Transcript & slides: Four Golden Rules

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Four Golden Rules
By David Feddes

²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:27-38).

"Do to others as you would have them do to you." That's often known as the Golden Rule. Today we're going to think about four golden rules, but I'm not going to change that one from being the Golden Rule. If the whole world lived by that rule of Jesus, we would have heaven on earth. If everybody treated others the way we ourselves want to be treated, it would be nearly perfect. In fact, Jesus said in another place that the Golden Rule "fulfills the law and the prophets" (Matthew 7:12). If you're doing this, you're doing what God wants: Do to others as you would have them do to you.

I want to focus on that Golden Rule—do to others as you would have them do to you—and then on three other rules that are found in the Scriptures as well Here are the four golden rules: 

• Do to others as you would have them do to you.
• Do to others as Jesus has done to you.
• Do to others as Jesus would do to them.
• Do to others as you would do to Jesus.

If those four rules were deeply absorbed and lived, then we would truly be the light of the world. We would truly be the presence of Christ in this world.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

That's not easy, is it? We tend to be self-centered. Maybe that's why Jesus phrased it that way. Think about how you would want to be treated, and then extend that to other people. Or, as Jesus also put it, quoting the Old Testament: "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18). If you can somehow manage to love other people as much as you love yourself, you are going to be loving them hugely, because most of us tend to have great affection for ourselves. We care about ourselves very much.

We understand—or at least we think we understand—ourselves. We usually don’t understand ourselves as well as we think, but we know what bothers us, and we know what we want. The difficulty is in understanding what bothers other people, or in knowing what they want, or what would help or bless them. Often we're so wrapped up in our own little world that we can't do good to others because we're not paying enough attention to others. Still, this is a basic rule that our Lord Jesus Christ gives us: do to others as you would have them do to you.

If you're a husband and you're sitting there watching TV with your remote control, and your wife is cleaning up everything after a long, hard day, what would your wife want? Would she want you to continue clicking and watching TV, letting her do all the work? Maybe not.

If you're a child, what would your parents want you to do? Would they want you to talk back and disobey and not do anything your parents tell you? Part of doing to others as you would have them do to you, is putting yourself in somebody else's shoes and thinking about what they want.

If you're a parent, try really hard to think back to what it was like being a kid and what you sometimes wished for. I'm not just talking about ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and supper. That's one of the things you can't use this rule for—to just say, "Well, give everybody whatever they want," because a lot of people want a lot of stuff that's really not very good for them. Sometimes what children want is not consistent with what your calling is as a parent. Even so, as a parent, you can think about what your children would want if they knew what was best for them, and then you can try to be the kind of parent who is a blessing to your children.

The Golden Rule must be used with wisdom, not as an automatic formula. For instance, if you're a police officer, should you say, "I'm going to live by the Golden Rule, so I am only going to issue warnings. If I catch  someone driving way over the speed limit--well, if I was driving way over the speed limit, I'd want a warning, not a fine, so that's what I'll do. I will let people off easy and not fine them." If you're an officer, you can't just say, "Crooks would really like to get away with being crooked. I will let them get away with every crime. I'm going to do to them what I would want done to me if I were a criminal." That would be a bad misuse of the Golden Rule, because your job and calling as a police officer is to restrain crime and to keep criminals from endangering and harming others. Killers would want to get away with murder, but other people don’t really want murderers to get away with murder. Part of the balance of your calling and being a blessing to others is doing what those who called you to be an officer in the first place want you to do. The Golden Rule is not a simple formula for doing whatever another person might want you to do, but it is a call to consider others and not just yourself, and then to act in wisdom and love.

If you're in business and you take an approach to marketing where you hide all the flaws of your product and you hype all that might be good about it, is that the way you would want to be treated if you were a customer?

If you're a worker, how would your boss want you to work? Would he want you to put in two hours and fifteen minutes out of an eight-hour day actually working? Would your employer want you to spend the rest of your "working hours" on social media or texting? Is that the kind of employee that your boss would want? Of course not. The Golden Rule calls you to be the kind of worker that a boss would want.

If you happen to be a boss, then put yourself in an employee's place. How would you want to be treated? Well, then, treat your employees that way.

