church

INI
Quinquagesima Sunday
February 22, 2009
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

KEEPING THE GOLDEN RULE
Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the
children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your
God am holy.
…‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your
neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor
bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your
neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Here ends our text.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, who said, "Love one another, just as I have loved
you," Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Once, when I was attending a funeral, I heard a woman say something rather
startling. I happened to overhear her as she was talking to the widow of the man
who had passed away. She said, "I'm just certain that your husband is in heaven
now, because he was always so kind to everybody. He always kept the Golden
Rule!" Of course I knew that she meant the words to be comforting, but I
couldn't help thinking that she was a little mixed up about the Golden rule!

Almost everybody, down to the smallest child, has learned the Golden Rule at
one time or another. In simplest terms, it's "Do as you would be done by." Or,
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." In the Bible, it
represents the Second Table of the Law - commandments number four through
ten - and deals with how we relate to our fellow human beings. In Scriptural
terms, God's Golden Rule is simply, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

It seems pretty straightforward. And yet, there are a lot of people - like that
lady at the funeral - who misunderstand the Golden Rule. How deep does it go?
Exactly how much love toward our neighbor does God require of us? And, most
importantly, what does the Golden Rule have to do with whether or not a
person is saved? These questions and others are answered in our text for today.
Our theme is simply:

KEEPING THE GOLDEN RULE

I. As a REQUIREMENT of the Law, Christ kept it for us
II. As a REACTION to the Gospel, let us keep it for Christ!

Love your neighbor as yourself. Does God require obedience to this Golden
Rule before a person can be saved and go to heaven? I hope you're not shocked
when I tell you that the answer is, "Yes!" You may recall that Jesus once said
something equally shocking - that even the smallest parts of God's Law must be
fulfilled to the letter! "Assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away,
one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." Mt
5:18. And the Golden Rule is not just "a jot or a tittle," either: it's at the very
heart of God's Law! All these commandments - honor your parents, don't
murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, bear false witness or covet - all these
can be summed up with the words, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Well, if fulfilling this Law is so important, we'd better know more about it.
How well does one have to keep the Golden Rule? What level of compliance
does God require? It might not scare us so much if God only demanded that we
"do our best," or that we "give it a good try." In fact that’s just what some of
the mainstream Christian denominations teach - that God grades on a curve.
Basically, that He modifies his demands on people according to what they are
able to do. "Just do your best to serve the Lord," they say, "and He'll be
satisfied with whatever you are able to do." My friends, that is a terrible lie!

God demands much more than that, and our text for today proves it. There we
read His ringing command: ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am
holy. God requires a holiness from us that is more than just pretty good - He
requires a holiness that equals His own holiness. Jesus Himself repeats this
command in the New Testament, when He says simply, "Therefore you shall be
perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Mt 5:48.

Perfect holiness! Perfect love for our neighbor...that's what God demands in
His Law! When that starts to sink in, when one truly realizes that what God
really demands is perfection, not just a "good try", one starts to become a little
frightened. And well we may be frightened, because none of us can claim to
have come anywhere close to measuring up to this standard of perfection. For a
time, it may help to hide behind our outward piety, and tell ourselves that we
haven't broken the commandments outwardly - haven't murdered anyone,
haven't committed adultery, haven't stolen from anybody, etc. But that
argument won't hold up for long under the true requirements of the Golde n
Rule.

Look at our text closely. Notice that it's not talking primarily about outward
obedience, but an inward obedience of the heart. It tells us to love our neighbor
perfectly with our thoughts and our words, not just with our deeds. You shall
not hate your brother in your heart. Well, murder we can understand. But
hatred? Wrath? Anger? -Which of us hasn't felt that in our lives? You may have
felt it just driving down the freeway on your way here.

Here’s another case: You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin
because of him. Are you kind enough to confront someone you know who’s
involved in a soul-endangering sin? Which of us hasn't turned a blind eye to the
sin of a friend or family member, refusing to call his attention to it even when it
endangered his soul? Which of hasn't used the old excuse, "Oh, it's really none
of my business." Is that loving your neighbor? No, God says, it's just sinful
negligence. When you do that, you yourself have a share in that person's guilt.

The text goes on: You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against
the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. In
today's world of lawsuits and counter lawsuits, legal and illegal revenge, the
motto of the day is: "Don't get mad - get even!" Which of us hasn't been
tempted to revenge? For that matter, which of us hasn’t borne a grudge? Which
of us in this church today hasn't, at one time or another, nursed a comfortable
little grievance against someone who did us wrong, refusing to forgive that
person in our heart? All this falls far short of God's requirement of loving our
neighbor perfectly...of loving him, in fact, as much as we love ourselves!

