The Golden Rule // How to Live an Extraordinary Life, Pt 17

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Pretty much everyone’s heard of the Golden Rule – you know, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Yeah, okay. That’s nice. But what does it really mean, and what impact can it really have on the sort of life we end up living?

I’m really excited to be with you again today, because this week again on the program we’re talking about How to Live an Extraordinary Life’. And what can be more important than that. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing more precious in this world than life itself, the lives of others and in fact our own life.

From the moment you and I took our first breath and cried out our first cry in this world we began an extraordinary journey. A journey of highs and lows to be sure, but as I look back on the lows that have been mixed in with my highs so far in my 50-something years on this earth, I wouldn’t swap any of it. All those experiences, the good, the bad, the ugly, together with the strands of DNA that God laid down in each cell of my body are what make me who I am today.

So, if given the choice of living an ordinary life or an extraordinary life, most of us, in theory at least, would choose the latter. But there are a couple of problems with that. The first one is that often we don’t know how to go about it. What constitutes an extraordinary life? What does it look like? What does it feel like? How do you actually live it? That’s problem number one.

And problem number two is that whatever ‘extraordinary’ may mean, the one thing for certain is that it’s going to involve sacrifice, because no one does anything does extraordinary without sacrificing something else in their lives.

So today we’re going to do the same thing that we’ve been doing each day for the past few weeks, we’re going to take a look at one thing that Jesus said or did or thought. Because whatever you may think of Jesus or believe about Jesus or not believe about Jesus, He did live an extraordinary life on this earth. That’s for sure. Today I’d like to look at perhaps the single most famous, most well-remembered, most often quoted thing that Jesus said in His 32 or 33 years on planet earth. What is it? Well, it’s called the Golden Rule. Matthew Chapter 7 verse 12:

“In everything, do unto others as you would have them do unto you for this is the law and the prophets.”

When I was a young lad I had a pretty hard time of it at school. See, I was short and dumpy and I couldn’t run as fast as the other kids. I really couldn’t play sport any where near as well as the other boys did. I came from an immigrant family here in Australia and to some extent the other kids thought of me as a ‘Wog’. That was the name they gave to post-war migrants when I was a lad.

I played the piano and not cricket or football, I sang in the choir at school instead of hanging around with the other kids at lunchtime. I studied hard, I achieved high results, I was almost always at the top of the class in every subject and that, as things turned out, made things even worse. I was just different to the other kids. I wasn’t part of the in crowd. I wasn’t one of the beautiful people. I was your classic ugly duckling. And for me it wasn’t until much later in life that I discovered that I do have some gifts, I do have some abilities that are worthwhile.

But along the way there were a couple of kids who accepted me for who I was. One in my very junior years at Woonona East Primary School was a kid called Greg Sefton. We were only 7 or 8 years old but we were great mates. He lived not far from me and we often played together after school.

Now I haven’t seen Greg for over 40 years but I still remember his face, I still remember his voice as though it was just yesterday. He had a little black and white dog called ‘What’ so when you asked him ‘What’s your dog’s name?’ he’d answer ‘What?’ We’d played that joke over and over again a thousand times.

And then in my High School years there was a guy called Grant Dewar. Grant was and is a great guy. He just had his father who took his own life in our final year at school. Grant found his Dad lying dead on the kitchen floor. I remember his laugh and in fact a couple of years ago he heard this radio program and got in touch with me. We caught up when I visited the city where he lives and it was as though we had never been apart.

So why is Berni rabbiting on and telling you about these seemingly insignificant things about my childhood? Because to me they’re anything but insignificant. To me Greg and Grant are two of the most significant people in my life, looing back on it all. Because of all the hundreds of boys I came into contact in the 13 years of my schooling, these were the ones who accepted me for who I was. I would always be … different.

Most of the other boys I grew up, hey, I can’t even remember their names. I’ve never been good at remembering names but I can tell you story after story of the fun times that I remember having had with these two guys. Of all the hundreds of boys I grew up with, these two Greg Sefton and Grant Dewar are the extraordinary ones. Why? Because they treated me the way I wanted and needed to be treated and I shall treasure those fond memories for the rest of my life.

“In every thing do to others as you would have them do unto you for this is the law and the prophets.”

Do you see the power of that simple Golden Rule, if you and I would live an extraordinary life, that’s about all we really need to know, don’t you think? If there really is a God, and I’m absolutely in no doubt that there is, and He loves us with all that He is, it would be just like Him to send us Jesus to give us a powerful maxim like this one; an extraordinary life in a nutshell; an executive summary to top all executive summaries. Matthew Chapter 7 verse 12:

“In everything do unto others as you would have them do unto you for this is the law and the prophets”.

In other words, you can sum up the rest of the Bible in that one simple statement. What a brilliant measure for how to treat other people. Treat them just the way you would like to be treated in the same circumstances. When no one else takes you seriously, you want to be taken seriously right? When others shun you, you want to be accepted, right? When you are lonely you’d like someone to comfort you, right? When you’re dejected you’d like to be encouraged, right?

When we look at other people around us and we see the troubles that they have in their lives this standard of treating them, the way we’d like to be treated, means we just can’t stay indifferent to them. If I see someone in need and I put myself in their shoes that’s exactly what Jesus is inviting us to do here. And I have to say to myself, well, if I were in that situation this is how I’d like to be treated. And that right there is the thing that goes and motivates us to get off our backsides and to go and do unto them what we would have someone else do unto us should we find ourselves in that same situation.

Can I ask you something? Is any of this rocket science? Is any of this not obvious? It is obvious, so why do we do it? Just take this one simple lesson, this very simple lesson, the Golden Rule as it’s come to be known and let that drive how we treat other people. We’d end up living the most extraordinary lives imaginable. How many wars do you think there would be on this planet if everybody lived by that simple maxim, “In everything do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

So what are you and I going to do with that extraordinary wisdom? Are we going to let it just wash by? That would be a waste. On the other hand we could take a quick look around to see if there is anyone who needs to be treated the way we’d like to be treated at the moment. And should you choose to do that I guarantee you this one thing, you won’t have to look very far.