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.

How do you like to be treated? Don't you feel blessed when someone makes an effort to show you consideration, especially if that means that the kindly person is ignoring your missteps?

How did Jesus treat others? He ranked them as God's creatures, as friends, as people who had led hard lives, who were 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.

This teaching puts in perspective the saying about Jesus not destroying God's law. The Golden Rule shows that, for Jesus, it is the law of love that counts.

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 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.)

Service to our fellows is God's way. Ungrudging service is love in action. And love is what God is all about.

You may find it interesting to scan the many passages on love that are found in the New Testament. They are collected in Appendix D.

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For further discussion of this topic, please go HERE.

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Mt. 7:13-14. The strait and narrow