Saturday, February 18, 2012
MOVING AWAY FROM COMFORT TOWARDS OTHERS NEEDS THROUGH THE GOLDEN RULE Part 3
“So [or: therefore] whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
I've been writing about moving away from seeking our own comfort and instead beginning a lifestyle of moving towards the needs of others by living the Golden Rule as taught by Jesus. So how do we live out the Golden Rule? How do we move away from seeking our own personal comfort to pursue moving towards the needs of others?
Notice that our Lord considers that the Golden Rule is applicable "whatever". Some translations use "in everything." In other words, it is to be a constant reminder in every setting we face, in every relationship, in every demand upon us that we are to "treat people in the same way you want them to treat you."
So Jesus is saying, “In the light of what I’ve just said about the Father’s love and care for you, do unto others as you would have them do to you.” But let me add a paraphrase, “Do unto others as God has done to you.” How has God done to you? Oh for our memories to be refreshed and our eyes to see what the Father has done and is doing! Every good gift has come to you from the Father above. Treating others the way you want to be treated involves an amazing, profound, supernatural change in the way you make choices. I don’t have to be enslaved and fearful, anxious, selfish, greedy, miserly, or withholding anymore. For what we would want others to do to and for us God has already done and is doing in Christ!
Has God shown you grace? Give grace! Has God cared for you? Care for others! Has God loved you? Love others! Has God forgiven you? Forgive others! Has God been generous with you? Give generously! Has God met your needs? Give to others needs! Brothers and sisters, people as designed by God to receive from us what we have received from Him and to expand and enlarge our joy in Him. In short, we are to give freely give to others-through every practical means available-whatever we have found and received from this generous God. The inflow of God’s grace to you becomes of the outflow of God’s grace through you towards others!
Is it no wonder why the scriptures say things like, “We love because He has first loved us?” “Freely you have received, freely give.” “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” “The love of God has and is being continuously poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me…Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
In summary, there are five keys to living out the Golden Rule:
1. Remember how has God treated you, how He has met and will meet your needs.
We were created to know much about God, we were created to feel much for God; and we were created to live much for God. A deep and growing biblical knowledge of God and Christ and the cross and salvation and faith and all the promises for us in Christ can give freedom to move away from our selfish desires for comfort, ease, and security from this life. Therefore, you need to fall on your face and plead that God would open your eyes to see the compelling glory of Jesus Christ.
2. Ask God to open your eyes to needs all around you, to open doors, to help you to do what left to yourself you cannot do, and to launch you into moving away from comfort and towards need.
“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5) “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?” (1 John 3:15)
3. Look around and see the needs around you.
4. Use your imagination
How would you like others to treat you? How can you respond to the need? Imagination is a Christian duty. You can't apply Jesus' golden rule without it. Jesus, unlike others in his day, did not say “Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you.” He said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” That is even more radical, because it means that we are to become creatively proactive in our relationships—we must imagine ourselves in their place and imagine what we would like done to us. Compassionate, sympathetic, helpful love hangs much on the imagination of the lover.
5. Be available to let the inflow of God’s love be released into an outflow of freely giving to others what God has given to you
O my brothers and sisters, if God is your Father through the price that Jesus paid with his own blood, and if you trust him to give you freely and sufficiently everything you need to live on this earth for His glory, the answers to those questions and many more will shape your life into a life moving away from your own quest for comfort and towards others need rooted in the faith that your Father will give only good things through Jesus to those who ask. May Christ will become increasingly precious to you. May God encourage you and enable you by his Spirit to build your life on the mercies of God revealed in Jesus Christ that God graciously pours in you to meet your deepest needs. Receive these mercies. Entrust your life to them. Embrace them for the forgiveness of your sins and all the help you need to live a life of generous mercy, grace, and move your life away from comfort and towards need doing to others what God has done to you!
Pastor Bill
Sunday, February 12, 2012
MOVING AWAY FROM COMFORT TOWARDS OTHERS NEEDS THROUGH THE GOLDEN RULE Part 2
“So [or: therefore] whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
Last week I wrote that Jesus demands from us a radical new way to live, to move away from the pursuit of our personal comfort, and instead, to move towards others needs. We find this in His profound calling for His followers in one of the most famous verses in the Bible. We know it as the Golden Rule: a name given to this passage around the 17th century. If Jesus commands this, then something unbelievably powerful and earthshaking and reconstructing and overturning and upending will have to happen in our souls. Something supernatural. Something well beyond what self-preserving, self-centered, self-enhancing, self-exalting, self-esteeming, self-advancing, fallen human beings like me can do on my own.
