“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)
In this one sentence, Jesus summed up the Law of Moses and also the Law of Christ. The “Golden Rule” we often call it. It is truly the key to overcoming sin and obeying God. It is the key because it is about love. And love fulfills all of what God wants out of us.
It’s simple. It’s straightforward. Nothing complicated about it. It’s not rocket science. What do you want people to do for you? How do you want to be treated? That’s easy to answer. We all know what we want. What we like. We’d like to be treated kindly. Given gifts. Praised and thanked. We’d like to be served every now and then. We want to be forgiven when we mess up. So the answer is not hard to come to. Jesus said to treat others how you would like to be treated. The struggle we have is actually doing it. Why is it so hard for us? It’s because in our pursuit for love we are fighting selfishness at the same time. Selfishness wants to be first priority. Selfishness wants to be pampered and treated kindly but not give the same to anyone else. But if we’re going to be followers of Christ then we better fight hard and go the extra mile to treat others how we want to be treated.
How do you talk to people when you have a disagreement? How do you treat you family? Your friends? Your neighbors? Your co-workers? How do you act? Do you help others? Do you show love for others? Are you serving and trying to make others happy? When someone is sick do you care for them? When someone is sad do you comfort them? When someone is successful do you rejoice with them? If we’re not doing these things then we’re doing the opposite. We’re unloving. Uncaring. Unwilling to serve. Put yourself in their shoes and ask how you would treat yourself.
Let’s all work on treating others how we would want to be treated ourselves. It’s really not that hard. We make it harder than it really is. Love. Serve. Comfort. Forgive. Help. Smile. Be kind. Think of how much better all of our lives would be if we lived the “Golden Rule.”
A Cord of Blue 