Matthew indicates that Jesus delivered a lesson [his longest recorded sermon] to the Jewish people on a mountain early in his ministry (Matthew 5:1). He did so because multitudes were following him (Matthew 5:l,2). It seems that the primary target of Jesus' remarks on that occasion were those who were his disciples--those who looked to him as their teacher. While many of Jesus' sayings are quite familiar to us, his thoughts were radical to Israelites two thousand years ago. [Perhaps his thoughts are so familiar to us that we do not 'hear' just how radical they are.]
Please understand that Jesus did not emphasize God's values and priorities in his ministry just a single time in a single situation and 'go on' from that one declaration. There was no printing press or printed materials available to him. The printing press with moveable type would not be invented for over 1400 years after Jesus' death. Not even the gospels we have in our New Testaments appeared in handwritten form until 30 to 50 years after Jesus' death. Since the primary means of distributing information to the masses was by word of mouth, Jesus often found it needful to repeat information and again teach lessons that he already taught. That likely happened often when he entered new areas. Today's preachers/teachers will confirm that people do not understand or remember a point merely because the point was presented once verbally to a single audience. The more different the information is, the less likely it is to be accurately remembered in one verbal presentation. Jesus' emphasis was often radically different to the emphasis his audience heard in synagogues!
In what we refer to as 'the sermon on the mount' (Matthew 5-7), Jesus emphasized human to human relationships in a unique manner. In the beginning of Matthew 7, he stressed four responsibilities in human to human interaction. (a) Do not yield to the temptation to be unjust to others by functioning as their judge. One learns in order to care for his own needs. He does not learn to point out everyone else's problems. (b) Respect precious understandings as being precious. Not everyone wishes to understand. Do not try to give precious understandings to those who would destroy you for caring about them. They will have no appreciation for what you share with them. (c) Accept responsibility to pursue God's values and priorities [ask, seek (keep on asking), and knock]. This is a continuing responsibility. One had to be determined to locate and understand truth. Discovery would be difficult and demanding [contentment with what one always has 'known' is a curse]. (d) If they, being evil, knew how to respond to their children's request to meet needs, God in whom there is no evil knows how to bless His children. God knows how to take care of His family even when we children do not understand what He is doing!
Verse 12 in chapter 7 begins with 'therefore'. The statement that followed served as a summation of his lesson. His summation statement was not unique to him. A number of prominent people in and out of Judaism acknowledged a form of Jesus' summation statement. The contrast is not seen in the thought of the statement but in the contrast of the statement. Others stressed the thought in negative, defensive terms--do not do things to others you do not want done to you. Jesus stressed the thought in positive, proactive terms--do things for others you would appreciate being done for you.
The contrast is striking! If you want to see the contrast, look at the actions of the Samaritan in contrast to the priest and Levite in Luke 10:31-33. The actions of the priest and Levite were negative--they did not hurt the man and were in no way responsible for his condition. The actions of the Samaritan were positive--he helped the man in his need. The priest and the Levite did no harm. The Samaritan did good. The Samaritan, not the priest and Levite, symbolized God's meaning of neighbor.
Jesus said being aggressive in accepting opportunity to do good was the fulfillment of God's concerns in the Law and the prophets. We would say, "Doing good to other people is the core of God's ethical concern in the Old Testament." Such action represents the true concern of God's instructions. It represents the soul of the prophets' encouragement to practice righteousness. Jesus did not say this would comply with God's ritual instructions, but he said it would comply fully with God's concern of humans treating humans ethically.
Whereas the measuring stick of the moral person was not to hurt anyone else, Jesus changed the measuring stick for morality. The moral person seeks to help those in need. It is much easier to do no harm than it is to do good. One can do nothing and do no harm. However, if one seeks to be helpful to others, it is impossible to do nothing.
(a) If the theme of the sermon on the mount is Matthew 5:20 with the emphasis of having a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees and (b) if the summation of Jesus' lesson is Matthew 7:12 with the emphasis of aggressively seeking to do good, then the way for anyone to fulfill God's expectations [even stated in the Law and the prophets] is to be helpful to people in need.
God's measuring stick: treat them as you would like someone to treat you if you were in his or her circumstance. It seems that is what God did when He was moved by our need to restore relationship with Him and sent us His son.
It is extremely difficult to be self-righteous if we use Jesus' measuring stick.
This is a powerful statement of the importance of human to human actions to God. It underlines the fact that our human to human acts and relationships are the mirror of a Christian's relationship with God.
For Thought and Discussion:
Link to Teacher's Guide
Lesson 2