The Government of God on Two Hinges Text: Matthew 7:12
Introduction: The Royal Law
We come now to a verse that is perhaps one of the most famous statements to ever come from the mouth of the Lord Jesus. It is so famous, in fact, that it has been given a nickname: the Golden Rule. And like many things that become famous, it is widely known and almost as widely misunderstood. The secular world likes to quote it, pretending it is a standalone piece of ethical advice that any decent fellow can appreciate, like a bit of wisdom from Confucius or a line from a Hallmark card. They want to detach it from its root system, hoping to keep the flower while killing the plant.
But this verse is not a free-floating platitude. It is the capstone of a dense section of the Sermon on the Mount dealing with judgment, discernment, prayer, and the character of God. The word "Therefore" at the beginning of the verse anchors it to everything that has come before. It is a conclusion, a summation. More than that, Jesus Himself tells us what it is: "this is the Law and the Prophets." This is not some new, sentimental replacement for the Old Testament. It is the very heart of the Old Testament, distilled to its essence.
Our generation is allergic to law, and so we try to tame this rule. We turn it into the Leaden Rule, where we do unto others what we imagine they are doing to us, which is a recipe for endless bitterness. Or we turn it into the Sentimental Rule, where we do whatever makes the other person feel good in the moment, which is a recipe for spiritual ruin. But Jesus presents it as the Royal Law, the standard of God's kingdom. It is not about being "nice." It is about righteousness. It is a call to a robust, intelligent, and sacrificial way of life that is utterly impossible apart from the grace of God that Jesus has been describing throughout this entire sermon.
This rule is the central gear in the machinery of Christian ethics. If we get this right, everything else begins to fall into place. If we get this wrong, our Christian life will be a series of clanging noises and stripped gears. So we must pay careful attention to what the Lord is actually commanding, and what He is not.
The Text
"Therefore, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
(Matthew 7:12 LSB)
The Hinge of the Law (v. 12a)
We begin with the command itself:
"Therefore, in all things, whatever you want people to do for you, so do for them..." (Matthew 7:12a)
First, notice the word "Therefore." It connects this summary statement to what has just been said about God the Father. Jesus has just told us to ask, seek, and knock, promising that our heavenly Father gives good things to those who ask Him (Matt. 7:7-11). The logic is this: Because your Father in heaven is so good and generous to you, therefore you should imitate Him in your dealings with others. The Golden Rule is not grounded in a pragmatic desire for a frictionless society. It is grounded in the character of our giving God. We are to be chips off the old block. Our generosity, our grace, our proactive goodness toward others is to be a reflection of how God has been proactively good to us.
Second, the scope is universal: "in all things." This is not a rule for special occasions. It is the governing principle for every interaction, with every person, at all times. It applies in the home, in the marketplace, in the church, and in the civil square. There are no zones of exclusion where you are permitted to be a churlish, self-centered creature. Your entire life is to be oriented this way.
Third, the standard is personal, but not subjective. "Whatever you want people to do for you." This requires us to do two things. First, it requires self-awareness. You must know what you actually want. You want to be treated with respect. You want people to give you the benefit of the doubt. You want to be listened to. You want your property to be secure. You want to be told the truth. This is the raw data you are to work with.
But it is not merely subjective. This is not an excuse to impose your peculiar tastes on others. As George Bernard Shaw quipped, "Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same." This is a clever jab, but it misses the point by a country mile. The rule operates with an assumed level of spiritual maturity and wisdom. It is not, "Buy for your wife the birthday present you would want her to buy for you." A man who buys his wife a new fishing rod for her birthday because that's what he would want has not understood the rule; he has violated it. The rule, applied with wisdom, would say, "If you were your wife, with her tastes and desires, what would you want your husband to do for you?" It requires sympathy, not just projection. It requires you to love your neighbor as your neighbor, not as a clone of yourself. This is why men must study their wives, and wives their husbands, and we must all study one another, in order to apply this rule intelligently and not like a clod.
This is a positive command, not a negative one. Many ethical systems have a negative version of this rule: "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you." That is good, as far as it goes. It tells you not to steal, not to murder, not to lie. It is a rule of basic restraint. But Christ's command is far more radical. It is a positive, proactive command. It doesn't just tell you not to steal your neighbor's car; it tells you to help him fix his flat tire. It doesn't just tell you not to slander someone; it tells you to actively look for ways to build up their reputation. Christianity is not about the mere avoidance of sin; it is about the aggressive pursuit of righteousness. It is about overflowing with the goodness of God.
