the golden rule (matt7:12)

Matthew 7:12

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the prophets.

The golden rule - everybody loves this, don't they? If we all just did this then the world would be a better place (which is true) but the problem is that we all think the we're doing it and the problem lies with other people. Too often we have twisted the golden rule into a selfish version that's more about what others should be doing than me - "other people should treat me the way that I (think I) treat others". Jesus gives this command to you to think about your own behaviour, not to be the golden rule police for others. At best we may manage a negative version of the rule - "don't treat others in a way that you wouldn't like to be treated" - so don't steal, murder etc because you wouldn't like that doing to you. Jesus wants more - you are to treat others the way that you wish you treated - this is positive and requires initiative and action rather than just the absence of negative action - you like to be loved so love others, you like to be appreciated so appreciate others, you like others to be generous to you so be generous to them. Don't look straight to the golden speck in your brother's eye but examine the golden log in your own.

This sums up the Law and the prophets? With no mention of God? Jesus has made it clear throughout the sermon on the mount that treating others in this way is impossible in our strength without him.

ask (matt7:7-8)

Matthew 7:7-8

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.

We are told to keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. We are to persevere in prayer. God will respond. Is this a green light to pray for a new car and if you keep on going you'll get it? Jesus has already taught that prayer is about God's will and God's kingdom as well as our needs and we are to pray along those lines. Our perseverance isn't about wearing God down - it's part of the process. Sanctification is not a one time download but it's a lifelong process and part of that process is seeking after God.

The very fact that we are needing to ask/seek/knock should humble us - we NEED something, we are not self-sufficient, we are dependent on God's giving. Don't look to yourself, look to God

generations

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.

Judges 2:10

It's a frightening situation to think about the next generation growing up and not knowing anything about God. How can we stop that happening? We are responsible for passing it on:

One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.

Psalm 145:4

What does that mean practically?

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates,  so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

It means we need to have God's word in our hearts and minds. We are not going to pass anything on that we are not captivated by ourselves. Then we need to talk about them to the next generation - not waiting for designated times or places but as part of our everyday lives. Are you telling the next generation about God?

discernment (matt7:6)

Matthew 7:6

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

While not being judgmental (as Jesus has warned in the preceding verses), we are to be discerning. The gospel can and should be freely shared with anyone, when it comes to investing our limited amount of time with people, we need to be discerning. That means that an hour spent arguing in internet comment threads with Dawkins fans is probably not as useful as spending that hour with my neighbour or colleague. the gospel could be shared in both contexts. But if can only do one, it should be the second.

don't judge (matt 7:1-6)

 Matthew 7:1-5

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye" when  there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

"Don't judge" is probably the most quoted verse in the bible. We use it to excuse anything. We see it as the ultimate defense to any criticism. Reading this verse in context, we see that it is not about never making a judgement about anything (firstly that would be impossible, secondly, Jesus tells us to be discerning - which involves making a judgement and instructs us how to address sin in others lives - which also involved making a judgement) but this command is about hypocritical judgement - judging others while letting yourself off the hook. It is about being judgmental.

We do this all the time. We are quick to see other's faults but ignore our own. We are outraged that someone else has committed a particular sin but we justify our own. We criticise others and expect them to change but bristle at any criticism we receive or any suggestion something needs to change in our own life.

This isn't new - Calvin observed the same thing:

We see how all flatter themselves, and every man passes a severe censure on others. This vice is attended by some strange enjoyment: for there is hardly any person who is not tickled with the desire of inquiring into other people’s faults...This depraved eagerness for biting, censuring, and slandering, is restrained by Christ, when he says, Judge not. It is not necessary that believers should become blind, and perceive nothing, but only that they should refrain from an undue eagerness to judge

Jesus instructions are not about never confronting sin, and he is not suggesting we need to be blameless before doing it. It is about being more concerned about our own sin than somebody else's. It is about looking at ourselves more than we look at others. The sort of rebuking, confession and repentance that is supposed to take place in the christian community happens between people who are aware of their own sin and so approach each other humbly.

worrying your life away (matt6:34)

Matthew 6:34

Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Jesus closes this section on anxiety with a practical observation - there's enough stuff going on today that needs our attention rather than worrying about tomorrow. Are we so concerned with what might happen in the future that life is passing us by? Are we worrying our life away?

what are you seeking? (matt 6:33)

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

 We should be seeking God before all the other things that are the subject of our anxiety:

• seek it before your needs
• seek it before your survival
• seek it before your image
• seek it before money
• seek it before anything else.

