In Everything, in every way, at all times…
Read Time: 8 mins, 15 secs
In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophets.
Matthew 7:12 NET
In everything. In every way. Treat people as you would want to be treated. Not just in some things. Not just at some times. But every interaction you have should be filtered through the question as to whether this is how you would want to be treated. Every way you relate to another human should mirror how you would like God and others to relate to you.
Jesus goes on to say that by this you fulfil the law and the prophets. What does that mean? Referring to the law and the prophets was a way for Jesus to encompass the entire Bible. He is essentially saying that the message of the entire Bible is to treat others as you want to be treated. Every law, every command, every suggestion is given for the purpose of treating people better. The goal is to love more and love well.
Jesus said something similar when experts in the religious law came to debate Him. They asked what was most important, and Jesus said it is most important to know God and love God. It's paramount that we seek to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. But as a response to our love for God, we will love the people He has created. This is why Jesus says that the second command is to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus went on to say that there is no greater law than to love God and love people. The goal is to treat people as you would want to be treated. Jesus even said that the way people will know we are His disciples is by the way we love. If we love like our Father, we look like His kids.
As we realize the love that God has poured out on us, it prompts us to love others in the same way. As we remember the love of God, we are released to love others like God does. As we accept the love of God in our lives, we are compelled to act it out in the lives of others. It’s a natural reaction. When you love God, your response will be to love people. When you are loved by God, your reaction will be to love people. But what does this look like?
We are essentially called to pass on what we've been given. We are called to love as we've been loved through the power of that love. This will play out in many ways in your life, but we are going to touch on a few of them today. A few ways we are called to show the love of Jesus are by judging how we want to be judged and forgiving how we want to be forgiven.
Viewing other as God views them
We have to grow to see people as God sees them. We have to see others as God sees us. The Bible says that we are all made in God’s image. Scholars use the Latin phrase to say we are fashioned in the Imago Dei, or the image of God. This gives us intrinsic value, purpose, and uniqueness. All of us.
It's only after acknowledging this fact that loving others as you want to be loved makes sense. You are equal to the rest of us, even the people you don't like. Everyone should be valued and cherished. Even the broken ones, because you, too, are broken but loved. We are all viewed by God in the same light. This means that we are equals to each other and should be treated as such. When we look at our neighbors, we should see God and be reminded to love and value them as such. We are called to treat all people as the image bearers they are. We are to treat them with dignity, respect, and love as creations of the Creator God.
Oftentimes it’s our inability to see ourselves as God sees us that stops us from seeing others as God sees them. If you struggle to believe you’re loved, you will have a hard time believing others should be loved. If you have a hard time believing that God isn’t afraid of your sin and brokenness, you’ll likely be afraid of the sin and brokenness of others. That’s why I’d urge you to prioritize being reminded of God's love in your life before you try to interact with others. He will teach you what love looks like. You may have to relearn and unlearn things concerning how you believe the gospel functions in your life if you’re going to view people in an accurate light.
Here's the issue. As you start to be honest about how deep the grace of God goes, the more honest you’ll have to be about how in need of a Savior you are. The same is true as you grow closer to others and grow in your understanding of God's view of them. The more you understand and know people, the dirtier they will seem to get. But the more powerful the love and grace of God will shine in spite of. It's funny, my parents did a good job of shielding me from church drama and sin, but as I started to pastor, I started to get bombarded by the fact that church really is a hospital for sick people. Some pastors have one body but two or three faces. The most anointed people have relational drama like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The most gifted people have skeletons in their closets, like David. It's almost like the more God is with you, the more broken you have to be. The closer you get to people, the more you’ll recognize that God is attracted to mess.
In the book, The Sanctified Life, Ellen White calls the theory of perfection and sinlessness false and dangerous because the more you dwell on Christ and get closer to His divine image, the more clearly you will see how perfect and spotless He is and how deep your own defects are. It's like bringing something off white next to something that is pure white. Offwhite may look like white by itself, but the closer you bring it to the standard, the farther you see it has to go. As you grow to be like Christ, you'll see more and more how unlike Him you are. The same is true with closeness to His body. As you grow in intimacy with the church community or body of Christ, the more you will see how much we all need Him.
It's this concept that forces you to start seeing people the way Christ sees them. Broken and blessed. Carnal and called. Annoying and anointed. It's only from recognizing how God views us that we can begin to view others like God does. We have to know how God has treated us to know how we should treat others. This is what leads us to judge like God and forgive like God.
Judge how you'd want to be judged.
The closer you get to people, the more reason you will have to judge them. The more intimacy you gain, the more insults you will receive. But God calls us not to judge.
