Chapter 16
THE GOLDEN RULE AND GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? 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 (Matt. 7:7-12).
The theocentric focus of this law is God as the heavenly Father who gives whatever His children ask. On this principle rests what has come to be called the golden rule: "Do unto others what you would have others to do unto you." This phrase never actually appears in this form in the Bible. It says, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." And it adds, "for this is the law and the prophets."
A Program of Cost-Effective Seeking This passage includes one of the greatest promises in the Bible: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." It is comparable to this promise: "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matt. 17:20b). What are we to make of all this?
First, seeking is the outworking of faith. We have already seen that faith is a means of risk-reduction.(1) But this passage goes further: active seeking is a means to wealth accumulation. The good things of life are available for the seeking -- not just for the asking, but the seeking. Seeking is a program that combines faith, identification of the items desired, planning to gain these items, and a unique means of securing the completion of the plan. This final stage is generally referred to as the golden rule. All elements must be present for the program to work as outlined here.
The first step listed here is asking, but it is not the first step in the seeking process. The seeker must already have identified whatever it is that he wants. This takes great spiritual maturity. This is the most difficult aspect of the entire procedure. He must identify his own scale of values. Put another way, he must identify his priorities and the reasons for them. He must seek conformity of his priorities to God's written revelation. The Gospel of Matthew makes it plain that the supreme priority is the kingdom of God. This is the covenant-keeper's method of fulfilling the dominion covenant (Gen. 1:26-28).
The second step is the planning stage: "seeking." Once he knows what it is he is after, he must think about how he can attain this goal. He must develop a plan of action. He must get from here to there. I have argued elsewhere that this plan consists of two parts, once the goal is identified: 1) estimating the price; 2) estimating the time frame. The shorter the time frame, the more it will cost to complete the plan. We do not get something -- above all, time -- for nothing.
The third step -- knocking -- is Jesus' way to describe prayer. His definition underlies another passage on prayer, the parable of the woman and the unjust judge. ". . . There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith" (Luke 18:2-6). This is the model for constant prayer. We are to pray to God as if He were an unjust judge.
We see this in another passage on prayer -- indeed, the passage on prayer. Immediately after presenting what we call the Lord's Prayer, Jesus presented an analogy. As we shall see, this passage includes the same words as this chapter's text.
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:5-13).
He who prays must be stubborn. If a prayer is worth praying, it is worth praying again. But what if God's answer is a clear-cut "no"? Then we should stop praying. Paul wrote: "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (II Cor. 12:7-10). Paul had to learn to live with his thorn in the flesh. But most men cannot be sure that a prayer will not be answered until death removes the opportunity -- either the death of the person who prays or the one being prayed for.
The frustration of unanswered prayer is always a threat to the faith of the godly person who prays in faith. Unwavering faith is basic to getting prayers answered. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:5-8). It takes courage to pray this way: the courage to expect God to answer the prayer. Unanswered prayer is a temptation to disbelieve the promise and therefore the One who made the promise.
Moses told Joshua to exercise courage. "And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed" (Deut. 31:7-8). The same kind of courage must underlie successful prayer. This degree of courage is not given to every Christian, or even most Christians, in most periods of history.
Good Things for the Asking "How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" The child asks for bread. The father does not give him a stone. The child asks for fish. The father does not give him a scorpion. The first request is minimal: bread. The second is for something extra: fish. Giving a stone is an evil response to a child's request for bread. Giving a scorpion for the request for fish would be even worse.
What was Jesus' point? That men, being evil, do good things to those whom they love. How much more does God do good things for those whom He loves.
But what if the child had asked for a stone to cast at an enemy? Would a wise father grant him his request? No. How much more would a wise father not grant a child's request for a scorpion? Of what good use is a scorpion to a child? What Jesus maintained here was that a legitimate request from a child should be answered by his father. So is God's open hand in relation to His children.
