A Golden Promise and the Golden Rule

Matthew 7:7-12

Main Idea: Because God is a good Father who desires to answer persistent and expectant prayers, we are able to treat others as we want to be treated.

1. God Promises to Answer Our Prayers (7:7-11).
   1. We should ask persistently (7:7-8).
   2. We should ask expectantly (7:9-11).
2. God Challenges Us to Obey the Golden Rule (7:12).
   1. Start with what you would want.
   2. Finish with what others want.
   3. Rejoice that this is what God wants.

Matthew 7:7-12 gives us one of the most astounding promises in the Bible: God hears and responds to our prayers. John Piper says,

When you pause to consider that God is infinitely strong and can do all that he pleases, and that he is infinitely righteous so that he only does what is right, and that he is infinitely good so that everything he does is perfectly good, and that he is infinitely wise so that he always knows perfectly what is right and good, and that he is infinitely loving so that in all his strength and righteousness and goodness and wisdom he raises the eternal joy of his loved ones as high as it can be raised—when you pause to consider this, then the lavish invitation of this God to ask him for good things, with the promise that he will give them, is unimaginably wonderful. (“Ask Your Father”)

Matthew 7:1-6 picked up again on the idea of hypocrisy (6:2, 5, 16; cf. 7:5). Matthew 7:7-11 picks up again on the theme of seeking (6:33; cf. 7:7-8) in the context of prayer and the incredible privilege it is (cf. Luke 11:5-13). Matthew 7:12 refers to “the Law and the Prophets,” which links it with Matthew 5:17 and forms an brackets or sandwiches the whole section. In essence, then, the so-called Golden Rule, as Quarles notes, summarizes and concludes Jesus’s interpretation and application of the Law (5:17-48), His instruction related to deeds of righteousness (6:1-18), and His instruction for life in the world including both one’s relationship to possessions (6:19-34) and to people (7:1-6), as well as 7:7-11. (Sermon, 306)

In other words, we need to seek the Lord and ask him to give us his righteous disposition. We need to seek the Lord, his kingdom, and his righteousness if we are to do for others what we would want them to do for us. Without God’s enablement, we are destined to sinfully judge others (7:1-5). With his strength and power, we can love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matt 22:39-40). Further, because God gives his children the good gifts described in 7:9-11, we should live out the Golden Rule as an act of gratitude and thanksgiving toward others.

The guarantee of answered prayer is truly a golden promise. Doing to others what you would want them to do to you is also a Golden Rule. Like the two great commandments to love God and others, these two nuggets of gold first direct our attention to our God; then they direct our attention to others. The order is crucial and important. First, I talk to God about his good gifts. Then, one of these good gifts is the supernatural ability to live out the Golden Rule.

God Promises to Answer Our Prayers

Matthew 7:7-11

Sinclair Ferguson says these verses contain “beggars’ logic” (Sermon, 157). I might add that they also contain the “beggars’ privilege.” Prayer is the great blessing that puts our impotence in touch with God’s omnipotence, our lack in touch with his supply, and our needs in touch with his riches. Our negligence in this vital spiritual discipline is an evidence of beggars’ foolishness. Prayer is an invitation to an extravagant banquet where everything we need is present. But like fools we so often send back the word, “I’m too busy.” We send back the word, “Not today, maybe later.”

James 4:2 reminds us, “You do not have because you do not ask.” Missionary and former college president Robertson McQuilkin adds,

Expect Great Things, 218)

God promises to answer our prayers. So how should we respond?

We Should Ask Persistently (7:7-8)

I believe God’s Word often commands us to do what we naturally will not do. It encourages and admonishes us where we are weak and where we struggle. Perhaps there is no spiritual discipline where this is truer than the discipline of prayer. Jesus invites us to pray by means of a threefold command: ask, seek, and knock. All three verbs are imperatives, words of command. All three verbs are in the present tense calling for continuous action. “Ask and keep on asking” is the idea. “Seek and keep on seeking.” “Knock and keep on knocking.” When you pray like this, God promises to answer. “Ask and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be open.” As John Piper puts it, “The asker receives. The seeker finds. The knocker gets an open door. Your Father will give you good things” (“Ask Your Father”).