If each of us could learn to put ourselves in other people's shoes and then treat them the way we’d want to be treated, it would have a hugely transforming effect on the world, because it would be fulfilling God's intent for us—that we would be treating each other the way we wanted to be treated.

An expert in God's law is talking with Jesus, and Jesus says, "How do you read the law? What do you think are the greatest commandments?" The person replies, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus says, "Great answer! Do that, and you're in good shape." But the person responds, "Who is my neighbor?"

That's how we tend to think. We look for loopholes. We want to narrow down who qualifies as our neighbor. We think, "Some people don't deserve to be loved or helped. They're not really our neighbor. We don't have to treat them the way we would want to be treated ourselves."

Jesus responds with a story: "There was a man who was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. Along the road, some thieves attacked him, robbed him, beat him up, and left him for dead. While he was lying there along the road, a priest came along, and he passed by on the other side. Then along came a Levite, a temple assistant, and he passed by on the other side, leaving the man to lie there. Then along came a Samaritan. [Samaritans were people that Jews detested and despised and wanted nothing to do with.] The Samaritan went to the injured man, dressed his wounds, brought him to an inn, and paid the innkeeper a couple extra days of lodging for the man to recover."

After telling the story, Jesus asked the expert in the law, "Now, who was a neighbor to that man?" The law expert  couldn't bear to say "the Samaritan." He hated Samaritans. That would be a filthy word to come out of his mouth. So he said, "The one who had mercy on him."

Jesus responded, "Go and do likewise."

If you're an expert on God's law and you're a big shot, and you know that God says, "Love God above all and your neighbor as yourself," you're still looking for loopholes so that you don’t have to do to others as you would have them do to you. You ask, "Who is my neighbor?" when you should be asking, "How can I be a neighbor to someone who needs help?"

If you're a person beaten up and lying on the side of the road, what do you want? You want help. You don’t want somebody saying, "I would like to have a theological discussion about who is my neighbor." You want them to acts as a neighbor to you.

Do to others as you would have them do to you. This summarizes the whole law. It's good to memorize the Ten Commandments because we need specifics. But the Golden Rule is a great general guide, with the commandments filling in some details. Consider the last six commandments about the way we relate to others.

"You shall no not murder." Would you want somebody to kill you? Well then, don’t kill anybody else.

"You shall not commit adultery." Would you like having your spouse cheat on you? Well then, don’t cheat on your spouse.

"You shall not steal. " Do you like getting ripped off? Well then, don’t rip off anybody else.

"You shall not give false testimony." Do you like being lied about? Do you like getting lied to? Well then, don’t lie.

"You shall not covet." Do you want the vultures hovering around, wishing they could get what you've got? If you're a girl, do you like men drooling over you and undressing you with their eyes? Well, if you don’t like that, then don’t covet what others have, because that’s what coveting is—it’s desiring what isn’t yours.

You can go through the second table of the law about how to relate to others, and it can all be summarized by saying, "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

That is the glory of the Golden Rule, but it's also the problem. It is a law. The Golden Rule summarizes the law, and the better you know the law, the more you are condemned. As I said earlier, if we lived by the Golden Rule, we would already have heaven on earth. But we don't have heaven on earth because we don't live by the law. We break it. We can't put ourselves in others' shoes very effectively, apart from the help of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're too self-centered. We know what we want. We know our reasons for not doing things for others, and they sound like very good reasons to us. And so we blow it. If this Golden Rule were the only rule we had, it would show us the way to heaven on earth, but we would still end up in hell because the Golden Rule is the summary of the law, and the law condemns those who don’t live up to it. We desperately need something besides being told what we should be like and how we should behave. So the second golden rule is very, very important.

Do to others as Jesus has done to you.

We need to think about not just what our obligation is in putting ourselves in other people's shoes, but we need to say, "We can't do that on our own. But what has Jesus done for us?" Jesus did for us what we needed when we couldn't save ourselves. He came bringing the gospel, not just the law. Jesus loved us. Jesus sacrificed himself for us. Jesus gave himself freely to us.