When it comes o relating to others, what does fallen sinful man naturally do? What is their code of relationship? "Do to others as they do to you - treat them as they have treated you." Or "Do to others so that they will do to you." Or “Do unto others before they do unto you." Or "Do unto others and split." Or “Do unto others who can somehow benefit me in my doing unto them”. Or "Do to others but I expect to be reciprocated by you. (I’m keeping score here)" Or “Do unto others what you would like to receive for themselves. (Like the man who bought his wife a ping pong table for Christmas. Honey I was only thinking of you!) The most dangerous view of all comes out of religious performance, works, duty oriented Christianity which says, "Do to others so that God will do unto you” But Jesus said it plain and simple, "Do to others what you would have them do to you."
The main thing I want you to see is that the word "so" at the beginning of verse 12 implies three things:
1) You can’t live the Golden Rule—treat others the way you would like to be treated—without experiencing the truth of verses 7-11, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" What I mean is, without the deep confidence that your Father has given you and will give you every good thing you really need.
2) If you really experience the truth of verses 7-11; the assurance that your heavenly Father meets all your real needs; you will have the inner freedom and desire to live the Golden Rule: to do the good to others that you would like them to do for you.
3) The reason the Golden Rule fulfils the law and prophets is that it assumes the love of the Golden Rule in verse 12 is all flowing from faith in the work of the love of Jesus Christ on the cross to ransom us by his blood and secure for us God’s mercy and everlasting Fatherhood.
All of that is implied in the word so—
SO...
1) If you really treasure your heavenly Father who meets all your needs by only giving you what is good for you, then you can live for others.
2) If you really treasure your heavenly Father who meets all your needs by only giving you what is good for you, then you will live for others.
3) If your living for others flows from trusting in your Father through the Messiah, Jesus, who paid your ransom and forgave your sins, then this kind of life fulfills all that the law and the prophets were aiming at and frees us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
In other-wards, all the things that we long for and need: joy, happiness, hope, love, security, safety, fulfillment, and significance is found in God alone through Christ who freely, generously, joyfully gives us all we need and satisfies us heart, soul, mind, and strength; and with that great discovery-that God is the never ending bread of life and living water, and provider of all good gifts –the way we love others is forever changed. I am free!
Doing to others what you would have them do to you is moving from comfort toward need as Jesus Christ has moved from His comfort towards your need. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (I John 3:16) Jesus has given us the motivation, the desire, the provision, and the power to care for others by revealing to us the Father's heart and the Father's provision. We are freed to care for others because God has revealed His care for us. Knowing that our needs have been met by the Father and will be met as we ask, seek, and knock frees us to reach out to help meet the needs of others. Being recipients of the father's love frees us to love. You have a Father in heaven who, because of Christ’s work, only gives his children what is good for them.
Therefore, love people persistently. Treat them the way you would like to be treated. Your Fathers’ blood-bought care for you is the spring of your moving from comfort towards need. If you experience him as this kind of Father, you will love people like this.
To be continued next week: HOW DO WE LIVE THE GOLDEN RULE?
Pastor Bill
Last week I wrote that Jesus demands from us a radical new way to live, to move away from the pursuit of our personal comfort, and instead, to move towards others needs. We find this in His profound calling for His followers in one of the most famous verses in the Bible. We know it as the Golden Rule: a name given to this passage around the 17th century. If Jesus commands this, then something unbelievably powerful and earthshaking and reconstructing and overturning and upending will have to happen in our souls. Something supernatural. Something well beyond what self-preserving, self-centered, self-enhancing, self-exalting, self-esteeming, self-advancing, fallen human beings like me can do on my own.
When it comes o relating to others, what does fallen sinful man naturally do? What is their code of relationship? "Do to others as they do to you - treat them as they have treated you." Or "Do to others so that they will do to you." Or “Do unto others before they do unto you." Or "Do unto others and split." Or “Do unto others who can somehow benefit me in my doing unto them”. Or "Do to others but I expect to be reciprocated by you. (I’m keeping score here)" Or “Do unto others what you would like to receive for themselves. (Like the man who bought his wife a ping pong table for Christmas. Honey I was only thinking of you!) The most dangerous view of all comes out of religious performance, works, duty oriented Christianity which says, "Do to others so that God will do unto you” But Jesus said it plain and simple, "Do to others what you would have them do to you."
The main thing I want you to see is that the word "so" at the beginning of verse 12 implies three things:
1) You can’t live the Golden Rule—treat others the way you would like to be treated—without experiencing the truth of verses 7-11, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" What I mean is, without the deep confidence that your Father has given you and will give you every good thing you really need.
2) If you really experience the truth of verses 7-11; the assurance that your heavenly Father meets all your real needs; you will have the inner freedom and desire to live the Golden Rule: to do the good to others that you would like them to do for you.
3) The reason the Golden Rule fulfils the law and prophets is that it assumes the love of the Golden Rule in verse 12 is all flowing from faith in the work of the love of Jesus Christ on the cross to ransom us by his blood and secure for us God’s mercy and everlasting Fatherhood.
