, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” And the Lord’s point, there, was to explain that as God’s people, we are called to a higher standard. Even the heathens can love those who love them first. There’s no real virtue in that. Besides, this “If you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you” attitude almost seems like we might be using others for what we think we might get out of them, “Oh, you were nice to me, now let me do this good thing for you, and then you can pay me back by doing something nice for me in return,” and so on. Jesus goes far beyond this.

    2. Perhaps in a similar way, we might consider the opposite of this: Jesus doesn’t tell us to DO UNTO OTHERS JUST AS THEY HAVE DONE UNTO US IN A NEGATIVE SENSE, either.

This is not an eye-for-an-eye type statement. This is not retaliation. This is not punishment of some kind.

    3. Thirdly, some have suggested that we can do whatever we want to another person, as long as it is LEGAL.

But again, this isn’t what Jesus says here. There are many things we have the freedom to do in our country that are perfectly legal, and yet in no way reflect the attitude of what Jesus says here. I’ve already referenced taking the lives of the unborn, but shocker of all shockers: The kingdom of this world does not always line up with the kingdom of God. We are living by a completely different set of rules. There was a time in this country when slavery was perfectly legal. So also with the holocaust. Just because something is legal does not make it right. I’m thinking of John the Immerser repeatedly saying to King Herod (regarding his wife) that, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” How can a preacher tell a king that something he is doing is “not lawful”? The king IS the law. Well, again, just because something is legal in an earthly kingdom doesn’t mean that it is legal in God’s kingdom.

    4. Finally, this morning, there are many who suggest that we can do whatever we want to do to others as long as we DO NO HARM.

And yet we might think of the priest and the Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Those two men saw a fellow human being beaten up by the side of the road, and both men passed by on the other side. You know, in terms of secular law, our nation right now merely prevents us from kicking the guy as we pass by. There is no obligation to help. Now, many places have Good Samaritan laws, providing some level of legal protection if we do stop and help, but generally speaking the law does not obligate us to help. But again, many have the idea that I can do what I want as long as I don’t hurt anybody.

Other cultures and world religions have their own version of the Golden Rule that reflects this. The ancient  Jewish rabbi Hillel, for example, had a saying, “What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your neighbor. This is the whole Torah,” he says,” The rest is commentary. Go and learn.” One of the basic teachings of Confucius (in China) was, “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” Confucius also said, “Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.” Buddhists have the saying, “Putting oneself in the place of others, kill not, nor cause to kill.” One of the ancient Buddhist writings says, “One should never do something to others that one would regard as an injury to one’s own self. In brief, this is dharma. Anything else is succumbing to desire.” Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher, once said, “What stirs your anger when done to you by others, that do not do to others.” But I hope we see the difference. These that I’ve just shared are passive and negative: Do not do what is harmful. Jesus’ statement, though, is active and positive: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Conclusion:

Next week, we hope to really dig into what Jesus actually says here, but for now, let’s be thankful that Jesus actually lived what he said here. By coming to this earth to save us, Jesus did for us what we really needed, but what we could not do for ourselves:

    • Let’s be thankful, first of all, that Jesus was nice to us, not just because we were nice to him first, because that’s not how that happened. In Romans 5, Paul explains that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”  He gave himself for us while we were “enemies” of God.
    • And let’s also be thankful that Jesus didn’t just do for us what we did to him in a negative sense, either. The Bible explains in Romans 6:26 that “the wages of sin is death.” We deserve spiritual and eternal death for all the times we’ve sinned against God, but he didn’t retaliate against us as we deserved.
    • Similarly, let’s also be thankful that Jesus didn’t just treat us according to the cold, hard dictates of the Law. Again, according to God himself, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (in Romans 3:23). According to God’s law, we are guilty, but he offers grace instead of wrath.
    • And finally, let’s be thankful that God didn’t just leave us alone. We needed more than God just not to hurt us, but like a man drowning in a river, we needed somebody to come in and save us, and that is what Jesus has done. “He saved us” Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3:5, “not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” He did for us what we were unable to do for ourselves.

Again, now that we’ve looked at what Jesus does NOT say, next week I’d like to make a series of observations concerning what Jesus actually says in this statement.

Several weeks ago, I lamented the fact that we don’t have a song about the Golden Rule. After that lesson, one of the awesome young women of the church here reached out with a song she remembers from her childhood. We purchased the words and the music, and Caleb has agreed to try to lead it for in just a moment. But, before he does, let’s go to God in prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,

We come to you this morning praising you for sending Jesus into this world to save us. He did what we were unable to do by offering himself on the cross in our place. Thank you for giving us these words of wisdom spoken on the side of that hill so long ago. We pray that your word would come alive in our hearts and show itself in how we treat the people around us.

We come to you today in Jesus’ name. AMEN.

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