Why the "golden rule" and being a "good guy" is not enough

One of the most frequent things I've been asked is also a popular topic for discussion in the media. I heard another example of it today. It is the question, or rather, the belief by some that "being a good guy or gal" and living a "good life based on the golden rule" is "enough." There is an assumption that "being good" takes care of whatever one's fate is (this is usually expressed by people who either don't believe in or are wishy-washy about the existence of heaven and hell.) These people feel that there may or may not be a God, and figure that if they live by the "golden rule" they are "covered" and that is all that a theoretical God would care about anyway. The irony and fatal mistake in this is that they are misquoting Jesus, who is the author of the "golden rule." Here is his entire statement:

Mathew 7:12: "Therefore all that you wish men to do to you, even so do you also to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets."

Notice that inconvenient little last third of the statement, "for this is the Law and the Prophets?" "Law" means the dictates and commands of God (which includes, obviously, acknowledging that God exists) and "Prophets" means the teachings of those who hear God's instruction. So the golden rule is not "Do unto others as you would have then do to you, because that's the smart and good thing to do and you'll get by anyway." What Jesus is doing here is paraphrasing the Law and the Prophets in the form of the golden rule. People are putting the cart in front of the horse by not understanding this. Jesus took the body of the Law and Prophets and put it in Cliff Notes summary format that could be inked on one's wrist (I'm being a little humorous here) as a reminder in the form of the golden rule. But remember, the people he was speaking to obviously took for granted that God exists and must be acknowledged and obeyed in the full of the Law and the Prophets. So it is bogus to believe that the golden rule was and is a "God optional" statement.

There is a second statement that makes this even clearer, just a bit later, in the same chapter of Matthew:

Mathew 7: 21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and work many miracles in thy name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity!"

Jesus is being very clear here. Even those who do good deeds and invoke his name, but ignore or defy the will of God the Father will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus' sayings and individual good deeds and works are not enough to enter into heaven. Worse, a person who performs good deeds and even "miracles" but does not acknowledge God the Father and perform his will risks being denounced by Jesus as a worker "of iniquity." That is not a ticket to eternal life and there are only two choices when every soul leaves the earth in death.

Almost as if Jesus could foresee misunderstanding, here is a perfectly clear statement of what is necessary to be saved. This came up as the learned Pharisees were testing him with "curve ball questions" trying to catch him in some misstatement. But there is no such thing as a dumb question, except the one that is not asked, and we should thank the Pharisses for asking such a pertinent and vital question:

Matthew 22: 34-40 But the Pharisees, hearing that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together. And one of them, a doctor of the Law, putting him to the test, asked him, "Master, which is the great commandment in the Law?" Jesus said to him "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

So here you have it, where Jesus states very clearly that the "great commandment" (that is, the most important one) is "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind." Jesus states this is the "greatest" (most important) and "first" (prerequisite to all else) commandment. So it is essential that anyone who wishes to avoid hell and achieve eternal life acknowledge and love God, and to be very clear on this, Jesus takes the time to reiterate, "with thy whole heart," "with thy whole soul," and "with thy whole mind." Um, clearly this means that God exists and total attention and devotion to his existence is prerequisite and essential. It is only after stating this that Jesus reiterates the so called "golden rule" and again, with the clear statement that this commandment, as well as the first, "depend the whole Law and Prophets." In other words, all laws, deeds, and prophecy are based on the love of the "Lord thy God" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

In no place does Jesus Christ state the "golden rule" as being separate from the worship of God.
Now look, people can believe whatever they want, and argue whatever secular or agnostic argument they want. They cannot, however, quote the "golden rule" as their justification, as has been shown above, because in Jesus Christ's own words the "golden rule" is repeatedly subordinate to and in conjunction with the "greatest commandment" to "love the Lord thy God" and who "does the will of my Father in heaven."