Matthew 7:12. The Golden Rule

Matthew 7:12
(also see Luke 6:31)

So whatever you would like people to do for you, do that for them. That sums up the Law and the Prophets.

This saying tends to put in perspective the saying of Matthew 5:17-18 about the law not being destroyed. The Golden Rule shows that, for Jesus, it is the law of love that counts.

How would you like to be treated? Don't you feel blessed when someone makes an effort to show you consideration, even if that means overlooking your gaffes?

How did Jesus treat others? He ranked them as God's creatures, friends or potential friends, as people who had led hard lives, lost and in need. When he looked at a great crowd of poor people, he was filled with compassion, which prompted him to the miracle of the loaves and the fishes.

Jesus taught his student learners that the best policy is to serve other people. That was the whole point of Jesus' mission. In humility, he washed his disciples' feet at the Last Supper.

He then went on to pay with his life on the cross, thus fulfilling God's Law, so that we could go free. That's a true servant!

Thus, we know that he was fully committed to obeying his Father in order to serve his fellow human beings.

Many of us find that service of self is what gets in the way of service to others. We have "very important things to do." But why are we doing them? Who are we serving? Is it the childish ego we each possess or is it God and other people?

I have struggled with this problem since the day I was reborn many years ago. I have taken to asking God to make sure that I have a Ready for duty, sir! attitude, so that I worry less about myself and more about others. Less I, more J is what the doctor orders.

Service to fellow sufferers is a big key to recovery from the tyrannical grip of alcoholism, according to Bill W. and Dr. Bob, founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. When an alcoholic "gets out of his own head," ceasing to be self-absorbed, and pays attention to the need of another person who is possibly in dire straits, the tendency to drift or run toward the bottle abates. (AA neither endorses nor promotes any religion, though it accepts that religions may contain ideas of value to its members.)

Philippians 2:5-8

5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

John 13:12-14

12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.

Isaiah 53

1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Luke 22:24-27

24 And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.
25 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
26 But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
27 For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.

Mark 10:45

For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

The Golden Rule is said here to summarize the Old Law – but the use of the Greek word oun (= therefore, so) also implies that the Sermon's other sayings are encapsulated by that rule.

Paul sheds light on the idea that the Golden Rule is at the core of the Law (and the Prophets). Treat men with due respect, Paul urges, acting out of love.

Romans 13:8-10

8 Owe no man anything, but love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the Law.
9 For the sayings, You must not commit adultery, You must not kill [murder], You must not steal, You must not bear false witness, You must not covet – and ... any other commandment –  is summarized in this saying... : You are to love your neighbor as yourself.
10 Love works no ill to his neighbor. Thus love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul explains to the Galatian congregation,

Galatians 2:19-21

19 For I through the Law am dead to the Law, that I might live toward God.
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Further,

Galatians 3:23-26

23 But before faith came, we [Jews] were kept under the Law, shut off from the faith which would afterwards be revealed.
24 Hence, the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
26 For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

As we are told by Peter, "love covers a great many sins."

1 Peter 4:8

8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

When Jesus talks about adultery, he is quoted as saying that a man has a right to divorce an unfaithful wife. But Jesus also urges us to forgive others. How often? Seventy times seven. Though Peter was asking about forgiving another man, it is unimaginable that Jesus was excluding women in his response.

Matthew 18:21-22

21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Peter was guessing "seven," as that is a number used to express completion in Scripture, but in his reply, Jesus obviously does not mean to be taken ultra-literally at exactly 490. He is speaking hyperbolically to mean that we are to forgive as many times as we are sinned against. There is no limit on Christian forbearance and love. A tall order. But that is the way we should go.

So even if the aggrieved husband feels compelled to divorce Runaround Sue, he must still in his heart forgive her and request God's mercy on her. The same applies to the woman who divorces an unfaithful husband; this possibility isn't mentioned in the gospels because Jewish women of that time had no right of divorce. But clearly the teachings that apply to men are there for women also.

If you are living side by side with someone every day, friction may well develop. That's when the test comes. Can you treat that annoying person the way you would like to be treated? Perhaps not, but it's worth a try.

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