Where’s the Gold in the Golden Rule

Where’s the Gold in the Golden Rule?

  “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matt 7:12 (ESV)

 He who has the Gold makes the rules? That seems to be how our culture works.

 Do unto others before they do it to you? Street wisdom?

 What if there was a different way to think?

“If we could begin to think and act in sync with this one rule (matt. 7:12) in our relationships, the difference would be radical.”

The question is this: “how do I get my needs met in this relationship?”

The universality of this concept:

 Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. Islam.  Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 13

Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and you will find that this is the shortest way to benevolence. Confucianism.  Mencius  VII A 4

One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself.  This is the essence of morality.  All other activities are due to selfish desire. Hinduism.  Mahabharata, Anusasana Parva 113.8

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Judaism.  Leviticus 19.18

For a state that is not pleasant or delightful to me must also be to him also; and a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another? Buddhism.  Samyutta Nikaya v.353

 So we see that the the Golden Rule has been revealed to other religions and it is a noble idea, but how to actually do it is the issue.

“It’s meaning is seen best in the way we choose to relate to one another.”

Man made rules sometimes seem to work well at the beginning but spoil the relationship in the end. Mans best efforts fall short of what God’s standard is.

 The Reciprocal Rule: What ever you do for me, that’s what I’ll do for you: you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.

How is this rule based on selfishness?

You may have heard the story of two friends who met for dinner in a restaurant. Each requested filet of sole, and after a few minutes the waiter came back with their order. Two pieces of fish, a large and a small, were on the same platter. One of the men proceeded to serve his friend. Placing the small piece on a plate, he handed it across the table. “Well, you certainly do have nerve!” exclaimed his friend.

“What’s troubling you?” asked the other. “Look what you’ve done,” he answered. “You’ve given me the little piece and kept the big one for yourself.” “How would you have done it?” the man asked. His friend replied, “If I were serving, I would have given you the big piece.” “Well,” replied the man, “I’ve got it, haven’t I?” At this, they both laughed.

The Ricochet Rule: Do to someone based on what some other person has done for you.

The problem with the Ricochet Rule is that sometimes there is a chain reaction. Sometimes the collateral damage is more than what we bargained for.

Last week during the NASCAR race one driver bumped another causing that driver to wreck. After repairing his car the driver with the damaged car reentered the race over 150 laps behind and proceeded to smash into the car that had caused the previous wreck, causing that car to go airborne, smashing into the fence spreading debris into the grandstands and landing upside down in a pile of twisted metal. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt but there could easily have been fatalities. The driver who caused the “payback” wreck admitted that he didn’t expect things to happen like that.

In the spring of 1894, the Baltimore Orioles came to Boston to play a routine baseball game. But what happened that day was anything but routine. The Orioles’ John McGraw got into a fight with the Boston third baseman. Within minutes all the players from both teams had joined in the brawl. The warfare quickly spread to the grandstands. Among the fans the conflict went from bad to worse. Someone set fire to the stands and the entire ballpark burned to the ground. Not only that, but the fire spread to 107 other Boston buildings as well. 

Hidden Motive Rule: I act like I’m doing it for you, but it’s really to get what I want.

An apology letter to Jimmy:

Dearest Jimmy,

No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please, please forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you! Yours forever, Marie.

P.S., And congratulations on willing the super lotto.

 How do we go beyond just the words? How do we actually live this rule in our relationships?

  In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor, act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”

 The Simple Rule: “Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them.”

The downward spiral. You didn’t meet my needs, so I’m not going to meet your needs.

Stubborn. National park ranger in British Columbia has two sets of huge antlers, as wide as a man’s reach locked together. Evidently 2 bull moose began fighting, their antlers locked, and they could not get free. They died due to anger and stubbornness, neither one would back away.

 It’s always my turn to do for another.

Break the log jam.

Find something—-even a small thing—-about them for which you can be thankful. Your heart is opened to meet other’s needs when you are thankful for them.

 Love is Sacrificial

I don’t have it in me to love my enemies; I have a hard enough time loving my friends.

 Now we are getting in the area of the impossible.

 Luke 18:27 But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

Isaiah 55:9   ” For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.

“The world needs to see sacrificial love.”

Boarding the SS Dorchester on a dreary winter day in 1943 were 903 troops and four chaplains, including Moody alumnus Lt. George Fox. World War II was in full swing, and the ship was headed across the icy North Atlantic where German U-boats lurked. At 12:00 on the morning of February 3, a German torpedo ripped into the ship. “She’s going down!” the men cried, scrambling for lifeboats.

A young GI crept up to one of the chaplains. “I’ve lost my life jacket,” he said. “Take this,” the chaplain said, handing the soldier his jacket. Before the ship sank, each chaplain gave his life jacket to another man. The heroic chaplains then linked arms and lifted their voices in prayer as the Dorchester went down. Lt. Fox and his fellow pastors were awarded posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross.

“How does God treat people? A conscious decision to act toward others the way God acts toward me. : “There are hundreds of reasons why this kind of love will not work. And there is one reason why it will. Jesus”.

The power….Acts 1: 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 We have a tendency to think that this power is just for evangelists and preachers, but maybe this power is also for loving the unlovable.

 If you try this without the power of the Holy Spirit you will crash and burn.

Chinese Proverb: A journey of 10,000 miles starts with the first step.

People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply acknowledging a great debt we owe to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny? It is emphatically no sacrifice. Rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, danger, foregoing the common conveniences of this life–these may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing compared with the glory which shall later be revealed in and through us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for us.  David Livingstone.

I think I found it.

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