Category: law and gospel

I Learned Grace in a French Subway

Michael2 Comments
CC BY-NC, Steve Harris, Flickr
CC BY-NC, Steve Harris, Flickr

I was a tourist but strode around modest enough to not look like one. Just days into my dream vacation, it was going better than I could’ve imagine. There was much English spoken in Paris, making it easy for the less-than-fluent types like me. Roaming off the beaten path was amazing for the architecture, vintage shops, and museums that disclose themselves to those who dare venture away from common sightseer targets. But when it was necessary—and it always was—the subways worked like a whistle.

Cluny-La Sorbonne Station, Paris CC BY-NC, Sean_Marshall, Flickr
Cluny-La Sorbonne
Sean_Marshall, NC

Each station of Paris’ Métro bears its own unique character. They are discernibly Art Nouveau in style and sometimes littered with incredibly vibrant and creative graffiti. These surprisingly immaculate underground labyrinths invite the very thing you don’t do there, which is hang out. After familiarizing oneself with train tickets and cards, the only task left is to learn navigating stations. Some were small and others were compact cities, like back in Tokyo.

Arts et Métiers CC BY-NC, Steve Calcott, Flickr
Arts et Métiers
Steve Calcott, NC

Statistically, safety was far more a concern here than in Japan. After all, I was again in Western society. I had been warned about subway pickpockets and even discerned a few. They targeted people in the busy vestibules. Usually I’d pass right through those to sometimes be alone in long, tiled corridors and tube platform areas with nothing but Syrian-arched exits eyeing me with foreboding.

In Japan I had relearned fear, which was the strangest thing I ever had to do in life. Being on dark streets at three in the morning is a world of difference in Paris and in Japan—the difference between witnessing car theft and having nothing at all to fear. Nonetheless, I had no problems with people.

The only hiccup I had occurred the day I entered the one station that immediately put me on edge. It was dark and creepy just entering it. I hated the way the attendant’s booth looked the part of a junkie’s lab and the way its neon lights harshly smacked the cold concrete that imprisoned the area. It made the darkness even more apparent. No tourist could feel comfortable here.

Cité CC BY-NC, Talus, Flickr
Cité
Talus, NC

Nevertheless, the routine was the same: feed my card into the machine and pass through the turnstile—but not this day. For some reason, the gate rejected it. I tried it again and it spit it back at me, again. What’s going on, I thought, other travelers passing around me now. That’s when you start re-educating yourself with the basics while mumbling in terse staccato: This is the card. Card goes into slot. Slot is supposed to accept card. And the machine goes “Nuh-uhh!”

Couloir CC BY-NC-SA, Possamai, Flickr
Couloir
Possamai NC-SA

I kept trying while knowing inside I was avoiding the obvious just a few feet behind me. I knew I was gonna have to oil up my French and talk to the agent about the problem. What a novel idea in France! I’ve never been a very confident speaker of French despite diligently studying it half my life. I heard the attendant on her microphone talking to someone, so I avoided the issue a little longer thinking the card might still take.

I was mentally at a loss with this machine. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead because I had now lost my cover and become the dumb tourist. Finally, I turned toward the agent’s window only to be met by her fluster and steely gaze pointed right at me. That’s when I realized she had been hollering at me the whole time.

And, in French, she had been telling me—the one who had spent all this time fighting the machine and worried about his card and dreading French and hating this eerie location—it’s free. And I walked through the turnstile.

Old Testament Salvation

Michael6 Comments
CC BY-SA, James Tissot, Wikimedia Commons
“Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem” by James Tissot, The Jewish Museum, New York (Domain) 

“Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24)

A major purpose of the Law of Moses was to expose sin (Rom. 3:20). The law itself, however, was not evil or bad for this reason or because it resulted in condemnation and death. Rather, Paul calls it “holy” and “good” (Rom. 7:12-13) because it accomplished God’s purpose in the plan of salvation until it was completed in Christ.

An instructive, long-term secondary purpose of the law was to prepare people’s hearts for righteousness by training them in God’s requirements.

