WWUTT 1973 The Golden Rule and the Narrow Gate (Matthew 7:12-14)

The Golden Rule and the Narrow Gate in Matthew 7

Two very famous imperatives in the Sermon on the Mount are these, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and enter through the narrow gate. And we know how to do these things when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. I think our passage yesterday deserves a second look. What do you think? Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14, where Jesus says, Enter through the narrow gate.

Let's look at not only those verses again, but even the one right before it, which we commonly refer to as the Golden Rule. I'm reading again from the Legacy Standard Bible, Matthew 7, verses 12 to 14.

Hear the word of the Lord. Therefore, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them. For this is the law and the prophets. Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide, and the way is broad, that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

For the gate is narrow, and the way is constricted, that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Remember yesterday I said to you that the narrow gate is Christ, of course, but even more specifically, the righteousness of Christ.

Christ Fulfilling the Law and the Prophets

Back in chapter 5, Jesus said, I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. Notice that we have that statement come back in verse 12. In all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them.

For this is the law and the prophets. Previously, Jesus said, Matthew 5, 17, I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets, and here he says in chapter 7, verse 12, that loving one another is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

What can we glean from this? Jesus loved. He loves us. If you'll remember back to the lesson that I gave there in Matthew 5, verse 17, I said that where Jesus talks about fulfilling the law and the prophets, this was not necessarily Jesus referring to those things that had prophetically been said about him, though Jesus certainly fulfilled those things, but that's not what he was referencing when he said that.

He was specifically talking about the righteous requirement of the law and the prophets that were attested to by the prophets, written down in the law, attested to by the prophets. Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, so he lived a righteous life, his perfect life, which we call his active obedience, perfectly in submission to the will of the Father.

Nobody has lived a good life, only Jesus, and thus fulfilling the law and the prophets. And so here he tells us that we're to love others, and this is the fulfilling of the law and the prophets. But as I said before, we cannot do what the law requires without the righteousness of Christ.

So by faith in Jesus, his righteousness is imputed to us, and now we are able to live in such a way that is in keeping with the law of God, following God's law in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. As the apostle Paul said in Romans 8, 8, those who are in the flesh are not able to please God.

And going on to verse 9, he says, however, you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.

So it is in the spirit of Christ that we desire to do God's word, to keep it, and even to do it in such a way that is pleasing to the Lord. Jesus gave up himself to meet our needs, so we must be willing to give up ourselves in order to meet others' needs.

Hence the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Paul draws this out in Philippians 2 as well, verse 5, have the mind of Christ, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and being made in the likeness of men.

Found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So as Jesus has done this for us, as he has considered our needs, gave up himself for us so that we could be saved, so we must be willing to give up of ourselves for the sake of others. That's basically the golden rule.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And Jesus is not just pulling out some proverb. He's not saying something proverbial. He's not reinventing some other proverb from some other culture, which has been an accusation from some people.

They'll say Jesus wasn't saying anything original here because there are many different philosophies and ideas and cultures out there who said something similar to the golden rule. I'll address some of those here in just a moment.

But Jesus wasn't basing the statement on that. He wasn't drawing from other cultures and saying, hey, you know, they've kind of got this good idea and I want you to do it too. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Jesus was basing this statement in the law, the law of God. Hence why he said this is the law and the prophets. To love others is to do what the law and the prophets require. Exactly what the law and the prophets are pointing to.

That we are to love God and we're to love others in obedience to God. Now, like I said, there are some who will point to the golden rule and say Jesus was actually ripping off some statements that were made in other cultures or philosophies or whatever.

In the ancient Greek culture, the philosopher Thales said, avoid doing what you would blame others for doing. Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing. OK, not exactly the golden rule, but there are some that will say, see that preceded Christ and he's just ripping off their idea.

Plato said to injure anyone is never just anywhere. To injure anyone is never just anywhere. I wouldn't even agree with that, right? Would you? And I mean, there are times when injuring someone is actually just.

Like if someone has killed another, has murdered, then what should happen to that murderer? According to God's word, according to the law, he was to be put to death. Life for life. So sometimes injury actually is just.