Verse 8 reveals the inclusive and comprehensive nature of this promise for God’s children (v. 11). The promise encompasses everyone—not some, not most, not almost all. Everyone who calls God their Father receives this promise. Jesus, no doubt, understands our hesitancy to pray, especially when we are aware of our sin and unworthiness. The great Reformer Martin Luther has a helpful word at this point:

He knows that we are timid and shy, that we feel unworthy and unfit to present our needs to God. . . . We think that God is so great and we are so tiny that we do not dare to pray. . . . That is why Christ wants to lure us away from such timid thoughts, to remove our doubts, and to have us go ahead confidently and boldly. (Sermon, 234)

God hears us when we ask. God reveals himself when we seek. God opens doors when we knock. My friend James Merritt says, “What we need in our [churches] today is not a declaration of independence. What we need is a declaration of dependence” (“Power”). First Thessalonians 5:17 is a good word to remember: “Pray constantly.”

We Should Ask Expectantly (7:9-11)

Verses 9-11 make two points. First, when you pray, you are praying to your Father. Second, your heavenly Father is so much better than any earthly father. Verses 9 and 10 ask two rhetorical questions with obvious answers. First (v. 9), Jesus asks, What father on earth would give his son a stone (something that looks like bread but has no nutritional value and would probably break his teeth) if his son asks him for bread? The answer is, No loving earthly father would even consider doing such a thing. Second (v. 10), Jesus asks, What father would give his son a snake (something that resembles a fish but is both venomous and dangerous) when he asked for a fish? The answer is the same. No loving earthly father would even consider doing such a thing.

Building on his rhetorical questions, Jesus uses a lesser to greater argument in verse 11. In sum, evil (sinful) earthly fathers can “give good gifts to [their] children.” If that is true—and it is—“how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?” Even depraved, fallen, sinful fathers will seek to meet the legitimate needs of their children because they love them. However, you have a perfectly good, holy, and righteous Father in heaven who loves you so much more. You can expect him to do so much more. He delights in blessing his children and giving them good things when they ask, seek, and knock. He is honored by our persistence (vv. 7-8). He is honored by our expectancy (vv. 9-11). And because he is our perfect, heavenly Father, we can ask trustingly, knowing we will always and only get what is best for us to live for him and do his will. Infinite love is the well out of which God’s good gifts always flow to his children. Charles Spurgeon puts it perfectly:

Our heavenly Father will correct our prayer, and give us, not what we ignorantly seek, but what we really need. The promise to give what we ask is here explained, and set in its true light. This is a gracious correction of the folly which would read the Lord’s words in the most literal sense, and make us dream that every whim of ours had only to put on the dress of prayer in order to its realization. Our prayers go to heaven in a Revised Version. It would be a terrible thing if God always gave us all we asked for. Our heavenly Father himself “knows how to give” far better than we know how to ask. (Exposition, 42)

God Challenges Us to Obey the Golden Rule

Matthew 7:12

Though it may not appear to be the case at first glance, we have seen that verse 12 is intimately connected to verses 7-11. John Piper again is helpful when he says,

The word so [“therefore,” CSB] at the beginning of verse 12 implies three things: 1) that you can’t live the Golden Rule—treat others the way you would like to be treated—without experiencing the truth of verses 7-11—that is, without the deep confidence that your Father will give you every good thing you really need; 2) that if you really experience the truth of verses 7-11—the assurance that your heavenly Father meets all your real needs—you will have the inner freedom and impulse to live the Golden Rule: to do the good to others that you would like them to do for you; and 3) that the reason the Golden Rule fulfills the law and prophets is that it assumes the love of verse 12 is all flowing from faith in the work of Jesus Christ to ransom us by his blood and secure for us God’s mercy and everlasting Fatherhood.

All of that is implied in the word so—1) if you really treasure your heavenly Father who meets all your needs by only giving you what is good for you, then you can live for others; 2) if you really treasure your heavenly Father who meets all your needs by only giving you what is good for you, then you will live for others; and 3) if your living for others flows from trusting in your Father through the Messiah, Jesus, who paid your ransom and forgave your sins, then this kind of life fulfills all that the law and the prophets were aiming at. (“Spring”; emphasis original)

Quarles provides an amazing and largely unknown insight concerning verse 12 and the Golden Rule. He points out that the name “dates to at least as early as the end of the Middle Ages” (Sermon, 306). Further, and surprisingly, he notes, contrary to popular opinion, this name was not inspired by the preciousness of this important moral principle. This name relates to accounts claiming that the Emperor Alexander Gospel, 145, cited in Quarles, Sermon, 306)

While this may be true as to its origin, there is certainly a golden quality to this rule that has made it one of the most memorable and quoted verses in all of God’s inerrant Word. We can see three essential components to the verse.