The Faith of Old Testament Believers

I find it important to stop and consider the piety of those who lived under the Law of Moses. Christians perceive Old Testament worshipers as possessing an inferior devotion than theirs because they knew nothing of Jesus. Or, we presume they didn’t understand righteousness by faith, which couldn’t be true since the cornerstone of Judaism is Abraham’s righteousness by his faith in the promise God made to him (Gen. 17) that, subsequently, has become all our faith.

Not knowing Christ or the full revelation of salvation does not dismiss their piety or render it disingenuous. These people lived by faith in God’s promise their whole lives, although they never realized it (Heb. 11:13). Yet God mercifully provided them his law by which they could discern his holiness and their own sinfulness until grace should appear in Christ (Gal. 3:15-22).

The law was a precursor to salvation—a mere bicycle for those God was preparing for motocross one day. And although one could never be justified by the law (Gal. 5:4), it was very valuable for instructing the Israelites about God’s moral character (e.g., the Decalogue).

The Promise Remains

Nevertheless, Paul says, “The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise” (Gal. 3:17). Jehovah was strongly central to Hebrew practice and his promise to Abraham was its foundation. The people’s worship and faith were never inhibited but encouraged. This is unavoidable in the Prophets.

Jesus dispels the later Pharisaical notion that God required his Chosen to meticulously subscribe to the 613 statues. How symbolic that is: God sits high in his Heaven and we must climb the rungs to reach him. Yet when we miss one or snap one off, or just tire, we plummet to our deaths. So in breaking one rule, we indeed break them all (James 2:10).   

Instead, Christ’s work achieves propitiation and righteousness for all believers, past and present, because it is based on God’s promise, not rules; it is confirmed by faith, not merit. Real devotion…genuine salvation is just that: receiving the promise by faith.

God accepted the worship of Old Testament devotees who served from their hearts in the spirit of the law. Our way of salvation and their way of salvation are the same: by grace through faith.

Rabbi Yeshua Ends U.S. Tour

Michael13 Comments

Boston, MA – Today marked the final public appearance of Rabbi Yeshua on his first U.S. tour. Rabbi Yeshua began his religious crusade in San Diego on June 14th and for two weeks traveled extensively across the country. His meetings largely included preaching, teaching, and personal ministry.

The popular 30 year-old rabbi from Jerusalem is greatly admired by many but controversial to others. He has claimed to be divine. His ministry has several confirmed reports of physical healings, miracles, and heavenly manifestations.

While in the States, Rabbi Yeshua led a massive preaching campaign about the “kingdom of God.” He claims that he is from Heaven and has come to offer humans forgiveness of their sins and reconciliation to God.

CC BY-NC, DM, Flickr
CC BY-NC, DM, Flickr

Rabbi Yeshua hosted 16 public meetings that filled the nation’s largest arenas and stadiums. Some of the meetings were broadcast nationally. Two million people crowded the Lake Michigan waterfront in Chicago to hear him last week.

On Friday Rabbi Yeshua was welcomed to the White House by President Bernal.

It was the smaller, unannounced meetings, however, that took many Americans by surprise. Rabbi Yeshua showed up in parks and town squares greeting people and teaching. The Rabbi did announce unplanned events on social media when he was visiting college towns. He has a strong youth following.

Reaction to Rabbi Yeshua in the religious community has been mixed. Many religious leaders believe his message and miracles to be true, but few believe he is the “Son of God.” There are also those who say the Rabbi is a fraud and refuse to believe any of his claims.

Most people say that he is a good person and is very generous to others.

Rabbi Yeshua drew scores of celebrities and politicians to his events. Many have responded positively to him. Most notably, actor Jeffrey Derulis made a public profession of faith in the Rabbi after he says his brother was healed of melanoma by him.

Rabbi Yeshua will address the United Nations General Assembly in September.

The Spectacle of Grace

Michael9 Comments
CC BY, the bbp, Flickr
CC BY, the bbp, Flickr

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. (Luke 2:8-9, NLT) 

God hides big messages in plain sight.

The announcement to the shepherds is my favorite divine encounter story in the Bible. It is obviously a bucolic scene, but there is also featured an enjoyable contrast of rustic earthiness and divine splendor, not unlike the satisfaction of creamy and crumbly in the mouth.

The glory of a single angel is apparently enough to frighten folk stiff. That’s the case throughout scripture, and it was the case with the shepherds. But then all heaven broke loose and the sky filled with the heavenly emissaries shouting praises to God, creating what had to be an overwhelming and spectacular scene of grace-come-to-earth.

