Jump Start # 1460

Matthew 7:12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

  We know this as the golden rule. The Bible never calls it that, but it is fitting because it is “golden” or the best. Found within the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus establishes principles by which His disciples shall live. How we treat others affects our relationship with God. That principle was stated earlier in the sermon when Jesus taught about prayer. There, in chapter 6, Jesus said, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” How we behave with one another affects our relationship with God. We can’t be wrong with each other and right with God.

So, this golden rule, as we know it, sets forth a profound concept. Treat others, like you would want to be treated. That principle looks to the good of the person and the rightness of God, rather than how they have treated you. This principle isn’t reactionary. Most have a hard time with this. This isn’t easy. It never was intended to be. If someone is short with us, we tend to pull back. If someone is all business, then we are all business. If someone is rude, we tend to walk away. If someone is mean, we leave. In some situations, if someone is aggressive, we respond with aggression back. This is where arguments, strife and turmoil comes from.

The golden rule works well in Mr. Roger’s neighborhood, where everyone gets along and is nice. But Mr. Roger’s is dead and his neighborhood doesn’t exist. We work with those who want to chop our legs out from under us. They want to dump work on us and then take credit for what we have done. Some work environments are very hostile. The number one reason folks switch jobs is because they cannot get along with fellow workers. But it doesn’t end there. Neighbors get fussy with one another. Family members get jealous and hurt one another. Brethren gossip and ignore certain ones. Trouble in paradise!

It’s easy to treat others nice who I know will be treating me nice back. It’s the guy who acts like the barking dog that makes this hard. It’s one who doesn’t seem to have a kind bone in his body that makes this hard. The selfish person who takes and takes and never gives. That’s the challenge. Treating others the way you want to be treated. This principle is similar to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

So, how do I want to be treated? How do I want others to treat me? Understanding this, gives me a beginning point of how I ought to be treating others. Here is a short list that I came up of how most of us would like to be treated:

• We would like for people to hear us and listen to how we feel about things. Don’t assume. Don’t guess that you know how I feel. Listen. Ask.
• Most would want to be treated with respect and kindness. Value the good that has been done. When there are disagreements, there isn’t any need for shouting, cold shoulders, silence or indifference.
• We want to be loved. Not so much the emotional stuff, but the “God so love the world,” kind. The love that cares about how a person is doing. The care that wants the best for a person.
• We want honesty. Lying kills relationships. Lying destroys trust. We want people to tell us the truth.
• We want to be given a chance. We may not be the best, but give us an opportunity to show what we can do.
• Smiles go a lot further than frowns. Laughter helps.
• We want an atmosphere in which we can be ourselves. We don’t want to be so tense that we can’t say what we feel nor be ourselves.
• We want people not to take advantage of us. Whether we are buying a car, having something serviced, or simply in a conversation, we don’t want the feeling that we have been sold something that we will later regret.
• We don’t want people talking about us in a negative way. That hurts feelings and ruins relationships.
• We want people to care, really care.
• We don’t want to be intimidated because of someone’s education, position, age or wealth. We want to be accepted even though we may not be varsity material.
• When we have hurt others or let them down, we would want to be forgiven.

Imagine the work place if these principles were applied. Imagine the congregation if everyone went by these things. Imagine home. Imagine the neighborhood. The point of Jesus’ passage is not for us to go around telling others what they ought to do and how we ought to treat us, but rather, this is how we ought to treat them. Even though they do not deserve it. Even though they may not appreciate it. Even though we may never receive the same back from them. Even though this is painful and hard. This is how we ought to treat others. This is how we would want to be treated.

This is what Jesus is wanting from you. This is the basis of your relationship toward others. It might be good for you to make your own list of “How I would like to be treated.” That list, then becomes your guideline on how to treat others.

This is light shinning stuff. This is not being conformed to the world. This is doing what is right when it is not expected, deserved or even wanted. This is being Jesus.

Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Roger

Jump Start # 1456

Matthew 6:34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

  Worry—it’s a real killer that is so hard to overcome and put in it’s place. Here in the sermon on the mount, Jesus gives one of the longest discourses about worry. Multiple times the Lord says, “do not be anxious.” Don’t worry. Don’t worry about food, clothing or shelter. And in our verse today, do not worry about tomorrow.

Worry doesn’t do anything productive. Worry doesn’t give you a good night’s sleep. Worry isn’t good for your health. And what we find in this section is that worry is an indicator of low or weak faith. The greater the faith, the less the worry.