But where does that leave us? If our salvation requires that all of God's Law,
including the Golden Rule, must be kept perfectly...who then can be saved?
Praise the Lord – you and I can be saved. Because as a requirement of the Law,
Christ kept the Golden Rule for us.

Look again at our text, and see how well Jesus Christ fits into this description.
It’s uncanny! Jesus IS holy, just as His Father is holy. He NEVER harbored
hatred toward anybody; rather He was the personification of God's love to man.
He did NOT avoid the topic of sin. He uncovered sin, and welcomed sinners to
come to Him f or forgiveness. He NEVER took revenge. He NEVER nursed a
grudge against anyone. Peter says, "He committed no sin, nor was guile found
in His mouth': who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He
suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges
righteously." I Pet 2:21-23.

It's a perfect match! And you see what that means - Jesus is the only Person in
the history of the world who ever really kept the Golden Rule. He truly "loved
His neighbor as He loved Himself." In fact He loved you more than He loved
Himself! What else but love for you could have driven Him to cross? What else
but love for you could have made him give up His own life to pay the price of
sins He never committed...your sins? When His enemies taunted Him, "If you
are the Christ, save yourself and come down from the cross!" they little realized
that He had the power to do just that if He wished. But He didn't do it.

I was talking with another pastor once about the circumstances surrounding
Jesus' crucifixion, and something he said bothered me. He kept referring to the
"four nails." He said that "four nails" held Jesus to the cross. I finally asked him
about it. I said that, as far as I knew, there were only three nails: one for each
hand, and one for His feet. "No," he said, "there were four nails, and the fourth
was the one that really held Him there. The fourth nail was love."

As we stand on the threshold of Lent, we’re reminded that it was love that held
our Savior to the cross - love for each one of us. John truly says, "By this we
know love, because He laid down His life for us." I=2 0Jn 3:16. We couldn't
keep the Golden Rule. You and I really haven’t kept any part of God's Law. So
Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the Law for us. In place of the filthy garments
of our own righteousness, He has given us the pure, white robe of His own
perfect righteousness. And with His death, Jesus took all our sins upon Himself,
and atoned for every one of them. Your salvation is everlastingly secure, and
heaven stands open and waiting for you!

My Christian friends, that's simply a fact. We can't earn heaven for ourselves,
and the most beautiful thing is that there's no need to. Jesus has earned it for us.
No power on earth, no angel or devil, can force you to give up heaven now.
That's the Good News of the Gospel. As a "requirement," Jesus kept the
Golden Rule for us. But we can and should react to this great gift. As a reaction
to the Gospel, let us keep the Golden Rule for Jesus!

After all, what is it that Jesus asks of us? Not all that much. He simply says,
"This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved
you." This is less a command than a simple statement, as Jesus said elsewhere,
“He who is forgiven much will love much.” And you and I, I think you’ll agree,
have been forgiven much! Suppose someone left you an unexpected inheritance
of a million dollars...I dare say that after your windfall you'd feel pretty generous
toward the people around you, wouldn't you? It goes without saying! You
wouldn't grudge a gift of a few dollars here and there if you'd just become rich
beyond your wildest dreams! That's how faith reacts to the priceless gift of
eternal life - by spreading the wealth around. By doing your best to spread love
and kindness into as many lives as you can, while you still have breath to do it!
And don't forget the highest form of love to others: why not let them in on the
secret of eternal life? Why not share the liberating Good News of a Savior from
sin with everyone you can possibly reach?

Whatever you do, don't let any petty arguments or grudges against people linger
in your mind; after everything Christ did for you it would seem a bit ridiculous
anyway, wouldn't it? -Like a millionaire haggling over a few dollars that
somebody owes him! Jesus even says, "Love your enemies, bless those who
curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use
you and persecute you." Mt 5:43-44. Doing these things won't be much
compared to what God's done for you, but it's sacrifices such as this with which
the Lord is well pleased. It's a good way to bring forth the God-pleasing fruits of
faith in your life.

I once read about a man who had parked his brand new convertible sports car
on a downtown street of a big city. Eventually, he noticed that a paperboy had
stopped to admire the car. "She's a beauty," the boy said. "Where'd you get
her?"20"It was a gift from my brother," the man replied. The youth looked
longingly at the beautiful automobile. He sighed, "I wish..." The man thought
he could guess the rest of the sentence: "I wish I could have a car like that!"
But to his surprise, the young man continued, "I wish I could be like your
brother! My own brother is crippled, and I'd love to give him a car like this!"
-The Golden Rule is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Is it a
requirement, or is it a reaction? It's both. As a requirement of the Law, Jesus
kept the Golden Rule for us. As a reaction to the glorious Gospel which has
saved us, let us keep the Golden Rule for Him! AMEN.