I hope God will let us relive these events one day. This one is at the top of my list.

But what about that big message, you said? We know it wasn’t about the angels and the scene itself. And although the angels heralded the birth of the Savior, this isn’t the big message I want you to see. Instead, it deals with…the rustic earthiness and crumbly nature of the recipients: the shepherds.

Life of the Scorned

I’m certain there were many events and incidents the Holy Spirit could have included in the Bible and did not (cf. John 21:25). But I’m glad this particular one made it in.

You see, shepherds were not an esteemed bunch; their reputation was more akin to tax collectors. Although many folk in the Bible, from Abraham to David to Amos, were shepherds and the task was common and respectable for a period of time, the occupation gradually lost its noble standing.

Many shepherds were cheats and thieves and their actions stereotyped the vocation. Society viewed shepherds as untrustworthy and incompetent, second-class citizens; and they were not allowed to hold judicial office or serve as witnesses in court—just like tax collectors.

The youngest son in the home usually tended the sheep. The elder sons would move on to help the father plow, sow, and harvest, so the younger boy would be left with the sheep. If you’ll recall, David was the youngest of his family; and do you remember the scorn he met from his brother Eliab on the battlefield: “What are you doing around here anyway…What about those few sheep you’re supposed to be taking care of?” (1 Sam. 17:28).

Leveled Playing Fields

God preserves this birth announcement for us and with it delivers an enormous message about human social stratification from his point of view. For God has entrusted outcasts and the marginalized with the prize of first knowing that a Savior has come for them and everyone.

Understand, this encounter did not offer these shepherds more reason to know this Messiah would be a spiritual deliverer as opposed to the political one they anticipated. Contrarily, it would have convinced them that he was indeed the long awaited ruler. Signs affirmed the presence and help of Jehovah to the Jews. The revelation of grace and spiritual truth would come later through Jesus himself. Yet this symbolic event serves a bigger point to us.

And this truth is that God’s grace and immense love is all-inclusive, not about caste and class and petty human divisions that disenfranchise and diminish in our eyes the glory of God in one another. Each of us, regardless of our status, morally identifies with the shepherds’ odious reputation and shares the same guilt in God’s eyes. Nonetheless, by grace we stand tall, shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest, and beside Christ in the presence of the Father.

Grace, a Battering Ram

We like to portray grace as sweet and refined—and it is that; but, like the Word of God John was instructed to eat (Rev. 10:9), it can be both sweet to the mouth and bitter to the belly. It is possible to live infatuated with God until his precepts judge and demolish our sinfully convenient and self-serving configurations.

Thus, God chose not to make his announcement to kings and officials, who with this information could conceivably engineer a plan to further their own power, wealth, and corruption—again leaving those with the greatest need with nothing and being deprived.

Instead, God spared no expense in pomp and gallantry on a few men with nothing more to lose in life and so erects an earthly kingdom from the floor-up.

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:26-31, NIV)

More on this topic in “People of Your Kind!”

The Parable of the Laborers

MichaelLeave a comment
CC BY-NC, kewing, Flickr
CC BY-NC, kewing, Flickr

“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

*Portion of an exegetical paper I wrote on the topic.*

The parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20:1-16 is part of Matthew’s gospel of the kingdom. Matthew is the only writer who tells the story, which places its composition around A.D. 63 and for the benefit of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. The details of the parable would have been very familiar to Jesus’s audience. Brad Young offers a sitz im leben perspective (on-scene contextualization):

The setting assumes the difficult economic conditions of first-century Israel. Many day laborers are standing in the market hoping to be hired for a day job. The original audience could readily identify with these workers and their real-life situation…Day laborers were on the bottom end of the economic structure. They received minimal wages for sporadic work. As the primary wage earners, they had to support their families by the odd jobs they could acquire for day service. During the time of harvest, the situation improved as landowners needed additional day laborers to harvest the crops on time.

One noticeable aspect of this parable is that at its outset the householder, not his steward, works from early morning to late evening to acquire laborers. This would have been an immediate signal to the listening crowd that their normal worldview was about to be challenged.

