The truth about "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

So much to say about Matthew 7 where this word of Christ is taken from. It's important to understand this verse in its context. When you take a “text” out of context, you're left with a con. Here's the verse in full- Matthew 7:12-

“In everything, do to others what you would want them to do to you. This is what is written in the Law and in the Prophets.”

See The Living Bible translation: “Do for others what you want them to do for you. This is the teaching of the laws of Moses in a nutshell.”

The saying sums up the Law and the Prophets/the laws of Moses which demand perfect obedience for one to be righteous in God's sight and to escape God's wrath. In Christ, we are not under Law but under Grace-

“For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under grace.” Romans 6:14.

Moses (representing the Law) and Elijah (representing the Prophets) spoke of and attest to believers' righteousness apart from the law; see Romans 3 with emphasis on verse 21 in the passage below:

"20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. 21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins….26 …and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.

27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”

This is the summary of the Law: ”Do for others what you want them to do for you. This is the teaching of the laws of Moses in a nutshell.”

In Christ, we are not under Law but under Grace. The Law and the Prophets attest to this truth.

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A common refrain of antichrist pastors and their followers to the truth of God’s saving Grace is:

”So you are saying once we are under Grace, because the righteousness of Christ covers us we should continue in sin, live lawlessly and do no good deeds?”

Beloved of God, how can this be? Beware of preachers of the above doctrine of demons that equates righteousness in Christ with committing sins/lawlessness. God's Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him:

"God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."

Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

Matthew 1:21 tells us what Christ's job description is: "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Christ- Grace Himself - tells us in (John 6:43-46) what He is doing in the life of every believer:

“Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over Me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do My work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End."”

Beloved of God, how can these two things - being saved from sins/put together by Grace Himself and continuing to live in sin with no good deeds - how can they co-exist? How can the blind receive sight from Christ and continue to be blind while living in Christ? How could the Israelites that were saved from the sting of death (sin nature) and its deathly effects (acts of sin that lead to death) continue to wallow in their symptoms when their were wholly upon Jesus and not distracted by their silly efforts to save themselves? Christ Himself gave us this typology of how we are saved from the sting of death and its deathly effects in John 3.

Believers, flee from any pastor that posits this kind of horrid antichrist argument that says that righteousness in Christ/being under Grace is licence to commit sin. What a horrid antichrist doctrine it is. Such only display their cluelessness about God’s saving Grace and their unbelief in His power to save even the vilest offender who truly believes from his sins. Such trust in their arm of flesh/human effort for the attainment of godliness (be like God) but distrust the power of Christ to transform believers to godliness and right living. Let's take our blessed brains to church.

Like Peter before he denied Christ, many are yet to see the futility of trusting in themselves. Sin destroys the world that God so loved. This is how seriously God hates sin: to the same degree that He loves us, so much that He gave His own Son to die for our sins so that we can freely receive His gift of righteousness that frees us from paying the wages of sin; so that we can be free from sins that hold us captive; so that we can produce "a harvest of good deeds for God" (Romans 7:4) and also reign in life.

Think of an oncologist dad whose beloved and helpless child has cancer. God hates sin but so loves the helpless sinner- that's all of mankind by default. With Christ as our Righteousness and Strength, Christ Himself has excised the cancer that is the sin nature from our lives. See Colossians 2:11-

”When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.”

And He doesn’t just leave us to manage things on our own after this spiritual circumcision. His Spirit dwells in us forever. In Him, God continually supplies us with the Holy Spirit (spiritual chemotherapy that is sure to work perfectly) causing all of the symptoms of the sin nature (acts of sin that lead to death) to disappear. We who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are being transformed by the Spirit of the Lord, not our silly attempts at keeping the Law in order to be godly. In Him, we get to live in triumph over sin and death. See Romans 5:16-17-

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Christ's teaching in Matthew 7:12 is a part of the Sermon on the Mount. In this same series is where He taught His hearers The Beatitudes, The Lord's Prayer and so on. The Sermon on the Mount is not another set of rules and regulations for man to live by or else death like the Law of Moses. It is to show us the futility of trusting in human effort for the attainment of godliness/righteousness.

Christ said to the disciples in John 16:12-

12 “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.”

The church (Christianity) was still a mystery to Christ's disciples and His hearers who were all under Law at the time of the Sermon on the Mount where He taught “Do unto others…” The Holy Spirit had not been given. Christ was teaching religious Jews who depended on the Law of Moses to make them right with God. Here's another excerpt from the same Sermon-

17 “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Christ helps us understand here that when it comes to obeying the commands of the Law and the Prophets, the Pharisees were at a level that is beyond that of other men. Recall-

“In everything, do to others what you would want them to do to you. This is what is written in the Law and in the Prophets.”

Anyone seeking to enter God's kingdom based on even a smidgen of his good works or ability to obey the summary of the Law and the Prophets aka “do unto others…” has to top the Pharisees' efforts at doing same. Yet God's word refers to the religious Pharisees as “white-washed tombs” and “brood of vipers." Even they could not. Beloved of God, of ourselves, none of us can “do unto others…” in a bid to fulfill the Law and the Prophets which by no means applies to believers in Christ. See Romans 3:19-20:

“19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. 20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”

Many churchgoers are like pre-denial Peter- confident in their willpower/ability to live right and yet to understand that the reason why we are not committing particular sins or why we seem to be doing a good job of “do unto others…” is because God did not allow us to get tempted beyond what we can bear- 1 Corinthians 10:

12"So beware if you think it could never happen to you, lest your pride becomes your downfall. 13 We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously."

