Teachings of Jesus Muestra

The Golden Rule

As Jesus begins to close the Sermon on The Mount, He sums up His teaching (and indeed “all the Law and The Prophets”) by setting forth what has come to be known as The Golden Rule.

Jesus assumes (rightly, of course) that everyone wants to be treated with fairness, kindness, and mercy. Because righteousness includes social harmony, it makes sense that the key to achieving it is to treat others as you desire to be treated. 

This concept is reasonably practical. Any group that expends all its resources on activities that create a mutual benefit will be amazingly successful.

Jesus acknowledges that we as humans pursue self-interest. This reality is presumed in His admonition, but also presumed is the reality that we often misperceive our self-interest. Selfishness is self-destructive. Righteousness is about serving God in the community by treating other human beings, no matter their station, as we would like to be treated.

Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with a warning: Don’t let false teachers distract you from God’s Kingdom. 

Follow the voice of the true Master, seek His Kingdom, and pursue righteousness. Love and serve one another as co-laborers in Christ. And unite under Jesus, who has spoken all of these things by His authority. 

False teachers are out to distract you, to feed the dangerously insatiable desires of the flesh, urging you to be self-focused rather than focused on others and their well-being. Jesus wants you to lay down your life for others and reap an eternal reward; false teachers want you to live for the things of this world that will all pass away.

The sum of the entire Bible is to treat others as we desire to be treated. Nested within this advice for living is the key to finding true success. Jesus called choosing this perspective a narrow gate, a path that is sometimes hard to see. 

It requires effort but guarantees success if followed. It is not success that we can demand when convenient to us, but it is a success we can trust will be ours in due time.

Jesus, keep us from listening to false teachers. Instead, help us to follow You and to seek God’s righteousness by extending mercy to others.

The Yellow Balloons Devotionals are a daily reminder of the great opportunities of life, connecting age-old biblical truths with our modern-day lives in a way that is simple, practical, and easy to understand. If you are interested in receiving a complimentary copy of the Yellow Balloons book and additional devotional resources, visit https://yellowballoons.net