So this is our second golden rule: Do to others as Jesus has done to you. Until you know what Christ has done to you and for you, you're really not free to serve others.

What is the basis for love? "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another... We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:10-19).

You might say, "Where did you get that second golden rule? I don't read anywhere in the Bible, 'Do to others as Jesus has done to you.'" Actually, you can read it all over the New Testament, just not in that exact form: "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church" (Ephesians 5:25). That's just saying, "Do to others as Jesus has done to you" in the realm of marriage. 

Love as Jesus has loved you. Our love springs from his love. If you find it nearly impossible to love others or to do to others as you would have them do to you, here’s the problem: you don't really know what Jesus has done for you, and you don’t really believe who you are in relation to him. 

Do you know how much you are loved? Do you know that you are treasured by God? Do you know that you are an heir of everything God has, and he gives you all things? The greatest barrier to loving others is that we don't know how much we're loved. We do not believe, down to the depths of our toes, how much we are loved. If you know that God loves you with an everlasting love and that your Father treasures you—do you really believe that? Do you really know that? Because that's the key to loving others. I could preach a hundred sermons on the importance of loving others, but until you know that you are loved and treasured and beautiful in his eyes, that you are the light of the world in him, that you are a kingdom and priests, that you are saints—until you know that that's who you are in him, you really can't do much else. But when you have a vast overflow of what God has given to you, then it's a lot easier to do to others as Jesus has done to you.

Here's a trivial and not very flattering example from my own life. Lately, I give bigger tips than I used to. In tipping at a restaurant, I used to be a cheapskate. Now, however, I think to myself, "Those people are working hard, they're not getting paid much. Maybe I ought to throw a couple more dollars on the tip." Why do I do that now, even though I used to give smaller tips? Not so much because I’ve become more generous. I'm just richer than I used to be. It's easier for me to tip more generously now because I'm not as poor as I used to be. 

If you think you're poor, you may feel you have no choice but to treat others poorly. If you think that being kind to somebody else is going to cast you into deep poverty, you're going to be a cheapskate like I was. But if you know the wealth that you have in Christ, you say, "I can afford to be generous, and God is going to look out for me." Love as you’ve been loved.

Here's another application of the principle, do to others as Jesus has done to you: "Accept one another just as Christ accepted you" (Romans 15:7). Jesus accepts people with many faults and flaws and failings. You do not have to be perfect before he accepts you. After he accepts you, he’ll keep working on you, and eventually, you will be perfect. But your goodness is not the basis of his acceptance. Now, if that’s true of the way Jesus treats you, how are you going to treat others? Accept others as Christ accepted you.

Here's another application of this principle, found in the passage we read at the beginning: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36). You've been shown mercy, so do to others as the Lord has done for you.

"Forgive as the Lord forgave you." (Colossians 3:13). You say, "Oh, that's hard. That is so hard." No, it's not hard--it's impossible, or it's easy, but it’s not hard. It's either impossible and you can't do it, or you are so flooded with God's forgiveness that you say, "God forgave me a ton of things, and forgiveness is the kingdom I want to live in." So you live in that kingdom of forgiveness. These things—being merciful, forgiving—are either impossible, or they come naturally because of what Christ has done to you and for you.

The same principle applies in giving. The apostle Paul was trying to gather some money from the people in Corinth to help out some needy people in Jerusalem. The heart of his fundraising appeal was basically, "Do to others as Jesus has done to you." Here's what Paul wrote: "See that you also excel in this grace of giving... For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich" (2 Corinthians 2:7-9). So there you see it again: do to others as Jesus has done to you. What a great principle of Scripture—you can't do much, if anything, for others until you know what Christ has done for you, and until you know who you are in him.

When you think of Jesus' generosity, you don’t feel poor anymore. Instead, you feel like you can afford to be generous. You don’t think, "Oh, if I tip this waitress an extra fifty cents, I might be cast into poverty forever!"

If I were to forgive somebody else something really bad, would that crush my dignity? If your dignity depends on the grudges you hold, you're in a world of hurt. But if your dignity depends on the fact that Christ has accepted you, made you the light of the world, made you a kingdom and priests, calls you a saint, calls you beloved—if that is the source of your dignity, well then, if somebody mistreats you… too bad. You can endure it without retaliating because that’s not where your dignity comes from in the first place.

