Young Pilgrim, when we walk as strangers in the world, we observe how the ungodly violate the Golden Rule. There is among the nations in this place, an extreme amount of pride, covetousness and greed. There are various contributing factors involved in this evil which is so widespread. Materialism, for one, has made the worldly to feel independent to the extent that they are not even dependent upon their Creator. They, in fact and in deed, deny Him Who gave them their very existence. Even now, for example, with the present recessed economic situation, there is a mad scramble to “get something for nothing”. Lack of production of material goods coupled with unemployment drives this greedy, covetous society to demand from the government dollars which are not earned. As they make a wild dash toward the head of the line when the handouts are given, they care not upon whom they trample, and meanwhile find anyone other than “self” to blame for all of life’s troubles and so the “me first syndrome” develops.

Because we are pilgrims and strangers, we rapidly identify this evil which is so common among the natives. On occasion, we observe pilgrims in pursuit of the same evil, and one wonders if the natives do indeed recognize us as strangers who are merely passing through the land.

Young Pilgrims, beware! The evil of violating the Golden Rule manifests itself in many ways. Even among us we find the giving less of ourselves, and the demanding more of others.

The Golden Rule as it is commonly stated is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Scripture presents the Golden Rule to us in Proverbs 24:29, “say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me; I will render to the man according to his work.”

Now, of course we are dealing here with the second table of the Law, and Jesus teaches us, Matthew 22:39, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

In this and in a succeeding editorial, we will attempt to discover how the Golden Rule and the second table of the Law relate to our lives.

First of all, we are called to honor those in authority. The apostle Paul develops the concept of authority in Romans 13. (Please read that passage now) In a brief statement what Paul has to say here is that those who have authority over us are given that authority by God to be used in His service.

We often set ourselves up to be judges over authorities. We refuse to do what is required of us and put forth great effort to find valid reasons for rebelling. When we reason that “the cause is right” (as we lie to ourselves) “valid reasons” pop out all over the place. Some reasons for rebellion have been with us for so long and are now so commonly accepted that we do not even think about what we are doing.

Young Pilgrim do you need examples?

“I don’t know why the stupid speed limit has to be 35 mph anyway.” The point is that the limit has been set by the authorities. The limit must be obeyed. We may not judge the limit to be a minimum speed. Neither may we judge the limit to be “stupid”. We must simply unquestioningly obey!

“It isn’t fair. What right does he have. . . ?” This is an example of an all too familiar cry which is promoted by the natives and adopted by the pilgrims. It is the result of an attempt to make all people equal even to the extent of destroying authority. What is “fair”? What is “right”? Think about that for a while, young pilgrim! Remember that serpent in the garden? He tempted by saying, “And ye shall be as gods.” (Genesis 3:5) And man readily agrees, saying in effect: “What right does God have to be God alone?”

And although it is true that this objection “What right does he have?” could be used in a proper way perhaps, it is only because of a third example of common rebellion. And that would be the usurping of authority

There is one final item I wish to mention. This concerns our relationship with our parents. “The old man ain’t never listened to me! He don’t know what he’s talking about!” I hear this type of thing now and again. I wish each of you would consider the proper response to parental authority. In light of our proverb and the Golden Rule, could the proper response be: “listen to your parents as you would have them listen to you”?