#17 Jesus Teaches The Summary of the Demands of the Law
Matthew 7:12
1. Matthew 7:12 says, “In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.”
2. The context:
a. Translators often decipher the word “then” as “therefore.” Our Lord is looking back at the context of the Sermon on the Mount, explaining the meaning of the entire Old Testament.
b. Now He summarizes the Old Testament under one heading.
c. “The Law and the Prophets” is a phrase that the Jews used for what we call The Old Testament. Matthew 5:17-18 says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. 18For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
3. The essence of Old Testament ethical teaching concerning one’s fellow man is: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
a. There are decency teachings in the Law and the Prophets. Our Lord does not refer to all of them. His point is that the Christian’s entire duty to his fellow man is to do for him as we would have him do to us
b. Note: If you read the Old Testament and come away as a monster, take this precaution. Use a mercy standard because mercy is the essence of the Old Testament integrity laws.
c. Observations and Applications:
1) All of us would like help from others at times. We would like others to stick up for us when we are in the right and befriend and understand us.
2) So, we should do these things for all whom God made in His image also.
3) This command is not the highest priority for our lives. Matthew 22:37-40 shows the highest two priorities for the Christian.
4) Matthew 22:37-38 says, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment.”
5) Romans 13:8-10 gives “love” as a one-word summary of the Law of Moses’ duty to other people. Love is an action word. One does not love his neighbor unless he treats his neighbor as he treats himself.
6) Romans 13:8-10 says, “Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summarized in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.”
7) The Lord intends the command to “do to others what you wish others would do to you,” to be a correction to Pharisee teaching among the Jews.
8) Matthew 23:23 says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
9) Notice that “justice, mercy, and faithfulness” are duties to our fellow man. These are the “weightier matters of the law.”
d. Here are two facts about selfishness:
1) Even selfish people love their children (Matthew 7:11). We are all selfish people to one degree or another. And we love our children, giving them what they ask for. So, if selfish people give to their children, we have greater reason to believe that God will answer our prayers. God is not self-centered and gives to all of us.
2) Matthew 7:12 shows that selfishness can be a tool to use to find God’s will for oneself. We should evaluate our own [sometimes selfish] wants and realize that others desire the same things. Thus, we should help them out.
e. This summary of the fulfillment of the law being love of one’s neighbor, is not the entire summation of the law and the prophets. But it does show how our Lord obeyed the part of the Law that pertains to our neighbor.
f. People from all over the world agree with this saying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only does the Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets express it. But people know it is true from natural revelation.
4. Observations and Applications
a. This “Golden Rule” was not original with Christ. God wrote the truth of this commandment on the consciences of people when He created them.
1) God also stamped all the Ten Commandments in peoples’ consciences.
2) It is exceedingly difficult to give anyone credit for originating truths in the Bible. They are in our hearts already. And, through the ages, God keeps revealing them to the saints.
3) There is nothing new under the sun.
b. We have rights which God gives to us. We should give the same rights to other people who are in our power. Yes, we should.
1) There is talk about equality today. But there is no equality of parents, of status, of genetic composition, of brain power, of education, of character, of athletic skill, or of influence.
2) It is impossible for any of these equities to perfectly exist. We are different, due to creation, experience, heredity, and environment. We cannot be something that we are not. And we are not sinless.
3) But one thing we can do. We can treat the other person the way we wish he would treat us. This is the rule of conduct that the Lord teaches.
4) The standard is not what our neighbor does. It is what I wish he might do for me.
5) The reason this is such a powerful law is that, by using it, we factor out our selfishness. We trick the sin that resides in us by using it. We learn how much to do for the other person by imagining what we would like him to do for us.
6) We rebel against God’s laws because of our indwelling sin. But sin within us does not know how to revolt against this law at first. It is God’s law against which our sinful nature wants. But we derive it from projecting what others want. And our sin nature becomes confused for a time. But it soon catches up.
c. The rule is so noticeably short, consisting only of part of one verse. Yet it includes “all things” and “whatsoever” we must do. It is not a list of laws. We imagine it to be a law by thinking of personal gratification. What would I like for him to do for me if he were I? That is my law.