Start with What You Would Want

“Therefore” connects verse 12 to verses 7-11. The Golden Rule must flow out of the golden promise. Jesus begins by saying, “Whatever you want others to do for you.” “Whatever” is comprehensive. There are no exceptions. Also, Jesus is stating a well-known principle in the positive instead of the negative. The negative form was the more common. For example, Rabbi Hillel said, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow creatures” (cited in Carson, Sermon, 112). Jesus turns the principle around and raises it to a higher and more proactive level. Carson is right:

Jesus gives the positive form of this rule, and the difference between the two forms is profound. For example, the negative form would teach behavior like this: If you do not enjoy being robbed, don’t rob others. If you do not like being cursed, don’t curse others. If you do not enjoy being hated, don’t hate others. If you do not care to be clubbed over the head, don’t club others over the head. However, the positive form teaches behavior like this: If you enjoy being loved, love others. If you like to receive things, give to others. If you like being appreciated, appreciate others. The positive form is thus far more searching than its negative counterpart. Here there is no permission to withdraw into a world where I offend no one, but accomplish no positive good either. What would you like done to you? What would you really like? Then, do that to others. Duplicate both the quality of these things, and their quantity—“in everything.” (Sermon, 112)

Finish with What Others Want

Jesus says what you would like others to do for you, “do also the same for them.” Look inward, and then move outward in action. Recognize that it will always be a challenge to love those who are different from you. Put this in a cultural and ethnic context for the purpose of application.

Would I want to be made fun of because of the way I look? Would I want to be shunned by others? Would I want to be talked down to as an inferior? Would I want to never be invited over for dinner? Would I want to never be considered for a job I’m qualified for? Would I approve if people didn’t want to be my neighbor? Would I approve if no one would consider me for a home loan though my credit is good? Would I approve if I was never considered for a promotion at work though I am qualified for it? (Piper, “Spring”)

These are probing and important questions. And this verse gives a powerful principle that cannot leave you the same. We should ask our good heavenly Father to give us the ability to live out the Golden Rule in a true and authentic fashion.

Rejoice That This Is What God Wants

The phrase “the Law and the Prophets” is a shorthand way of referring to the whole of the Old Testament. It strategically appears three times in Matthew’s Gospel:

• Jesus came to fulfill the Scriptures (Matt 5:17-18).
• The Golden Rule captures the heart of the Scriptures (Matt 7:12).
• Loving God and loving your neighbors are the foundation of the Scriptures (Matt 22:40).

“The point,” as Quarles says, “is that verse 12 is the summation of the essence of the character God required of His people in the Old Testament” (verse that we cannot help but gaze at for our joy and our edification. He writes,

This is the sum of the Decalogue, the Pentateuch, and the whole sacred Word. Oh, that all men acted on it, and then there would be no slavery, no war, no sweating, no striking, no lying, no robbing; but all would be justice and love! What a kingdom is this which has such a law! This is The Christian Code. This is the condensation of all that is right and generous. We adore the King out of whose mouth and heart such a law could flow. This one rule is a proof of the divinity of our holy religion. The universal practice of it by all who call themselves Christians would carry conviction to Jew, Turk, and infidel, with greater speed and certainty than all the apologies and arguments which the wit or piety of men could produce.

Lord, teach it to me! Write it on the fleshly tablets of my renewed heart! Write it out in full in my life! (Exposition, 43)

Conclusion

These verses speak powerfully to our hearts because they powerfully show us Jesus. No one ever prayed to the Father so persistently and expectantly as did our Lord. He never stopped talking to his Father. He never stopped trusting his Father. He knew more intimately than anyone that he is a good Father. And no one ever loved like Jesus. No one! Friend or foe, his love was a river of compassion, grace, and mercy. Look to Jesus and his love for sinners like you and me to see the Golden Rule in real life. There will be no disappointment. He is that good. He is that wonderful.

Reflect and Discuss

1. Why is it astounding that God hears and responds to your prayers?
2. If God hears you, why is it important to pray persistently? Why does he want you to pray more than once for your needs?
3. What is the difference between casual prayer and expectant prayer?
4. What prayers can you look back on and be glad that God did not answer in the way you initially wanted? How did God answer the prayer better than you asked? Or how was it good that God refrained from giving you what you wanted?
5. The Bible says to ask and God will provide. What in your life do you desire but are not praying for? Why?
6. What could you begin praying for this week that God would change in your life?
7. How brave are your prayers? Are they filled with needs that you can accomplish on your own or needs that require God to provide?
8. What happens when you follow or teach the Golden Rule without teaching and depending on the golden promise or the gospel?
9. How does the Golden Rule flow out of the way Jesus has treated you?
10. Our culture often privileges some people over others for sinful reasons. How does the Golden Rule change how the church welcomes and serves those who are marginalized by the culture?