Again, you can't really love until you know how much you're loved. You can't handle what other people do to you until it doesn't matter so much what other people do to you—because you already know what Christ has done to you and for you.

"Do to others as Jesus has done to you" is really the gospel golden rule—taking what Christ has done for you, receiving and inheriting his riches, and then, out of the overflow of those riches, giving to others.

 
Do to others as Jesus would do to them.

Here's a third golden rule: Do to others as Jesus would do to them. That can be expressed by asking the question, "WWJD—What Would Jesus Do?" Sometimes WWJD has been overdone. It becomes a slogan on jewelry, trinkets, and wall hangings. It's made lots of money for people selling Christian-themed stuff. Still, it's a biblical rule: Do to others as Jesus would do to them.

Part of it is the imitation of Christ—following his example. What did he say to his first disciples? "Follow me" (Luke 5:27). That didn’t just mean trudging along the road behind Jesus, though that was part of it. When Jesus says, "Follow me," he means following him wherever he leads, modeling your life after his. Right after Jesus had served his disciples and washed their feet,  he said to them,"I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you" (John 13:15). We are to follow his example.

The Bible expresses this in a variety of ways. "You are the body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:27). If you are members of Christ’s body, then there is a sense in which Jesus is doing his work through you. And your actions, if they’re done in the power of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Word of God, are actions done by Jesus Christ. In fact, you’re not just doing what Jesus would do—you’re actually acting on Jesus' behalf. He is acting through you.

"Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5). Although he was God, he left his power and majesty, and he died in order to save us. Do to others as Jesus would do to them. Let go of your privileges to help them.

WWJD—and the book on which it was based—came from this Bible verse: "Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21). The book by Charles Sheldon was titled In His Steps, and the question that various people asked throughout that fictional book was: "What would Jesus do?" That’s where WWJD came from—In His Steps—and it comes from this verse. Jesus gave us an example to follow in his steps. And you’ll notice that the example Peter talks about is suffering: "He suffered for us." Notice also that the call Jesus gives us in Luke 6 involves suffering. You’re going to suffer. People will do bad stuff to you, and part of following Jesus and doing what he would do is absorbing the cruelty that evil people do to Christ.

Do to others as Jesus would do to them. Do acts of kindness for them, as well as put up with the things they do, without demanding anything in return—because you’re following in the steps and in the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"What would Jesus do?" Again, like every other rule, this has to be understood properly. "Do to others as you would have them do to you" does not mean that if you’re a policeman, you let every speeder off the hook. Likewise, "Do to others as Jesus would do" also has its limits—obvious ones.

Let's say you go to a wedding, and they start running out of supplies—what would Jesus do? Well, he’d turn water into wine and replenish everything. But you can't do that. Or you go to a funeral—what would Jesus do? Well, he'd speak to the corpse, and the one in the coffin would get up and walk out. But you can't do that. When you go to a funeral, you weep with those who weep; you don't raise the dead. You miss the boat and it leaves without you—what would Jesus do? Well, he’d walk on the water across the lake. You can't do that. You would need to catch a different boat. "What would Jesus do?" is partly conditioned by the fact that he’s the Son of God and you’re not. So there are some things that he could do during his life on earth that you’re not going to be able to do.

"What would Jesus do?" isn’t going to be the sufficient guideline for every action. Here's a question: What would Jesus do when he sinned? Oops—bad question. Jesus never sinned. He never needed to say, "I'm sorry." But there will be many times when we’re going to need to repent, when we’re going to need to say, "I’m sorry."

So we’re going to have to do some things that Jesus never did, such as repenting of sin. And we're not going to do some other things that Jesus did because of his miracle-working power as the Son of God.

Still, having said all that, "Do to others as Jesus would do to them" is a great guideline to keep in mind and apply when it's appropriate. Jesus is our example. He’s our pioneer. He’s the one who goes ahead of us and shows the way in how to treat others and how to deal with evildoers.

Do to others as you would do to Jesus.

Here’s a fourth golden rule: do to others as you would do to Jesus—because he takes it personally. 