If God was not screening and filtering, those who are pridefully boasting in their strength to stand like Peter did before he denied Christ would see their true sinful selves. There is none good but God. It is God's restraining hand that restrains man from crumpling into the sins-ridden mass of flesh that man is of himself. His word addresses this truth in Romans 1 where a group who “suppress the truth” of righteousness by faith (verses 16-19) devolved into sin after “God lifted off His restraining hand…” —

“24 This is why God lifted off His restraining hand and let them have full expression of their sinful and shameful desires…”

If God lifted off His restraining hand that restrains us from devolving into committing heinous sins and let us rely on our human effort and will-power at keeping the law in order to be saved, godly or follow the summary of the Law and the Prophets aka “Do unto others…,” we would all devolve into heinous sin and see how utterly lacking in good we are of ourselves. We see by Grace that of ourselves, our will-power to obey the law and live right is utterly useless and that there is no good whatsoever in man as was Peter's humbling experience after he boasted in his strength to not deny Christ and fell flat on his face three times and Paul's too as recorded in Romans 7:18-

“For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

God's word says human effort (the arm of flesh) will fail, is powerless and cannot. This is the point of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount- to help us see the futility of trusting in the arm of flesh that will fail in our bid to achieve good. But as he did with Eve, Satan preys on Pride and Arrogance in man's arm of flesh (human effort at attaining godliness aka being good like God) that will fail and causes many to say:

"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can keep the law, live a godly life and resist temptation to commit sin by my will-power. Since I can do it, others must too. They are just lazy and love to sin.”

Reminds one of Peter who thought Christ was wrong when Christ told him about his then upcoming denials - right before he fell flat on his face three times. Doesn't get more arrogant than this: God says man cannot. Man says he can. None of us can obey to the point of righteousness. See how God sees those smatterings or loads of (self)righteous Pharisee-type works that many churchgoers take pride in and feel should make them deserving of anything in Isaiah 64:6-

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

Even our best efforts at getting a “not guilty” verdict from God the Righteous Judge are an abomination in His sight. No one can get a “not guilty” verdict from trying to do what is summed up in the Law and the Prophets. David prayed to the Lord in Psalm 143:2-

"Don’t bring your servant to trial, since in your sight no one alive would be considered righteous."

Check out the judicial terms that spell out spiritual warfare: In this court of the Law and the Prophets, all of man's self-efforts to "do unto others..." as demanded by the Law and the Prophets in order to fulfill the righteous demands of God’s Law and enter the good graces of God the Righteous Judge are utterly useless and will be torn to shreds by Satan the accuser’s prosecution. HaSatan is literally prosecutor at law in Hebrew. The witness of the Holy Spirit to the believer is that in Christ, God does not remember our sins and lawless deeds (Hebrews 10.) Man’s defense of his own obedience and good works only serve to cut one from Christ our Advocate and Bearer of sins as it did the religious Pharisees who hung their lives on the law and so could not receive salvation from Jesus:

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen from God's Grace." Galatians 5:4.

Christ in no way came to destroy, diminish or discard the law. He said in Matthew 5:17-

“Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”

Christ’s death for us magnifies the law. Only the sinless blood of the Lamb of God suffices to fulfill its righteous demands and save us from God’s wrath. With the Lord Jesus Christ as our righteousness, we are 100% righteous in God's sight and not because of our puny efforts at obeying the law of Moses. See Romans 5:9-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Due to a horrid part-Law/part-Grace mixture (neither cold nor hot) doctrine that is being peddled from some pulpits, many churchgoers are still trying to fulfil the Law and the Prophets’ “do unto others…” command by human effort even when the same Law and the Prophets attest to our justification by faith in Romans 3. Many are trying to live a sin-free life by human might and trust in their efforts at obeying the Ten Commandments to make them righteous in God's sight- a wonderful feat that Christ already accomplished for us at the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21.)

Such churchgoers water-down the Law from its pristine and unyielding condition where limbs are cut off and people get stoned to death for sins to a level where it is “keepable" and when they fail (as happens to all who put even a smidgen of confidence in their ability to produce good- the arm of flesh will fail,) such expect God to have mercy on them based on how well they tried to be good people. Hence, the Law is robbed of its pristine, severe, perfect, righteous and just nature while Grace is robbed of its nature- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Such are neither under law nor under Grace: Neither cold nor hot

Christ said in Revelation 3: “I could wish you were cold or hot.”

The “hot” here is definitely not “keeping the Law in order to gain right standing with God” as many teach; this would mean getting cut off from Christ (Galatians 5:4). This would mean “cold” is having a total disregard for the Law. Christ said “I could wish you were cold or hot.” Why would Christ wish for us to have a total disregard for the Law? He came to fulfil the very same Law for us! That is how holy and upright the Law is. It takes the blood of the Son of God to save us from the consequences of disobedience.

Better to be totally under Grace, where you get to enjoy the full benefits of our Lord's goodness or totally under Law where you see that you can never fulfill the Law and the Prophets by human effort/will-power (arm of flesh) and thus see our utter need for God's saving Grace - Christ Himself/