Golden Rule

Luke 10:25 Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what will I do to inherit eternal life?"

26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

27 He answered, "You shall love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

28 He said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live."

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"


Ps 119:72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. YUD

Ps 119:96 I have seen a limit to all perfection, But your commands are boundless. MEM


As I look around, I often wonder why some
people just don't get it. As I look back
at my past, I see that I have a huge
disadvantage. In my earliest years, I had
an experience common to those growing up in
the sixties and seventies. Somehow, I
ended up getting into college and deciding
to major in science. Since then, most of
my working life was spent in engineering
departments. I spent what seemed like
endless hours doing lab work. From there
it was into engineering and finally, my
last stop on the career course, was writing
software. Hour after hour of if-then kinds
of programming, trying to work out the
logical result. It twists your mind in a
certain way. You begin to think that
everything has a cause and effect rule
involved somewhere. It becomes a form of
entertainment to work out the puzzles, for
some of us. Otherwise, life can be pretty
boring. Conversation can get very dull.


For the last 25 years or so, I've been
involved in learning the rules of science
and engineering. There are rules for
everything. Everything that you see as you
look out your window was built based on
rules. The medicine in your cabinet was
made using different rules. In science,
some of the rules are called 'laws'.
People use them every day to build things.


Then, you realize that most people don't
even have a clue about how things work from
an engineering perspective. They look at a
graph, and see lines and numbers and they
don't see any information. They look at
their house and they see pretty bricks and
fancy wallpaper, the facade of things. But
they don't imagine the huge pile of rules
that dictate almost every detail of the
structure behind the facade. On top of
that is the local building code, a whole
other set of rules.


I'm thinking that is where people don't
get it. They don't realize that in the
physical world, everything is governed by
a set of rules. I can't avoid the idea
because I've looked at the rules all my
working life. In other areas of life, the
rules are different from the engineering
world. There are rules, but they are
fluid. As far as I can tell, in the world
of social interaction the rules are
generally based on the convenience of the
person who happens to be recognized as
having the superior role. It might be
hard to believe, but some of us don't get
it. We get science and engineering, but we
don't get the notion of social conventions.
We look at a crowd and we see people, all
the same, nothing different anywhere. If
someone says something silly, we think that
they are silly, not the boss. The Dilbert
comic strip has alot of fun with this idea.
Even in the world of science and
engineering, there is the totally non-
logical chaotic realm of human interaction.


At the extremely formal end of the human
interaction scale, is a courtroom. Have
you ever had the pleasure of spending time
in a courtroom? There are rules, but they
are not revealed to outsiders. They do and
say things in a strange manner, and it's
only at the end that you understand that
you have to pay $100 to the court for
whatever it was that just happened. But
whether or not it makes any sense, the fact
is that there is a set of rules in play.
The thing that makes it consistent with
other forms of human interaction is that
the rules are not a fixed set of rules,
like the laws of science, they are rules
that can be changed to adapt to changes in
social mood. It's alot like having an
argument with the wife. The major rule in
play, is to win the argument. That's then
a victory. It doesn't change a thing.
Nothing is ever done differently. Habits
persist. It seems to be a complete waste
of time. But that's the system that seems
to make people most comfortable, even
though it's totally unpredictable...


What's the point? Simple. We have a
tendency to bring with us these personal
predispositions when we approach scripture.
Some see strict rules, some see all the
loopholes, some see only a challenge to
their self will. There is an obvious
analogy to the rule of law in nature and
the rule of G-d. And the idea that there
is a penalty for violating the rule of law
is not out of a sense of retribution, as
much as it is a sense of, that's the
expected outcome -- it's cause and effect.
Even though people like to labor under the
illusion that they are free to do as they
please without any implications, if you
take a closer look, you can see that it's
just not the case. There is always a
consequence to behavioral habits.
Scripture is there to lay out the rules for
us. It's there to help us.


Ps 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light for my path.


Scripture isn't like social interaction.
It's not like you approach Jesus like you
would the boss, with the idea that if you
have something to offer, then he can bend
the rules for you, that there is something
that can be negotiated. It's more like
gravity. It's there, whether you believe
it or not, and it is not subject to
negotiation or your personal feelings about
it. It's part of the structure behind the
facade. Here's what Jesus said:

Matt 5:17 Don`t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn`t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

18 For most assuredly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished.

He didn't come to change the rules, he only
came to satisfy the rules, because I will
never be able to satisfy them on my own,
by my own effort. We have to be redeemed
from the natural consequence of sin. As
the lawyer in the opening passage found
out, there are no loopholes in that law.