The Roman poet Ovid tells the legend of a lady named Bacchus and her husband, Philemon. Bacchus and Philemon are a an elderly couple in a town that is not very kind. The gods Zeus and Hermes disguise themselves as peasants and come to this town, asking for shelter and food. All the fat cats, all the wealthy people, and everybody else in the town reject them and leave these two gods out there in the street because they look like peasants. But Bacchus and Philemon welcome them in. They take from their meager supplies and give them some bread and some of the wine they have, offering Zeus and Hermes a meal and inviting them to stay for the night.

As Bacchus pours the wine from her little jug for about the fourth time, she notices that there is as much wine in it as there ever was. And she realizes,"Uh-oh, these are gods." She and her husband fall to the floor before them and say, "Oh, we are so sorry that we didn’t serve you our very best. We'll get our goose and slaughter the goose and feed it to you." But the goose jumps into Zeus’s lap, and Zeus says, "You don’t have to kill the goose. But you need to get out of this town, and get out now. I am going to destroy this town because they didn’t welcome us." Zeus and Hermes take Bacchus and Philemon out of town, and the two gods send a flood that destroys the town. Then, out of the old couple’s humble home, they create a beautiful temple. And Bacchus and Philemon receive their wish: when one dies, the other dies at the exact same moment, and they become two trees intertwined at the front of that temple.

That old pagan legend has a lot in common with some Bible stories. One day, three men come to Abraham. He is hospitable, welcomes them, and makes a big meal for them. Somewhere during the course of the meal, Abraham discovers that one of them is God come to him in human form, and the other two are angels. Later that day, those two angels go to the city of Sodom. Rather than welcome the two as guests, the men of Sodom want to rape them Only Lot welcomes the angels appearing as men, and he takes them into his house. The next day, Lot, his daughters, and his wife are whisked out of Sodom by those two angels. Then the angels send down fire and brimstone to destroy the whole city of Sodom (see Genesis 18-19).

In the missionary accounts of Paul and Barnabas, there’s a true story with echoes of the legend of Bacchus and Philemon. Paul and Barnabas go to the city of Lystra. There God uses them to perform a miracle: a crippled man is healed. The moment that happens, the city of Lystra decides that Barnabas is really Zeus, and Paul is really Hermes. The people want to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas. The priest of Zeus comes out, wanting to worship them. Paul and Barnabas then say, "No, no, we’re not gods! We're only men like you. Don’t worship us!" (See Acts 14:8-18.)

People knew stories that sometimes God (or angels or the gods) would come down in human form, and you might be mistreating a heavenly being if you mistreated somebody who didn’t seem important. You hear echoes of Abraham's and Lot's hospitality in Hebrews 13:2, "Show hospitality to strangers, because some people have welcomed angels without knowing it." If you welcome a poor peasant, you might be welcoming angels. You might even be welcoming the Lord himself. 

Do to others as you would do to Jesus. That’s not a statement that appears in the Bible in those exact words, but it’s something that’s stated in various ways in the Bible.

"Whoever welcomes a little child in my name welcomes me" (Matthew 18:5). So how are you going to treat babies? Are you going to massacre them by the millions by supporting abortion? Whoever does that to babies does that to Christ. Are you going to love babies and cherish them and bring them up in the ways of the Lord? If you do that, then you are doing it to Jesus Christ. Do to others as you would do to Jesus. 

Jesus says that at the end of the world, he will say to people, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). When you fed them, you were feeding me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I had no clothes, and you gave me clothes. I was sick, and you helped me and visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. Others will have done the opposite: in neglecting others, they neglected Jesus himself. Do to others as you would do to Jesus. 

When the apostle Paul was still Saul the murderer and Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, what was the first thing Jesus said to him? "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4) Jesus didn’t say, "Why are you being mean to my followers?" He said, "Why do you persecute me?" Jesus took very personally what was being done to those who followed him. Do to others as you would do to Jesus. 

That’s a principle already revealed in the Old Testament but made even clearer by our Lord Jesus. The book of Proverbs says, "He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker... He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done" (Proverbs 14:31; 19:17).