The giver is more important than the gifts. Are we more "anxious" about our sin or our reputation with others? 

Seeking other things will be a never ending quest for satisfaction. Seeking God leads to satisfaction and all the other things will be taken care of - by the one who knows our needs best.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither. 

CS Lewis

still anxious? (matt6:31-32)

Matthew 6:31-32

Therefore do not be anxious, saying "What shall we eat?" or "what shall we drink?" or "what shall we wear?" For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them all.

A couple more reasons to not be anxious:

• God knows your needs. He knows them far better than you do - and he loves you!
• Anxiety is a pagan mindset - always wondering if we've done enough, wondering if God is in a good mood. The Christian mindset is confident - we know we haven't done enough but we know what mood God is in!

worry vs faith (matt 6:30)

Matthew 6:25a

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious...

Matthew 6:30

...O you of little faith

A lack of faith will cause us to be anxious. Don't take this as an instruction to try and whip up more faith in yourself. It's not so much the quality of your faith that matters but the thing/person you have faith in. Our faith will increase as we remind ourselves of the One who our faith is in

Worry: How am I going to make ends meet?

Faith: God cares for and provides for the birds, and I am more valuable to him than they are

Worry: What if I die?

Faith: God is in control of your survival and can be trusted.

Worry: How do other people see me?

Faith: God, the masterful creator, created you.

Worry: What about this? What about that?

Faith: Life is about more than this and that, it is about God.

darkness on the edge of town

Bruce Springsteen, in The Promise: The making of darkness on the edge of town, says something like: A lot of my writing is obsessed with sin, and what it means in a good life. You can't get rid of it, you have to carry it. It's about how you carry it.

He sees this leading to a heavy, weary existence, working, paying the bills but gradually dying inside.

In so many ways he's right. But that's only the story if it doesn't include Jesus

1 Peter 2:24 

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 

Matthew 11:28-30  

²⁸  Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Anxiety (Matt 6:25-30)

Matthew 6:25-30

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith.

The type of anxiety Jesus warns us about is material. We may worry about our life - food/drink, our needs, how are we going to survive? And/or we may worry about our body - clothes, which could also stretch beyond the physical need for clothing to extend to our appearance and image.

Worried about your survival? Jesus says:

• That if God is concerned about the needs of the birds, he is concerned about your needs (v26)
• worry doesn't work! you can't extend your life by anything, including worry. God is in charge of your survival (v27)
• Life is about more than survival (v25). You've worried and survived - is that a life?

Worried about your image? Jesus says:

• Life is about more than image (v25)
• The beauty of a minor part of God's creation far exceeds the best that man can manage (v28-29)
• God has expressed his creativity in the beauty of nature, which includes you. Your image is his creation (v30)

Therefore (matt 6:25a)

Matthew 6:25a

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious

To understand Jesus' instruction to not be anxious, we can't miss the "therefore", referring to everything he has just been talking about.

Therefore...

because earthly treasures are temporary

because heavnely treasure is permanent 

because your focus affects your entire life

because you can't serve both God and money

because of all of this - do not be anxious.

We will be anxious if we are focussed on storing up earthly treasure. We will be anxious if we are serving the god of money, or even trying to serve money and God (as if that was possible). Peace will be found in serving God with our eyes fixed on our eternal life with Him.

money is a rubbish God (Matt 6:19-24)

Money makes a rubbish God. Acquiring "stuff" is not worth devoting your life to. Why? Jesus gives a few reasons in Matthew 6:

• It doesn't last. You'll be wanting an upgrade to that new phone this time next year. Your car is losing value as you read this. Your house will need money spending on it to stop it falling apart (v19)
• It can be taken from you in an instant. (v19 and see Luke 12:16-21)
• It affects everything. (v22-23) If your focus (eye) is fixed on created things rather than the creator, then  everything else gets messed up (darkness fills the house). Relationships, work, families, every aspect of your life will be negatively affected because your primary concern is getting more stuff.
• It will enslave you. Money wont be serving you, you'll be it's slave, sacrificing your time and effort for more of it, despite the fact that it never fulfills on it's promise to satisfy (v24)

On the other hand, a disciple of Jesus finds life that is everlasting, that can not be taken away, that brings every aspect of life into it's proper place and a master that fulfills all his promises