All of that is implied in the word so—
SO...
1) If you really treasure your heavenly Father who meets all your needs by only giving you what is good for you, then you can live for others.
2) If you really treasure your heavenly Father who meets all your needs by only giving you what is good for you, then you will live for others.
3) If your living for others flows from trusting in your Father through the Messiah, Jesus, who paid your ransom and forgave your sins, then this kind of life fulfills all that the law and the prophets were aiming at and frees us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
In other-wards, all the things that we long for and need: joy, happiness, hope, love, security, safety, fulfillment, and significance is found in God alone through Christ who freely, generously, joyfully gives us all we need and satisfies us heart, soul, mind, and strength; and with that great discovery-that God is the never ending bread of life and living water, and provider of all good gifts –the way we love others is forever changed. I am free!
Doing to others what you would have them do to you is moving from comfort toward need as Jesus Christ has moved from His comfort towards your need. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." (I John 3:16) Jesus has given us the motivation, the desire, the provision, and the power to care for others by revealing to us the Father's heart and the Father's provision. We are freed to care for others because God has revealed His care for us. Knowing that our needs have been met by the Father and will be met as we ask, seek, and knock frees us to reach out to help meet the needs of others. Being recipients of the father's love frees us to love. You have a Father in heaven who, because of Christ’s work, only gives his children what is good for them.
Therefore, love people persistently. Treat them the way you would like to be treated. Your Fathers’ blood-bought care for you is the spring of your moving from comfort towards need. If you experience him as this kind of Father, you will love people like this.
To be continued next week: HOW DO WE LIVE THE GOLDEN RULE?
Pastor Bill
Saturday, February 4, 2012
MOVING AWAY FROM COMFORT TOWARDS OTHERS NEEDS THROUGH THE GOLDEN RULE
“So [or: therefore] whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, toward the end of Beethoven's life, an unknown musician made a small alteration in the construction of the harpsichord that subsequently altered the whole development of western music. Before his time most of what we call piano music was composed for that instrument, but because of its design the music itself was quite limited. The strings of a harpsichord are plucked by a small hook, producing a sound even in intensity and similar to that of a harp. In this change the hook was replaced by a hammer, so that the string was struck rather than plucked. This minute alteration made all the difference musically, for the dynamic range of the instrument was greatly in-creased. The harpsichord became a piano. And the way was paved for the dramatic and thrilling compositions of Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt and Chopin. The development of music then revolved to a large degree around the piano, just as it had previously revolved around the organ during the Baroque era.
This story illustrates the dynamic kind of change that God desires to bring into your life. Jesus demands from us a radical new way to live, to move away from the pursuit of our personal comfort, and instead, to move towards others needs. We find this in His profound calling for His followers in one of the most famous verses in the Bible. We know it as the Golden Rule: a name given to this passage around the 17th century. But first we must see…
I. THE ROOT OF CHRIST’S TEACHING
The first word is key here in verse 12. In the ESV, it is “so.” “So whatever you wish that others would do to you . . . .” Other translations use ‘therefore”. I think “therefore.” is a stronger translation of the Greek word oun. They mean the same thing. That’s a very important word. The word “so” or “therefore” is used 1039 x’s in scripture. There is a whole worldview in that word. When Jesus says, “So . . .” He is saying: The life I am calling you to live (in verse 12) is built on something. It doesn’t come out of nowhere. It has roots. It has a foundation. Christian living has roots. It has foundation. It has causes and grounds and reasons. And that is no small thing! Because of all the truth about God as our heavenly Father therefore we are to build our practical lives on this. Jesus moves us from the foundation to application in our relationships with people with the word “therefore.”
This great ‘therefore’ flows from what Jesus just said in verses 7-11, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! ". Our Lord’s teaching on the greatness of the Father and the nature of the Father goes before what Jesus is about to say and supports what Jesus is about to say. This great vision of the reality of God our Father, this powerful truth leads somewhere-moving away from comfort and towards need. I know that there are those who see so little of the greatness of God and beauty of Christ in this that it simply has little or no affect upon how they live. What God does to us, for us, and in us in His Fatherly provision, the meeting of our needs, and our trusting prayerful love back to Him, is meant to be the truth, the foundation, the source of power, freedom, and the launch-pad for living the kind of life that Jesus is about to say to us. So Jesus says, “Because of the Fathers love, mercy, kindness, care, grace, and generous provision in giving me only good things to meet my needs, therefore, you are to live this way.”
Christian living is built on something! O reader build your lives on the greatness and goodness of God. Let us say, Because of the greatness and goodness of God towards me in Christ I will live the life of moving away from my seeking comfort and will move towards others needs.