The parable can be divided into three acts: Act One, the hirelings (vs. 1-7); Act Two, the payments (vs. 8-11); and Act Three, the dialogue between the owner and the grumbling workers (vs. 11-15).

It is obvious that the parable involves economic details. The only condition imposed on the workers is proper work for a day’s wage. This was the denarius, a silver coin that meant a usual day’s pay. The parable, however, should not be used to imply any message about economic arrangements in society, a proposition not obvious in the illustration.

Moreover, the owner’s pay arrangement is simply impossible in the developed world and modern economy. Business leaders and workers would spurn the idea.

A Hard Pill to Swallow

The workers are recruited throughout the day and are finally called in to be paid. This is where the parable does what it is characteristically known for, which is setting up listeners for a surprise. The owner starts by paying the laborers who have worked the least amount of time first—and they receive just as much as those who have toiled all day in the heat.

The first-comers are begrudged. When confronted the owner explains that he had kept his word and had also decided to be gracious to those who had come later. Donahue says:

“If the reader too quickly identifies the owner as God and is unwilling to experience the same feelings as those who worked all day, the challenge of the parable loses its force. Hardly any parable in the Gospels seems to upset the basic structure of an orderly society as does this one…The constant complaint in our society about welfare is proof that popular morality operates according to the principle of ‘equal work for equal pay.'”

The laborers who had been fortunate enough to receive work in the morning should have rejoiced at the generosity of the owner.

Still, one significant limitation of the parable needs to be pointed out. Those who labored all day earn their day’s wage by their work; but Jesus did not believe that anyone earns a place in the kingdom by his or her work. It should be understood that parabolic language should not be pressed too far.

God’s Undeserved Favor

What is the message of the parable? It is first a parable of the kingdom by which Jesus illustrates the incredible grace of God. It drives a wedge between two ways of thinking about Christian life and one’s relationship with God.

The first mindset centers on human goodness and the ability to earn one’s way into the kingdom. But a problem arises here because distinctions are easily and often made between those whose length of service and fervor for the kingdom are exemplary and those who have less to show. The simple standards of justice and the ranking of time and effort determine degrees of worth.

The second way of thinking ventures much deeper into the gospel to show us that God’s way with us makes no distinctions between us. Each of us are accepted and loved by him, and we are saved not due to any efforts we make but purely as a result of his grace. It is that “God loves us not because we are lovable, but because God is loving in a radical way.”

This is the gospel. Borsch says, “We either ‘take what belongs to us and go’—a way of living that cuts us off from true fellowship with God and others—or we receive from God what he has graciously chosen to give.”

Credits: Borsch, Frederick Houk. Many Things In Parables: Extravagant Story of New Community. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988./Donahue, John R. The Gospel in Parable. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1988/Young, Brad H. Jesus The Jewish Theologian. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1995

What to Do About Grace

Michael1 Comment
CC BY-NC, Enokson, Flickr
CC BY-NC, Enokson, Flickr

“He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Eph. 1:5-6)

I drove down the highway one morning listening to a version of Don Moen’s classic hymn “Give Thanks,” and the Holy Spirit turned a light on within me.

“Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks to the Holy One

Give thanks because he’s given Jesus Christ, his Son.

 And now let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’

Let the poor say, ‘I am rich!’

Because of what the Lord has done for us.

Give thanks.”

Truthfully, I wanted to cry because I saw a clearer picture of the gospel, but I didn’t want to appear weepy-eyed where I was headed.

The Gospel Message

The scripture above refers to the grace of God having been bestowed upon us in Christ. The King James Version says, “…he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” I thought of that phrasing when I heard the declarations—“I am strong! I am rich!”—and realized how truly profound the gift of Christ is to us.

It means Jesus is enough.

Now that may not seem like anything cataclysmic to you, but it’s a weight off all our shoulders. We have gained acceptance with God in Christ. All our efforts at earning God’s approval and working our way into his favor are finished. We can cease feeling inadequate and marred and like we have to get our act together to please him. “Lord, I know I haven’t…God, I’m sorry but I…”

No, we are not condemned and need not wear guilty consciences. He lifts our chins and tells us it’s okay and invites into his joy. He did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.

But What Am I to Do?