What seems legitimate in our eyes may be the equivalent of a scorpion in our lives: a deadly gift. We lack insight into our own hearts. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer. 17:9-10). We are not always good judges of character, especially our own.
The father's gift to a child in response to a legitimate request should be our model for understanding God's responses to our prayers. If we do not get our prayers answered, then the fault may be in our assessment of our needs or perhaps our assessment of the times. The father gives his son bread, but not every time the son may ask throughout the day. Similarly, God gives us what we need when we need it. What defines our need? God's calling and timing. We must see our needs in terms of God's kingdom. The theme of God's kingdom is found throughout Matthew. The kingdom is central; we are not.
Job asked God for death. "Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?" (Job 6:8-11). God had other plans for Job: blessing (Job. 42). He did not grant this request.
What is good for man? Whatever is good for God. The criterion of good is theocentric. Through the power of prayer, men are enabled to participate in the extension of God's kingdom. They see their prayers come to pass in history. But these answered prayers extend God's kingdom in history. Prayers are answered in history; the kingdom is extended through answered prayers in history.
What We Do unto Others The passage ends with the reminder that when we make requests to God, we should heed requests by men. Doing unto others what we would have others do unto us is, above all, a description of our relation to God. We are His agents. We represent God to others. They see us. When He tells us to do to others what we would have them do to us, He is calling us to exercise justice. This is not a law for the governing of relationships among drug addicts, for example. We must judge what is good for us in terms of God's kingdom. Then we are to extend grace to others in terms of God's kingdom. This is what we expect from others, beginning with God. We go to Him to plead our cases. Others come to us to do the same. We expect God to grant us our requests. Others expect us to do the same. The fundamental issue here is justice tempered with mercy.
We do good unto others. We thereby represent God to them. We want good done to us by others. We must therefore serve as good models for them, as God's covenantal representatives. We must treat others well; otherwise, we should not expect them to treat us well. When we treat others well, God honors this by granting us our legitimate requests. This, too, is a testimony to others. They see our prayers being answered, and they learn something about cause and effect in history. But if we treat others poorly, then we testify falsely to them about God. We hinder the extension of His kingdom. We risk having our prayers unanswered. This, too, testifies to cause and effect in history.
We should give good gifts to our enemies. "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matt. 5:42-44). We wear them down with kindness. We show them God's love in history. This either is a means of grace or a means of cursing. "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head" (Rom. 12:20).
Doing good to others means that others will learn to trust us. Our positive, predictable behavior lowers their risk of dealing with us. A basic law of economics is this: when prices fall, more is demanded. In this case, we are talking about more opportunities for mutual exchange. When we take advantage of these opportunities by not taking advantage of people, this increases our wealth.
God will not grant every frivolous request that catches our fancy. Neither are we to grant requests to everyone who asks us for something frivolous. The key issue is how our requests of God, like their requests of us, fit into God's overall kingdom work.
Conclusion There are priorities for prayer. They must reflect a reconstructed scale of values: kingdom first. Men are to ask in faith, praying diligently for good things. These good things are good from the kingdom's point of view, and therefore from covenant-keeping man's point of view. The kingdom of God is the top priority. Our prayers are to enable us to fit our plans into God's plans for the kingdom. Answered prayers enable us to see God's plans coming to fruition. So do unanswered prayers. The positive sanctions and the negative sanctions are to train us in the discipline of kingdom-building.
Prayer is a discipline that takes a lifetime to develop. Men call upon God, and in His own good time, He answers prayers that extend His kingdom. To the extent that men prayer kingdom-building prayers, they will see their prayers answered. The secret of getting one's prayers answered is to conform oneself to God and be alert to one's role in this kingdom. We must become like the children of Issachar. "And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment" (I Chron. 12:32).
Treating others as well as we expect to be treated increases the likelihood that others will want to cooperate with us. We become lower-risk partners. We will be presented with more opportunities to extend our range of choices -- our wealth -- because others know that they will be treated fairly in ventures with us.
Footnote:
1. Chapter 15, above.
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