Krino in the Greek means to decide, to judge, or to determine. It means to condemn, damn, call into question, or implicate. It’s to cast the final say on someone's life, something we don’t have the authority or understanding to adequately do. We are not called to judge because we are not the judge. Created beings making claims on the fate of other created beings is out of order. But it's not just that we don't have the authority or ability to make judgments; Jesus calls us not to krino or judge because the manner in which we judge others will be used against us. I don't want to be damned, written off, or condemned, so I'm told not to do it to others. I'm called to treat others as I want to be treated. I want to hold them to a standard no stricter than what I hold myself to. Jesus says that the ruler we use to measure others will be used to measure us. Teachers who treat kindergarten students with no grace, compassion, joy, or respect will be met with the same thing when they pursue their doctorate. Essentially, if you make hasty accusations against others, others will make hasty accusations against you. If you lack grace, empathy, and compassion, others will lack grace, empathy, and compassion concerning you. If you write people off before God is finished with their story, others will write you off before God is finished with you.
We are called to treat others as God treats us. God doesn’t treat you as your sins deserve. He sees your brokenness and doesn’t hold it against you. He sees all of you and still loves you. If God can do that for you, you can do it for others.
Forgive how we want to be Forgiven
It's not just about not treating people as their wrongs deserve, it's about wiping their record of the wrong in the first place. God doesn't just call us to suspend judgment; He calls us to forgive as He forgives.
Again, we forgive because we've been forgiven. When Peter asked how many times they should forgive those who wrong them, Jesus responded with a story. He told the story of a man and a master. The man had an unpayable debt of ten thousand talents. It was far more than he could pay in a lifetime of work. The man in excruciating debt went to the master and begged for patience and compassion, and the master found it in his heart to forgive the debt. The man was now free! However, as soon as he walked out of the master's court, he found someone who owed him a few hundred silver coins. As the favored, forgiven and free man sees another man who owes him just a few hundred coins, he attacks him and starts to choke him. He starts threatening the man who owes him, and when he asks for patience and compassion, the man who had just been forgiven, denies it and throws the other man in jail.
Remember, this man had just been forgiven of ten thousand talents. A quick search let me know that a talent was worth anywhere from $600k to $1M+ in today's money, while a shekel, denarius, drachma, or similar coin would be worth a few hundred dollars. This man had been forgiven of thousands of talents, worth hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, and someone else owed him a few hundred dollars. However, he couldn't forgive the man who owed him no more than the pay of a few days of work.
When the master who clears his debt of millions, if not billions, heard that this man had not forgiven someone else, you can imagine how angry he was. The master argued that this man should have shown the same type of mercy he was shown. As a result, the master piled the consequences of his debt back onto the man's life and sent him to jail to be tortured until he repaid the debt he couldn't pay. Jesus ended this story by saying that our heavenly father will do the same if we don't forgive our brothers.
If God forgave you of a debt you could not pay in a lifetime, you can forgive the person who spoke ill of you. If God can forgive your sin, you can forgive their mistake. Can I go a little further? If God can forgive your sin, you can forgive their abuse, abandonment, addiction, or absence.
To forgive is to cancel a debt. It's to let go of something owed to you. While not judging someone is to not see them as their sins deserve, to forgive is to not treat them as their sins deserve. It's to clean their slate and start from scratch. The Bible says that Jesus throws our sins into a sea of forgetfulness and remembers them no more. While boundaries and consequences are real and should be implemented, you don't have to keep punishing them for the wrong they did. If God accomplished this act of forgiveness for you, He can give you the power to do it for others.
This concept of loving people as we would want to be loved sounds great, but in practice, it is very difficult. Why? Because people are messy. People are broken. People have addictions, people make accusations. People have doubts, fears, worries, and problems. People are people, which will constantly keep you in a position to practice treating others the way God treats you. Keep putting yourself in their shoes as God gives you the grace to love as He loves, with patience, gentleness, kindness and self control.
God sees you, knows all of you, and still loves you. He still gives you chances and grace. He still pours Himself out so that you might be redeemed. God loved you in your mess, and His plan is to use messy people like you to be His hands and feet by loving the other messy people in their lives. This is our call.
I understand how difficult this is. It almost sounds insane. But all things are possible through the strength and grace of Jesus. This is why we have to continually recount the love of God in our own lives so that we know how to love others. You will mess up and fall short of this goal, but I believe you can get up and try again. Let’s love better each day.
It's hard to treat people how you want to be treated when you haven't been treated well. Suppose all you've seen is abuse; it would be hard for you to love others without it. Suppose all you've seen is abandonment; it would be hard for you to love others with closeness and intimacy. This is why God has to show us His love for us before expecting us to love others. You cannot forgive if you haven't come to terms with your forgiveness. You cannot make time and space for others if you don't have a God who made time and space for you. You cannot suspend judgment for others if you haven't accepted the God who didn't treat you as your sins deserved. As all things, this starts with God. It starts with the gospel. If you have trouble loving people, it's time to lean in and learn more about God’s love for you. It's time to really sit back and think about how broken, busted, and disgusted you were when God found you. It's time to sit back and think about how evil you are compared to Him and how God still uses you in spite of you. When you spend a thoughtful hour considering the cross and the message of the gospel each day, it will give you the ability to live it out in others' lives. Don't just be hearers of the word, be doers of it. Let God love through you.
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