Still, we feel like we have to do something. We loathe and punish ourselves because we cannot accept the thought of simply receiving God’s selfless love and attention. We feel that we have to work our way into so rich a gift. What about our raging tempers, lying and cheating, illicit sexual habits, and various dependencies? How could he still accept us when we are yet unsure that Jesus is the way? After all, we’re still mad at him for things that happened to us all the way back in our childhood.

What are we to do with these inconsistencies?

Right here is where sound teaching is so important because we’re prone to walk away from God or live beneath our spiritual privilege. We may hang onto God, but we’ll always be trying to fix ourselves, always trying to pay a debt that has already been forgiven. If we don’t realize that the burden has been removed, we’ll continue dealing with the agony and frustration—the guilt—that comes with trying to lift it, never experiencing freedom.

A Gospel Parable

Let me show you what our responsibility looks like. Think of a person, maybe even yourself at one time, with a great financial burden—a debt. He (or she) struggled with that debt for a long time, and the debt determined so much about his life. But one day a benefactor paid off the entire bill; the indebted man owed not a cent to anyone. Then, the benefactor gave the man $10,000 to get back on his feet. All the man had to do was accept the gift.

Now the man would probably need some time to get over the incredible goodness that had happened to him, but he would be foolish not to accept the gift. There would be no need for him to stand and argue with the benefactor about all the misfortune and bad choices he made that got him to that point.

The man accepts the gift and the benefactor’s simple request that he never again return to debt. The responsibility of the man is simple. It is to prove his exceeding gratefulness by improving his knowledge about money and finances, guaranteeing the request of the benefactor.

Now…Right Now

The man with the debt, although he had been freed from it, bore a responsibility to amend his behavior and attitude toward money. It is no different with us, except our works of faith now are acts of worship to God. Let me show you.

We still have hang-ups and sin issues, but they don’t negate Christ’s work for us and in us. Our responsibility with those issues now is to understand our freedom in Christ and to rely on God’s enabling grace to build godlier character. Thereby, we love God by transforming the vile areas of our hearts into the very fruit of the Spirit. We worship him with the beauty of holy lives. But instead of doing this to earn God’s favor, we do it because of his favor already bestowed upon us.

I get emotional about this because there are many people around us, people we couldn’t guess, who secretly wish to serve God and be among the saints but feel that their lives are so bad, so messed up, that God doesn’t care to deal with them. They feel condemned and sometimes are condemned by churches and Christians that haven’t truly grasped the message of grace. But these are the weak God is calling to strength in Christ.

What shall we do with grace? Just accept it. The debt is gone. We need to get the point: we are actualized in Christ. You have wholeness now. You possess all the worth God designed for you now. Give God thanks and let your life honor him.

Also on the topic: Where Freedom Ends

The Grandest Miracle of Them All

MichaelLeave a comment
CC BY-NC, trinko, Flickr
CC BY-NC, trinko, Flickr

“‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’… Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.'” (John 2:18-19)

Jesus must have appeared to be a mad man when in the Temple he and his whip turn the place upside down. Tables and money lie all over the ground; doves flit here and there; sheep and oxen meander and start. The disciples, embarrassed and gawking, stand aside, and Peter beckons to his rabbi to calm down. “Do not make my Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Jesus rages. The Temple authorities rush near to investigate the commotion.

They put it to him—“By what authority do you bring reform to this Temple and its practice? Show us a sign.” It’s a dare they are certain this flake cannot produce. Miracles proved the presence and affirmation of the Almighty to the Jews and would characterize a true messiah. It is ironic that they demand a miracle from Jesus. This is the dawn of his public ministry, and these leaders will go on to despise him for the very thing they now request of him, along with his treacherous doctrine.

With razor-sharp insight, Jesus replies: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He speaks of his body—the word ‘temple’ was used interchangeably for the body—and even the disciples don’t understand what Jesus is talking about (v. 22). The officials are dumbfounded, for it had taken 46 years to erect the edifice around them. The preacher is an utter fool. Yet Jesus’s challenge is a house-size boulder fallen right into their peaceful pond.