Seneca said, expect from others what you did to them. Now, that's that's closer. Expect from others what you did to them. That sounds more like a law of revenge, though. If you take revenge out on somebody else, don't be surprised when they come for you.

Socrates said, do not do to others that which angers you when they do it to you. OK, that sounds more like the golden rule. Do not do to others that which angers you when they do it to you. But what do you hear in that statement?

That is very different. That is quite different from what Jesus said that we call the golden rule. He didn't say don't do to others. That's what a Socrates said. What did Jesus say? Do to others. Jesus is calling for action.

Socrates wasn't even going that far. He was just saying abstain from doing mean things to people. Jesus went way further than that. I mean, don't do mean things to people. Most people are probably getting by with that.

They just don't do mean things to other people. At least they think they are. I think we're meaner than we think we are most of the time. But anyway, yeah. You can't just abstain from doing anything and therefore call yourself a good person.

That doesn't make anybody good. But that's clearly not the golden rule. It's not exactly what Jesus said. There's also a statement from Confucius that was made in the 5th century B .C. He said, what you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.

And that's pretty close to what a Socrates said. What you do not wish for yourself, don't do to others. If you hope that other people don't do it to you, then you don't go out and do it to them. But again, Jesus is calling for direct action here.

Do unto others what you would have them do unto you. What would you want love to look like to you? So do that for others. Do you want people to sacrifice for you? Then you sacrifice for other people. And this really comes right back to Jesus' statement about judgment in Matthew 7 verses 1 through 6.

Don't try to remove the speck from your brother's eye before you remove the log from 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.

You want your brother judging you when he's got a great big old log hanging from his eye? Of course you don't. So you don't do it to others. Instead, do for them righteously. You want them to treat you righteously?

You must be righteous. Do to others, righteously, what you would have them do to you. And this is the law and the prophets, Jesus says. Boy, that really puts the golden rule in a whole new context, doesn't it?

And it's not just a standalone verse. It doesn't just sit here by itself. It is flowing from the thoughts that have come before it in this sermon. And what a masterful sermon it is. I hope you've been enjoying this series, as I certainly have.

We're going to try to bring it to a close next week. But before we get there, let's look at verses 13 and 14. So we've come back to the golden rule. We've considered that. Now we're coming back to the narrow gate again.

The Narrow Gate and the Broad Way

Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide, and the way is broad. That leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. So keeping all of this in context, what did we just read?

The golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. For this is the law and the prophets. Enter through the narrow gate. Do you hear any transition happen there? No, there's no transition.

Jesus is still continuing the same thought. The golden rule is the narrow gate. But remember what I said yesterday about the righteousness of Christ. I guess I said it at the beginning of this lesson as well.

Yes, Jesus is the narrow gate. But specifically, it is the righteousness of Christ that is the narrow gate. So loving others can only be done righteously if we have the righteousness of Christ. So where we have this instruction to love others, that's the narrow gate.

And most of the world was not doing this. The Jews weren't even doing this. The Jews even had their version of the golden rule. In Tobit 4 .16 it says, Do to no one what you yourself dislike. That's just like a Socrates.

Just like Confucius. There's this call to inaction. Don't do it. But that's not what Jesus says. He says do. Do unto others. Love others as you want them to love you. So you must love them. And this is a narrow way.

Most people were not doing this. We're not sacrificing for one another. Christ sacrificed greatly for us. If we are followers of Christ, we must also sacrifice for one another. That's a narrow way. Not many people are walking that way.

Most of the world is going the broad way to their own destruction. Titus says in Titus 3 .3. Well, I guess this wasn't Titus who said this. It was Paul. Paul said to Titus In chapter 3 verse 3. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our days in malice and envy, despicable, and hating one another.

I like the way the ESV puts it as well. Hated by others and hating one another. That's who we were before Christ. We were hated and we were haters. We were not loving others. We weren't being considerate of one another.

We were just looking out for ourselves. But it's in Christ now, following his example, the sacrifice that he made on our behalf, that we would also be sacrificial to one another. And in the righteousness of Christ, this is the narrow way.

