[THE FOLLOWING IS A SERMON NIKO PREPARED AND DELIVERED FOR OUR HOME CHURCH]

“Do Unto Others”

My talk today is going to be on “Do Unto Others”. “Do Unto Others” is found in Matthew 7:12. Matthew 7:12 says, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”

Do Unto Others is often referred to as the Golden Rule. Doing to others what you want them to do to you does not mean that if you do good to someone that he will do good back to you. He may do good back to you but even so we should “Lend hoping for nothing in return”. So we should do good to others not hoping for good to be done to us in return. Doing unto others what you want them to do to you is NOT the same as “Do unto others what they do to you” or else if someone did something bad to you, you could do something bad back to them, that is not at all what the verse means. Neither is it the same as “Do unto others what you want them to do to you so that so that they will do the same thing back to you” We should be a blessing to others without hoping for them to be a blessing back to us in return. No, it is not the same at all! These two “What they do to you” and “So they will do the same thing back to you” are not in Matthew 7:12. But instead it is “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”

May I have a volunteer for Matthew 22:37-39, please? “Thank you!” This is when the lawyer asked Jesus saying, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” and Jesus had answered him saying, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Loving your neighbor as thyself or as yourself is like Matthew 7:12. Matthew 7:12 says, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. So the first and great commandment is: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” The second great commandment is to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” And the Bible says that “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

God’s commandments might be hard, but we must obey them. We might not do it perfectly, but we should try our best. Praise the Lord! God sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins so that we could go to Heaven without having to be perfect if we trust Jesus as our savior, because we humans can not be perfect, we are not able to be.

Can I have a volunteer for Luke 6:31, please? “Thank you!” Luke 6:31 says, “And as ye would that men would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” Or as it says in the New King James “And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.” Now if your sister wanted you to get her a doll and you wanted her to get you a ball, does that mean that if you were the boy that you should go and get her a ball? I talked to my dad and I do not think so. But rather it probably means to do to others what they would have done to them if it is a good thing.

Another example, is that I personally do not feel comfortable killing someone even in the cause of war. Now at least one or two people have asked me about if it is a good war. Now what if we were in the right and the enemy soldiers were evil? Well if the enemy soldiers were evil that would probably indicate that they are not believers. How would killing unbelievers help further God’s Kingdom; instead would you not think that you would be sending them to hell? I know not everyone shares the same conviction. I was talking to someone recently and he asked me something like, “If you were President would you send men to war?” If I was the President and I sent men off to war in a draft, I would not be doing to them what I would have had them do to me if I was in their place. Sending men off to war in a draft is different than sending volunteer soldiers off to war. We heard in one of our teachings that George Washington would not make his men do anything he would not do. If I were to follow that example would I send men to war? Would it be right to get your sister a ball when she wanted a doll because you wanted a ball? Maybe we could talk about these now…