Where Is Your Treasure?Sample

The Sermon on the Mount, not just a great message

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

The Sermon on the Mount is not just one of the greatest messages in the Bible; it is the greatest message in all of history. No other speech or message has had the impact, the influence, and the power of this brief speech. Two thousand years later, it continues to reach both uneducated people and learned scholars. When you read the world’s great philosophers and then read the words of Jesus, you cannot miss the stark contrast.

Jesus’ words, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, have an otherworldly resonance of truth, wisdom, and authority. To compare the world’s great philosophers to Jesus is like comparing the local fifth-grade football team to the Green Bay Packers. One of the most notable declarations in the Sermon on the Mount is verse Matthew 7:12, commonly known as the Golden Rule: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” This succinctly summarizes what it means to love people.

Bishop J.C. Ryle remarked about the Golden Rule, “It settles a hundred different points. It prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for our conduct in specific cases.” If you want people to be patient with you, then be patient with others. If you appreciate it when people listen to you with eye contact, seeking to understand you, then listen that way to them. If you appreciate when people tell you the truth, then speak the truth to others. If you want others to pray for you, then pray for others. If you appreciate it when other people give you the benefit of the doubt, then give others the benefit of the doubt. If someone is upset at you—especially someone close to you, like a spouse, a child, or a close friend—and you appreciate that person coming directly to you, rather than giving you the silent treatment, the cold shoulder, or talking about you to a third party, then do the same for them.

If you want people to forgive you, then be a big-hearted forgiver of others. If you appreciate when people affirm you and build you up, then affirm and build up others. If you appreciate it when people speak to you with a kind and gentle tone, rather than a harsh and demanding tone, then do the same for them. If you appreciate it when people take the trouble to learn your name, then learn their names. If you appreciate it when a spouse or a friend keeps their promises to you, even about the little things, then be a promise keeper yourself. If you appreciate it when someone defends you and is loyal to you, then be loyal to other people. In any and every way, let Matthew 7:12 be your touchstone: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”