2 masters (matt6:24)

Matthew 6:24

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

We try to serve two (or more) masters all the time. We think we can do it by compartmentalising our life. Serve God in this section. Serve money in this section - although we would never say it like this, it would be something about needing to work long hours to pay the mortgage, or talking about "needing" that new phone. The problem is that the "masters" will eventually come into conflict and whichever one you're truly serving will win. So we claim to be serving God but our giving to church is the first thing to get cut if our financial situation changes. We see somebody in need but can't sacrifice our own "needs". Money wants your entire devotion, it wants your life. Jesus wants your entire devotion, He wants your life. Money will enslave you - you think it's serving you but you're the one making sacrifices for it. But to be a slave of Christ is to find real life.

correctly focussed (matt 6:22-23)

Matthew 6:22-23

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.

The description of the eye being healthy/good/single suggests the focus. What is your centre of attention? Where is your focus? If we are focused clearly on Jesus, everything else in the "house" including material possessions finds it's natural place. If those possessions, or anything else, become the focus, darkness fills the house and everything else gets messed up. Relationships are affected, work is affected, families are affected because it's like grasping around in a pitch black house trying to cook a meal. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

what do you treasure? (matt 6:21)

Matthew 6:21

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What we treasure reveals the true condition of our heart. Our idols are revealed by what we hold precious. What do you dream about? What do you consider worthy of spending money on? What are you willing to sacrifice time for? What would devastate you if you lost it? Do we treasure Jesus, or something else?

earthly treasures (Matt 6:19-20)

Matthew 6:19-20

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

The material possessions that we desire, the earthly "treasures" that we work so hard to achieve, are temporary. They perish. They do not last. The phone that you were desperate to get 2 years ago now wouldn't be able to be sold in the shop. The car that you felt so good about buying is worth less and less with every day that goes by. The "thing" that you thought would make you happy and satisfied didn't, but for some reason you think that the next "thing" will. 

Instead of storing up material possessions we should use them, we should invest them in the kingdom of God, we should be generous, we should give away as much as we can, we should give away our best, not just our surplus.

stain removal

Jeremiah 2:22

Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me," declares the Sovereign Lord.

1 Corinthians 6:11b

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

^{Revelation 7:14b-15}

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

Jesus paid it all, 

all to him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain, 

He washed it white as snow  

Elvina Hall

conditional forgiveness?

Matthew 6:14-18

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

Is Jesus suddenly suggesting that forgiveness is conditional? What happened to grace?! If I have to forgive to receive forgiveness, then I'm in real trouble. While BW Johnson, might be able to say of this verse: "We ask, in other words, that he may mete out to us what we measure to others" - I wouldn't dare say that to God, I might as well ask him to strike me down!

Let's look at some other commentators:

Gill:

"not that the forgiveness of others is the procuring cause of forgiveness with God, which is the blood of Christ; or of the manifestation and application of it, that is, the advocacy of Christ; nor the moving cause of it, that is, the free grace of God...
... where men are not of a forgiving temper to their fellow creatures and fellow Christians, how can they expect forgiveness at the hands of God? or what sense of pardoning grace can there be upon their minds? Had they any right apprehensions of the grace and goodness of God, in the forgiveness of their sins, this would influence their minds, and engage their hearts to forgive such who have offended them...
... [if you are unforgiving] your Father has not given you a true sense of the pardon of your sins, nor can you be certain that he will; nor have you any reason to expect it"

JFB:

"it will not be thought that our Lord here teaches that our exercise of forgiveness towards our offending fellow men absolutely precedes and is the proper ground of God's forgiveness of us. His whole teaching, indeed--as of all Scripture--is the reverse of this. But as no one can reasonably imagine himself to be the object of divine forgiveness who is deliberately and habitually unforgiving towards his fellow men"

McGarvey & Pendleton:

"[unforgiveness] can only exist in a heart blind as to the amount of its debt

If you are struggling to forgive someone, don't worry. We need God's grace to forgive. You recognise the need to forgive but are finding it hard - cry out to God for him to enable you to forgive as you have been forgiven. If you stubbornly refuse to entertain the thought of forgiving someone - you probably aren't a Christian, you might be blind to the amount of debt you are in with God - ask him to reveal your sin to you, because only when we see the depths of our own sin do we really see the beauty of the gospel