Our verse today finds the Lord saying, Do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Now a person has to understand some things about that statement. How easy it is to walk away from that verse and live carefree, which is actually carelessly. There are some things that we need to give some thought into tomorrow. For instance:

• Giving no thought about tomorrow will lead someone to live paycheck to paycheck. Without any planning about retirement, investments and thought about tomorrow, a person will one day be too old to work and too broke not to work. He then becomes a burden upon family, church or society. Jesus would not be in favor of that at all. Carelessly spending all you have each month is a sure sign of coming disaster. We need to give some thought about tomorrow and finances.

• Giving no thought about tomorrow would eliminate a congregation having plans, goals and dreams. They would not give thought to who the next shepherds would be. They would not develop future preachers. No thought about future growth. No thought about how to do things better next year. This would be a foolish way of conducting the Lord’s work. Some  seem to be conducting business that way. They seem to be stuck hopelessly in the 1970’s. Time to move forward, but that takes planning, effort and goals. We need to give some thought about tomorrow’s church.

• Giving no thought about tomorrow would take away the reason for some to obey the Gospel. The coming judgment, the certainty of death, and the thought of where will you spend eternity has led many of us to bow our knees to Jesus Christ. If we gave no thought to those future things, just thought about today and only today, many of us would still be living without Christ.

The worry that our passage mentions is connected to “trouble.” Don’t worry about tomorrow…each day has enough trouble of it’s own. The passage is emphasizing worrying about trouble. Don’t deal with tomorrow’s trouble. Deal with today’s trouble. Each day has enough trouble.

Now, that’s an interesting thought. We do well to do what Jesus says.

We can be guilty of worrying about yesterday’s trouble. Monday morning quarterback—a great expression for looking over Sunday’s games and second guessing what should have been done. But guess what? The game is over. One can learn from certain mistakes but the game is over. No going back. No changing things in that game. The Monday morning quarterback is never wrong. However, the game is played on Sunday, not Monday morning. We can worry about how we raised the kids, what we did with the kids and just  heap all kinds of guilt upon us. If wrongs were done, seek forgiveness. Other than that, let the past stay in the past. Don’t worry about what HAS happened.

We can, as our verse warns, worry about trouble tomorrow. The problem with tomorrow’s trouble is that tomorrow hasn’t happened yet. Things can change. We can waste a lot of time fearing this and that only to see that those things never happened. Tomorrow’s trouble will take care of itself. In other words, when we arrive at that point, then we can deal with it.

Today has it’s own troubles. There are physical and emotional troubles just for today. There are kids who don’t want to go to school. There are teenagers who have broken hearts. There are high school students who are trying to decide whether or not they want to go to college. There are co-workers who are living broken lives and are an emotional mess.

Today brings all kinds of physical troubles. The car won’t start. The furnace is making a funny noise. The dog is sick. There is nothing to eat in the frig. A bill is due today. You have a mountain of work to get through today.

However, I expect Jesus has spiritual things in mind when He said that. He usually did. I don’t think broken cars, furnaces, or teenager’s hearts is what Jesus had in mind. The trouble today comes from temptation. The trouble from today is taking care of God’s family when I’m so busy. There are folks to see after. The trouble from today is pushing the spiritual matters into tomorrow and not dealing with them and using them today. No time to pray. No time to read the word. All of which means, no time to feed my soul. There are opportunities that are unique to just today. They may not be around tomorrow. The visitor who needs some attention. The brother who has a question. The disciple who is not sure anymore. Spiritual troubles. Spiritual needs. Trouble in paradise. There is enough just for today that we don’t need to borrow tomorrow’s. You have enough to fill your plate with today.

Jesus is not giving us permission to worry about today’s troubles. Worry is never ok in Jesus’ book. Don’t worry is the theme of this section of Scripture. The trouble for today shouldn’t be worried about. It needs to be dealt with. Work on those troubles. Give those troubles to the Lord. Don’t let those troubles weigh you down.

Now, what so often happens, a guy is still worrying about troubles in the past. He has troubles today. And he is over loaded with worrying about tomorrow’s trouble. He’s in a real mess. Everywhere he turns there is troubles. He feels overwhelmed and overloaded. He hears the preacher saying that God never gives you more than you can handle, but he’s beginning to doubt that. He wonders if he will ever see the sunshine of life again. He’s not happy. He’s stretched, strained and stressed. Poor guy. He doesn’t have to be this way. Let go of the past. He’s still dragging the past around like a child drags his blanket. Let it go. And then, don’t be reaching into tomorrow’s world. Look at the present. Look at today. Now, there isn’t so much to work with. Now, using the spiritual tools God gives you, start working on Today’s troubles.

There is enough in today to keep you busy. But don’t worry. God is with you and will help you.

Past, present and future—those things can use get us dizzy and mixed up, especially when we are worrying about them, which we shouldn’t be doing in the first place!

Roger