II. THE ESSENCE OF CHRIST’S TEACHING
So where does the word so or therefore lead us? Keep the Golden Rule: “So [or: therefore] whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” This verse really is a good commentary on Matthew 22:40, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There he says that the law and prophets hang on this commandment and the first commandment to love God with all your being. Here He says that this is the law and the prophets. In other-wards, loving people and doing unto others what you would wish that they do to manifests visibly and publicly and practically what the Old Testament is about. They fulfill the law and prophets by making the aim of loving God visible. Loving God however is invisible. It is the internal passion of the soul. But it comes to expression when you love others. So loving others is the outward manifestation, the visible expression, the practical demonstration, and therefore the fulfillment of loving God and therefore what the Old Testament is all about.
So there is a sense that loving your neighbor and doing unto others is the visible goal of the Word of God. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:5, “The goal of all teaching is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Loving our neighbors is based upon our love for God and is the overflow and outflow of it so that people “see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16)
To be continued...
Pastor Bill
During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, toward the end of Beethoven's life, an unknown musician made a small alteration in the construction of the harpsichord that subsequently altered the whole development of western music. Before his time most of what we call piano music was composed for that instrument, but because of its design the music itself was quite limited. The strings of a harpsichord are plucked by a small hook, producing a sound even in intensity and similar to that of a harp. In this change the hook was replaced by a hammer, so that the string was struck rather than plucked. This minute alteration made all the difference musically, for the dynamic range of the instrument was greatly in-creased. The harpsichord became a piano. And the way was paved for the dramatic and thrilling compositions of Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt and Chopin. The development of music then revolved to a large degree around the piano, just as it had previously revolved around the organ during the Baroque era.
This story illustrates the dynamic kind of change that God desires to bring into your life. Jesus demands from us a radical new way to live, to move away from the pursuit of our personal comfort, and instead, to move towards others needs. We find this in His profound calling for His followers in one of the most famous verses in the Bible. We know it as the Golden Rule: a name given to this passage around the 17th century. But first we must see…
I. THE ROOT OF CHRIST’S TEACHING
The first word is key here in verse 12. In the ESV, it is “so.” “So whatever you wish that others would do to you . . . .” Other translations use ‘therefore”. I think “therefore.” is a stronger translation of the Greek word oun. They mean the same thing. That’s a very important word. The word “so” or “therefore” is used 1039 x’s in scripture. There is a whole worldview in that word. When Jesus says, “So . . .” He is saying: The life I am calling you to live (in verse 12) is built on something. It doesn’t come out of nowhere. It has roots. It has a foundation. Christian living has roots. It has foundation. It has causes and grounds and reasons. And that is no small thing! Because of all the truth about God as our heavenly Father therefore we are to build our practical lives on this. Jesus moves us from the foundation to application in our relationships with people with the word “therefore.”
This great ‘therefore’ flows from what Jesus just said in verses 7-11, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! ". Our Lord’s teaching on the greatness of the Father and the nature of the Father goes before what Jesus is about to say and supports what Jesus is about to say. This great vision of the reality of God our Father, this powerful truth leads somewhere-moving away from comfort and towards need. I know that there are those who see so little of the greatness of God and beauty of Christ in this that it simply has little or no affect upon how they live. What God does to us, for us, and in us in His Fatherly provision, the meeting of our needs, and our trusting prayerful love back to Him, is meant to be the truth, the foundation, the source of power, freedom, and the launch-pad for living the kind of life that Jesus is about to say to us. So Jesus says, “Because of the Fathers love, mercy, kindness, care, grace, and generous provision in giving me only good things to meet my needs, therefore, you are to live this way.”
Christian living is built on something! O reader build your lives on the greatness and goodness of God. Let us say, Because of the greatness and goodness of God towards me in Christ I will live the life of moving away from my seeking comfort and will move towards others needs.
II. THE ESSENCE OF CHRIST’S TEACHING
So where does the word so or therefore lead us? Keep the Golden Rule: “So [or: therefore] whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” This verse really is a good commentary on Matthew 22:40, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There he says that the law and prophets hang on this commandment and the first commandment to love God with all your being. Here He says that this is the law and the prophets. In other-wards, loving people and doing unto others what you would wish that they do to manifests visibly and publicly and practically what the Old Testament is about. They fulfill the law and prophets by making the aim of loving God visible. Loving God however is invisible. It is the internal passion of the soul. But it comes to expression when you love others. So loving others is the outward manifestation, the visible expression, the practical demonstration, and therefore the fulfillment of loving God and therefore what the Old Testament is all about.
So there is a sense that loving your neighbor and doing unto others is the visible goal of the Word of God. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:5, “The goal of all teaching is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Loving our neighbors is based upon our love for God and is the overflow and outflow of it so that people “see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16)
To be continued...
Pastor Bill
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