The Golden Rule

"Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."  Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 7:12

The command to treat others the way you would like to be treated needs no introduction.  It is known today as the “Golden Rule”, many people unaware that it originated from the mouth of Jesus.  It is one of three or four popular Bible verses that almost every American is familiar with, along with “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son … “, “God is love”, and “Judge not, lest you be judged yourself”.  (I said the verse didn’t need an introduction – I didn’t say I wasn’t going to give one anyway.)     Shortly after teaching His people to treat others the way they themselves want to be treated, Jesus made some fairly controversial statements about Himself being the only way to God.  Regardless of if people believe the latter teachings, no one can argue the value and goodness of the former teaching.  Truly we should treat others how we want to be treated.

Though a beautiful teaching, a quick self-inventory reveals how little I’ve kept it, even in the last two days.  And I belong to Jesus!  What makes it so difficult is that I don’t understand other people.  So when their actions annoy or inconvenience me, I respond the way I think they should be treated in that moment of my annoyance, instead of the way I wish they treated me if I inconvenienced them.  I can’t be sure, but I’d imagine that you’d share the same conviction, if you were honest.

If you think about it, Jesus’ teaching in this verse is incredibly penetrating.  Because to treat others the way you’d like to be treated first requires sitting down and thinking, “How would I like to be treated?”  Think about it right now.  How would you like to be treated?  I can only speak for myself:  I’d like people to be interested in me, taking me seriously.  I’d like them to listen to what I have to say, not obviously watching my mouth waiting for a free moment to bounce out their next tidbit.  Instead, allow me to verbally process what I’m obviously still working through even if it takes me a minute.  I’d like those who also belong to Jesus to tell me the truth, and cut me off when I’m making excuses and need to be cut off (which requires a certain level of intimacy).  I know that last sentence sounds like a contradiction with a previous sentence, but I’m giving you an opportunity to put into practice what I’m suggesting!  I’d also like, if a person disagrees with me on some issue, to not just assume I’ve not thought through the issue and wrestled, but instead to assume that I’ve come to a conclusion and am putting it out there to them at a known risk of rejection. 

If this is how I want to be treated, it is how I should treat others.  I should take people seriously, and be patient with them.  They’re a sinner in need of Jesus’ grace like me.  They need to see and hear that grace.   They also need the truth.  But Jesus comes with a grace that can’t be separated from truth, nor vice-versa.  To speak truth in a way that can be trusted requires laboring to build trust.   To speak grace in a way that won’t be misunderstood requires clarity, which requires learning their categories and transposing from mine if need be.

What about you?  How do you want to be treated?  And how are you doing giving that treatment to others?

I once read Calvin say that the best way we learn to love others is by putting ourselves in their shoes.  Really seek to find yourself in their situation, wrestling with their wrestlings, and see how your attitude toward them changes.  I think many Christians (myself most of all) would do well to practice this.   Jesus’ command to treat others how we’d want to be treated moves us in that direction, because it forces us to not only consider our common humanity with others, but to take seriously their heart, by way of first taking seriously our own.  This is hard labor, because it makes us do something we don’t like to do: get under God, and humbly think. 

But nothing could be more worth our time.  Considering how we treat others, and whether it is according to Jesus’ Law of grace (which we should always seek to let dwell in us), carries with it a temporal and immediate blessing, in that it will bring us into a person-to-person connection.   Those are becoming more and more rare.  But this consideration also  carries an eternal blessing as well – “blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy”, and, “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”. 

Surely Heaven will be full of people who have failed miserably in their earthly lives to treat others the way they would want themselves to be treated.  But there won’t be any there who won’t be praising Jesus for His grace and His mercy (see Revelation 5).  And if Jesus’ people will be like Him when they finally see Him, they will be a gracious and merciful people as well.  Of course in that day there will be no more need for them to extend grace and mercy.  But in this day (in which the New Testament we are presently beholding God's glory in Jesus' face), there is a need.  And Jesus is calling His sheep to walk as He walked, treating others with the same care, patience, and gentleness that He did.  He never refrained from the truth.  But He never had to.  His kindness was disarming enough that when He spoke truth, His grace was never forgotten.   Is yours?