1) Though this law is brief, it encompasses everything pertaining to the other person.
2) I create a law of action, one that gives me an example of what my activity should be. I can follow another person’s obedience to Christ easier than personally obeying Him. If we do not love our brother whom we have seen, how can we love God whom we have not seen?
3) 1 John 4:20 says, “For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”
d. No one can deny the similarity between this golden rule and the Gospel of Christ.
1) We disappoint ourselves with our conduct.
2) We yearn for someone or something to change us.
3) If only a righteous person could guarantee my conduct and take the blame for my sins. There is such a person, and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
4) He dies for my sin and gives me the spiritual power to overcome temptations
5) I must do the same for others, sacrificing to point them to the Lord Jesus, who loved us before we loved Him.
6) The great motivation for the Christian life is thanking Jesus for dying for our sins. Thankfulness to God is a powerful incentive.
e. Our Lord derives this law from Leviticus 19:18, which says, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.”
1) Jesus loves me. So, He thinks of me as follows:
a) Jesus thinking: “If I were he, I would want someone to free me from his plague of sin. My Father promised him to me before creation.”
b) Jesus thinking: “I am putting myself in his shoes.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
c) Jesus thinking: “I am going to do for him what he cannot do for himself.” (Romans 5:6-8)
d) Jesus thinking “I will satisfy My Father’s justice on the cross, taking the blame for this man’s disobedience. I will rise from the dead with him joined to me and give him my resurrected life.” (Colossians 1:22; Ephesians 2:5-10).
e) Jesus thinking: “My Father will curse me in his place, but since I am without sin, both of us will rise from the dead. I will rise bodily. He will rise spiritually first, then later He will rise bodily to be with me.” (Galatians 3:13; 1 Corinthians 15:44-49)
2) God tells His Son to love me. And He does. He puts himself in my shoes, having special compassion toward me.
3) Not only does the Lord do something for me that I cannot do for myself, but He does what I need instead of what I want.
4) He did this for me a stranger, a Gentile, and a sinner.
5) “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh” (Leviticus 19:18).
6) Your neighbor is any human being, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free, black, white, yellow, brown, or red.
f. The Sermon on the Mount does not primarily tell us how to love God. Rather, it tells us how to love our neighbor. But one method of loving God is loving our neighbor, because God tells us to do so.
g. In the Golden Rule our Lord taught us a technique for actively loving others. He said to do the followings:
1) Salt the corrupt world, retarding the rot (Matthew 5:13-15).
2) Light the sinful world with God’s truth (Matthew 5:14-16).
3) Teach the spiritual aspects of the law. Hate is also murder. Lust is adultery too (Matthew 5:21-24).
4) Be a peacemaker between God and man; between yourself and your brother; and between two other persons (Matthew 5:9; 21-26).
5) Treat your spouse in mercy, even during divorce (Matthew 5:31).
6) Abstain from fornication (Matthew 5:32).
7) Respect God’s right to terminate life and to delegate this right to others (Matthew 5:21-22)
8) Do not chafe at authority (Matthew 5:22).
9) Imitate God in loving and doing good to all neighbors, even to enemies (Matthew 5:44-45).
10) Do not covet others’ possessions (Matthew 6:22).
11) Give to God and to the needy (Matthew 6:4).
12) Serve God chiefly, not money (Matthew 6:24-25).
13) Do not attack God’s character by worrying (Matthew 6:30).
14) Make God’s kingdom your top priority (Matthew 6:33).
15) Do not judge by the appearance of people, places, and things (Matthew 7:1-5).
16) Honestly judge people who are dogs and swine and treat them accordingly (Matthew 7:6).
a) Be kind to them like God is kind to them (Matthew 7:6; 5:44-45)
b) But understand their status as enemies of God (Matthew 7:6).
c) Remember that they will tear you apart and trample you if you give them your pearls (Matthew 7:6).