The Summation of the Prophets (v. 12b)
Jesus then provides the divine commentary on His own command.
"...for this is the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 7:12b LSB)
With this one phrase, Jesus demolishes the idea that He came to abolish the Old Testament and replace it with a few simple, squishy feelings. He is saying that this principle of reciprocal, active love is the whole point of the Torah and the prophetic writings. It is the interpretive key. If you want to understand Leviticus, if you want to understand Deuteronomy, if you want to understand Isaiah, you must understand this.
This is precisely what He says elsewhere. When a lawyer asked Him for the greatest commandment, Jesus gave him two. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40). The Golden Rule is simply a practical, operational restatement of "love your neighbor as yourself."
This means that the Law of God is not an arbitrary collection of disconnected rules. It is a coherent whole, and it is intensely personal and relational. The case laws in Exodus are applications of this principle. The civil code in Deuteronomy is an outworking of this principle for a nation. The prophets' thunderous denunciations of Israel's sin were because they had violated this principle, they were oppressing the poor, cheating in the marketplace, and ignoring the widow and the orphan. They were treating others in ways they would never want to be treated.
So, when you seek to live out the Golden Rule, you are not setting aside God's law; you are fulfilling it. You are getting to the very heart of what God has always required of His people. This is not legalism; it is the fruit of a heart that has been transformed by grace. The legalist is trying to earn God's favor by his actions. The Christian acts this way because he has already received God's favor for free. We do not do these things in order to be saved; we do them because we have been saved. Our Father has given us the kingdom, and therefore we treat others with a royal and lavish generosity.
Living by the Rule
How, then, does this work out in the grit of everyday life? It means that in any situation, you are to be the one who takes the initiative in righteousness. In a marriage, the husband who understands this rule doesn't sit around waiting for his wife to start respecting him before he starts loving her. He asks, "How do I want to be treated?" and then he takes that desire and gives it away. He initiates. The wife does the same. This is the antidote to the marital standoff, where both parties are waiting for the other one to go first.
In a business dispute, you don't ask, "What can I get away with?" You ask, "If I were on the other side of this table, how would I want to be treated?" This produces honesty, integrity, and a reputation for fair dealing that is more valuable than any short-term gain.
In the church, it means we stop judging one another by the harshest standard possible while demanding the most charitable reading for ourselves. Instead, we extend to others the same grace, patience, and understanding that we ourselves desperately need and desire from them and from God.
But let us be clear. This is impossible for the natural man. The default setting of the fallen human heart is the exact opposite of the Golden Rule. Our rule is, "Do unto others before they do unto you." Or, "Get what you can for yourself, and let others do the same." We are curved in on ourselves. To live by the Golden Rule requires a supernatural rewiring of the heart. It requires the new birth.
The Gospel and the Rule
This is why the Golden Rule, far from being a simple moralism that saves us, actually drives us to the cross. Who has ever kept this rule perfectly? Who has, in all things, treated others as they would wish to be treated? No one. We have all failed. We have all been selfish. We have all put ourselves first. Therefore, this rule, which is the Law and the Prophets, condemns us. It shows us our sin and our need for a Savior.
And the gospel shows us that Savior. Jesus Christ is the only man who ever lived who perfectly fulfilled the Golden Rule. In all things, He did for others what He would have them do for Him. But more than this, He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. On the cross, He treated us according to the Golden Rule in its ultimate expression. He put our interests ahead of His own. He took the wrath we deserved so that we could receive the blessing He had earned. He loved His neighbor, us, as Himself, to the point of death.
When we, by faith, are united to Christ, His perfect record of keeping this law is credited to our account. We are declared righteous. And then, the Holy Spirit is given to us to begin the work of making us righteous in practice. He begins to untwist our hearts, turning us from self-lovers into lovers of God and neighbor.
The Christian life is the process of learning to live out the implications of what Christ has done. We are free from the law as a means of earning salvation, so that we might be enabled by the Spirit to fulfill the law as a way of life. The Golden Rule is not a ladder we climb up to God. It is a road we walk on with God, a road that He has opened for us through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son. Because He first loved us, we are now free to love others. This is the logic of the gospel, and it is the foundation of all true righteousness.