The Temple and Jesus

Jesus equated his own body and purpose with the Temple cultic practice, which necessarily requires us to understand the purpose of the Temple. There were three primary utilizations of the Temple: It was a…

  • House for God’s presence. God designated a place to meet with his people. Even before the Temple, the Shekinah dwelt with the Hebrew people in the Tabernacle, or Tent of Meeting. The Temple was a permanent location, and God promised Solomon that he would affix his sacred name there.
  • Sanctuary for worship and prayers. God’s name and presence were at the Temple, so the Jews made their most earnest prayers there or toward it. Further, they offered their devotional sacrifices there.
  • Place to atone for sin. Certain sacrifices were required for redressing sin, reconciliation to God, and the removal of guilt.

“Fine!” Jesus says. “You want a miracle? Here’s one: destroy this temple of mine, and I will raise it up in three days!” The dare was returned. Although no one understood it, they were already part of the grandest miracle Jesus was staging.

The Significance of Jesus’s Death

We who read these accounts itch for Jesus to razzle-dazzle them and leave no doubt about his identity…you know, pull back his cloak so all could see the big “G” on his tunic. That’s the part we love in superhero cartoons and movies. But Jesus knew these leaders couldn’t handle a miracle if he offered one on a platter. They certainly didn’t believe in his preaching and were on another wavelength altogether. Jesus sought their spiritual trust; they needed a political savior with divine authority.

His overture to the leaders is stunning. It also proves something to me: that he completely understood his mission to redeem sinful humans. I had a longstanding qualm that our “sinner’s prayers” and preachments might be nothing close to Jesus’s intent. But is the gospel we pitch and the one he proclaimed similar or the same thing? I am convinced they are.

I set these words—“Destroy this temple”—beside others—“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”—and I am convinced even more, because they have a reciprocal effect on each other. If as a perfect human Jesus represents our sinfulness to God, being put to death, the Law of God is ultimately fulfilled; and to fulfill the Law of God, in God’s way, ultimately renders the Temple system obsolete, because:

  • The presence of God would now dwell on and within his people, as God promised through the Prophets, not in a structure.
  • Prayers and worship would now be made from the altar of the heart and not require sacrifices, except those of the heart leading to personal holiness.
  • The stumbling block of sin would be forever removed and humans would no longer be dominated by their moral guilt. Atoning sacrifices would not be necessary. People could approach God freely and for his aid.

Thus, Jesus’s words underscore the centrality of his death and resurrection in Christianity. It is the cornerstone event—the seminal miracle—on which Christian faith rests. Paul does the most to explain this: “For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:16-17).

The laws of God and ritual practice have become our altar of worship, upheld by the perfect work of Christ. Now we serve God not out of obligation but volition.

One final thing: something that strikes me and is important to note is that although Jesus came to reform, he did not spurn the cultic practice of the Jews; he respected it, for God had instituted it. Reading these incidents or Paul’s explanation that the law of God was indeed good helps us appreciate the value of the Law of Moses, the Temple practices, etc., in inculcating personal holiness in the minds and lives of the people. They are our heritage, too.

The Golden Rule: “Mirror, Mirror…”

Michael3 Comments
CC BY-NC, Joanna Paterson, Flickr
CC BY-NC, Joanna Paterson, Flickr

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” (Matt. 7:12)

The Prescription: Expect to be treated to the degree people perceive the respect you grant yourself.

How you treat yourself is a message to others of how they may treat you. It is a circular process that teaches us how to love and esteem ourselves highly.

When we are excellent in our own matters and affairs—like our health, attitude, and finances—we tend to become empathetic persons preferring one another’s well-being and dignity because we have, in effect, dignified ourselves. Our relationships improve also because our own lives have done just that as we’ve sorted out the kinks in our character. The obverse is that we will not treat others how we don’t want to be treated.

The Description: Our general manner toward others explains how we view ourselves.

People that truly love themselves and seek happiness and enrichment approach others hoping to connect with like quality. Those who belittle themselves are negative, distrustful of others, and hard-pressed to find any good in people.

Do you think I’ve overdone explaining this Rule? But we definitely act this way toward people we consider our superiors, perhaps for a prestige, title, or wealth. We do so because we feel there is something in it for us, not because we truly care. The deep insight of the Golden Rule is that therein we all become dignitaries, not for possessions but self-worth.

The lesson here is more than one of mere courtesy. It is a philosophy of self-respect that raises the quality of our lives and enhances the relations we share. Thus, we discover a social approach firmly rooted in personal integrity of character.