So walk by this path. Enter through this gate, who is Christ. Enter through the narrow gate. And Jesus goes on to say the gate is wide and the way is broad. That leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it.

And by the way, that is every other religion, philosophy, ideology in the world except Christianity. Only by faith in Christ can a person be saved from the judgment of God and enter into eternal life in heaven.

Every other way leads to hell. There is one way to God and that is through Christ. Every other way will lead to destruction. Jesus flat out says it here. And because there are so many false ideas in the world, that's the broad way.

That's the broad path. The gate is wide and the way is broad. That leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it. You know, there are estimated about 10 ,000 religions in the world. It's probably more than that.

But the experts who study this kind of a thing, that's their estimation. 10 ,000 religions in the world. About 85 of the world's population are affiliated with one of the five largest religious groups.

Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, or any of the various forms of folk religion. So those are the five biggest belief systems in the world. Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, or folk religion.

My friends, no matter how long this earth is going to be here, if the Lord tarries, Christianity will never be the broad way. It is always going to be the narrow way. And let's just say, by some providence, that Christianity does actually exceed Islam and there are so many people in the world who identify as Christian.

There are more than Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the various folk religions combined. Let's just say that happens 1 ,000 years into the future or however long the spread of Christianity would take in such a case.

It would not be real Christianity. And surely you understand that. You know that. The vast majority of people in the world would be identifying as Christian, but they would not actually be Christian. Jesus said this is always going to be the narrow way.

The true way of Christ is always going to be the narrow gate. It is never the broad way. The broad way is all the other religions in the world that people are following to their own destruction. Ideologies, psychology, sociology, philosophy, whatever.

Anything apart from Christ leads to destruction. Only by faith in Jesus can we be saved. So now you understand how narrow that gate is. You have all these millions upon millions of other ideas that are out there, but it's only by Christ that you are forgiven your sins and have everlasting life with God forever in glory.

The Narrow Way Leads to Life

And so Jesus says in Matthew 7, 14,. For the gate is narrow, and the way is constricted. That leads to life, and there are few who find it. Oprah Winfrey famously said, There are millions of ways to God.

Now, on the one hand, I kind of agree with her. There are millions of ways to God. You follow any of these other religions, philosophies, and whatnot, they'll get you to God. Some of you are probably sitting there going, Whoa, Gabe, where are you going with this?

I know you were just quoting John 14, 6 yesterday. I am the way, the truth, and the life. So how can you say that all of these other ideas will get a person to God? They'll get you to the judgment seat of God.

You will stand before God in judgment. Everybody's going to be gathered before God. Only those who are in Christ will be saved from judgment. But those who do not have Christ will perish under his judgment.

So, yes, all those other ideas will get you to God. Not in fellowship, but in wrath. The reason why God allows there to be so many false ideas in the world is for testing and for judgment. Why are there so many lies?

Testing and judgment. For as we read about in Deuteronomy 13, the Lord says, If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, Let us go after other gods which you have not known, and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams.

For the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. So there's testing. A false teacher to test you to see if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And how about judgment? 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 9 -12 say, The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they have refused to love the truth and so be saved.

Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. The reason why they go after the false teacher is because the false teacher is telling them what their flesh wants to hear.

And so even false teachers in this way are a judgment. God has put before every person two ways, the broad way and the narrow way. The broad way leads to destruction. The narrow way leads to life. Which path will you choose?

At the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua gathered the leaders of the different tribes together and he said to them, Choose this day whom you will serve, whether you're going to serve the God of our fathers or you're going to serve the false gods of these pagan people in the land around us.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And that's the narrow gate. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here and I pray that it's convicting to us that we recognize serving God means loving others.

And this is the narrow way that we are to walk. Following after Christ who set this example before us, he who fulfilled the law and the prophets and by faith in him, the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us and you have showered us with love and blessing beyond our wildest expectations.

So with the promise of heaven in view, teach us to love as Jesus loved. To enter through the narrow gate. To do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with our God so that we may find life and dwell with God forevermore.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study when we understand the text.