Fellowship & Spiritual Growth

From the Pastors Desk

Every belief system has some variation of the Golden Rule. Confucius even said, “Don’t do to others what you don’t want done to you.” Jesus takes that one step further, takes it to the affirmative, makes it more progressive. “Do to others as you would want done to you.” Do acts of kindness. Don’t just make efforts of doing no harm; but actively seek out ways of being a blessing to someone.

I want us to ponder these statements a little more,

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Do unto others...”

These combined summarize the complete Law and the Prophets.

Matthew’s gospel tells us that Jesus ends his Sermon on the Mount with this command to “Do unto others...” But I want you to notice how it is written.

“In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you.”

“In Everything” = pont ta (greek) – every small detail. Jesus is saying, in every small thing. In every word, every action, every deed, in every interaction, in every person you meet, you are to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s not just the people you go to church with, or your friends, or family. It’s not just the people you love and care about, it’s everybody. Not just the big things, but in particular the little things. The thread of life is to be always thinking about what others need, what others want, what I’d want if I were in their shoes.

In Luke’s gospel Jesus’ Golden Rule comes in a paragraph in which he says to love your enemies; and then goes on to say, Do to others... So in this context Jesus is saying to love, to be a blessing even to those who hate you, who irritate you, frustrate you, anger you, mistreat you. So regardless how they are treating you, you are to treat them how you want to be treated. And it’s not just refraining from retaliation, but proactively blessing them, encouraging, building up your neighbor.

Now to do this we have to enlist a segment of our psyche that we fail to use very often; our imaginations. We have to imagine what it would be like in someone else’s shoes, imagine what someone else needs and wants. Imagine how someone else feels. Imagine what they are going through.

God bless, and do good,

Bro. Randy