I just watched John Piper's most recent sermon, preached on January 23, 2011. The title of the sermon is "Abortion and the Narrow Way That Leads to Life". Here is the sermon, and below it is a summary of what I take to be the important points.
Piper talks about abortion some within the video, but the topic of abortion serves more as an entrance into the two questions of 1) how we as Christians should respond to suffering in the world, and 2) how we should think about the relationship of this world's suffering and eternal suffering in hell. Part of his text for the sermon is Matthew 7:12-14.
So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
In Matthew 7:12 we find the Golden Rule: do to others what you want done to you. This is quite a demanding verse if we really think about what it requires, instead of letting it sit in our brains as a platitude. In our society today, we usually default to the still brilliant, but less demanding negative version, the Silver Rule: Don't do to others what you don't want done to you. The love and action demanded by the Golden Rule makes it quite a bit more complicated than the Silver Rule, and Piper points out the complexity and difficulty of actually doing it. He identifies at least four different things that must happen for Matthew 7:12 to be fulfilled in a situation.
1) There must be a creative act of empathy. If I think to myself, I really want the newest John Piper book, and I wish someone would buy it and give it to me, my solution to loving the homeless guy down the street (probably) is not to buy and give him the Piper book. I need to get inside his head and heart, know how he ticks, and see things from his perspective. What does he want? What does he need?
2) Next, there needs to be a creative act of me still being me while getting inside the other person. That is phrased strangely, I know. It means this. Many times the other person may not know what he needs or wants. The human heart is deceitful, and our desires, affected by the Fall, are usually wrong desires. Therefore, I still need to be me - child of God, prayerful, submitted to Scripture - while getting into his shoes. It is within this humble, empathetic, God-centered mindset that we then ask, "If I were this person, what would I want done to me?"
3) Fulfilling the Golden Rule requires a massive act of self-renunciation. To do #1 and #2 rightly will require getting to know the person. The cost of loving is often at least what it takes to make a relationship work. For me to find out what a person needs and what makes them tick, I need to know them, and I get to know them by conversations. To do that I need to give up time I had planned doing something else. I was really planning on using my Saturday to do something else, like watching football or shopping or hanging out with my friends, instead of hanging out with my new homeless friend. I have had to give up some of my plans or money or whatever for the sake of this act of love.
4) Doing to others what I want done to me takes a joyful act of giving. Never do I feel loved when someone does something for me out of obligation. Never do I feel loved when someone does something for me while complaining about it. The action is not loving if it is joyless and begrudging. Because I don't want someone to grumble as they give me help, I likewise should not grumble as I give help. And this, of course is a matter of the heart and not simply the external appearance of the particular act.
Having looked at the nature and complexity of what this fulfillment of the Golden Rule looks like, Piper then looks at the implications for our world. I personally never want to suffer. No matter who's shoes I get into, I don't want to suffer, and I want alleviation from whatever it is with which I am struggling. Therefore, I should care about suffering wherever I meet it.
Finally, Piper points out that it is no coincidence, but rather more truth on the same subject, when Jesus moves from verse 12 to verses 13 and 14 about the wide and narrow roads. Jesus, as he points out, talked about hell more than anyone else in the Bible, and Jesus used some of the most horrific descriptive language, too. The Golden Rule will necessarily cause me to care about each person's eternal destiny and to labor towards their escape from eternal suffering and wrath.
The last fifteen minutes of the video, Piper gives a short summary statement that he wants his church to deeply understand and agree with. "Christians should care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering." Often Christians divide into one of two camps. They are either all about 1) social justice, shalom, and alleviation of present suffering, or 2) saving people from hell. The first group is often shy of talking about hell and wrath, and they opt, instead, for simply doing nice things for people. The second group tends to neglect help for present suffering, regarding it as a distraction. Bringing the two together and keeping them in proportion is key to getting Matthew 7:12 right.
The beginning of this message is all about what empowers us to go out and do Matthew 7:12 in the world. It is the knowledge and security that God is our loving Father and that he has our back, that he's on our side! We don't love others to make God love us. We love others because God loves us!
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