What can you do for someone who already has everything? In a sense, you really can’t be kind to God. You can’t help him. He doesn’t need you. He’s got it all. The only way that we can show kindness to God is to show kindness to those who are made in his image—to those with whom he identifies himself. Do to others as you would do to Jesus.

Christ Life

Let's look at these four golden rules one more time and see how they relate to the overarching reality of living the Christ life. These aren’t rules to be taken as merely rules but as expressions of the reality of Christ.

Do to others as you would have them do to you, because Christ is over you. Christ is your commander. He is your judge. He says, "Treat others the way you would want to be treated. You're going to be judged on that basis." He says that with the measure you use, it’s going to be measured to you. If you're not merciful, don’t expect mercy. If you're not forgiving, don’t expect forgiveness. If you're not kind to those in need, don’t expect God to be kind to you. Christ is over you, and he commands this. But he isn't just over you; he is for you.

Do to others as Jesus has done to you, because Christ is for you. Christ has given himself—he’s loved you with an everlasting love, he’s poured out his life’s blood on the cross, he has accepted you with all of your faults. Christ is for you. The reason you do to others as Christ has done to you is because you know that Christ is for you.

Do to others as Jesus would do to them, because Christ is in you. Christ is acting through you. You are in Christ, and he’s in you. And so, because he’s living in you, the love that you show to others and the kindness you show to others is really Jesus acting through you. Christ is in you, and that’s the basis of this golden rule.

Do to others as you would do to Jesus, because Christ is in others—or potentially in them. Even the lost still bear something of the image of God. Even the lost may be redeemed and united with Christ before it’s all over. So even those who are without Christ should be treated well. As for those who are already in Christ—well, then Christ is in them. So do to others as you would do to Jesus, because he is in them, and he takes personally the way you treat his brothers and sisters.

These are four glorious rules of belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ:

• Do to others as you would have them do to you, because Christ is over you.
• Do to others as Christ has done to you, because Christ is for you.
• Do to others as Jesus would do to them, because Christ is in you.
• Do to others as you would do to Jesus, because Christ is in them.

May God, every day, give us more grace—not to take these things just as duties but as a joy—to be the advance army of the kingdom of God in this world, a people in whom Christ lives and from whom Christ shines.

Prayer

Father, we pray that you will stamp these rules on our hearts and minds, in the many applications found in your holy Word, and in the further applications that your Spirit gives in the way we live our lives right now. We pray, Father, that you will help us, above all, to know what it is to be citizens of the kingdom of God—to be in Christ and to have Christ in us.

Lord, for some of us, our biggest struggle is simple: we don’t know you, and we don’t know who we are in you. Please open the eyes of our hearts to know the riches of our calling, to know you better and better, to realize who you are and what a glory it is to belong to you. And then, Lord, may that reality be reflected in the way we live, that people around us may taste something of the wonder of the kingdom of God and the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we live by these four golden rules.

In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Four Golden Rules
Slide Contents
David Feddes

²⁷ “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him. ³⁰ Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.

³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

³⁷ “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Four Golden Rules

Do to others as…

•  you would have them do to you.
• Jesus has done to you.
• Jesus would do to them.
• you would do to Jesus.

Do to others as you
would have them do to you.

Love your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27)

Remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. (Heb. 13:3)

Do to others as
Jesus has done to you.

Love: This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another... (1 John 4:10-19).

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. (Ephesians 5:25).

Accept: Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you. (Romans 15:7)

Be merciful: Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

Forgive: Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)

Give: See that you also excel in this grace of giving… For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Cor. 8:7-9)

Do to others as 
Jesus would do to them.

“Follow me.” (Luke 5:27)

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:15)

You are the body of Christ. (1 Cor 12:27)

Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:5)

Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:21) 

Do to others as
you would do to Jesus.

Whoever welcomes a little child in my name welcomes me. (Matthew 18:5) 

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25:40)

Why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4)

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker… He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done. (Proverbs 14:31; 19:17)

Four Golden Rules

Do to others as…

•  you would have them do to you.
  • Christ over you
• Jesus has done to you.
  • Christ for you
• Jesus would do to them.
  • Christ in you
• you would do to Jesus.
  • Christ in others