In my reflections on Jesus’ teaching and example I discovered that I had overlooked this important teaching.
What would come to be called the Golden Rule appears in two places in the Synoptic Gospels—in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31.
In Matthew’s Gospel the Golden Rule is sandwiched between Jesus’ teaching about God giving good things to those who ask him and his teaching about going in by the narrow gate. In Luke’s Gospel it forms one of a series of teachings about how we should treat our enemies. These teachings include being kind as God is kind, not judging other people harshly, not condemning them, and making allowances for them.
J. B. Phillips in his translation of the Gospels renders Matthew 7: 12 with these words, “Treat other people exactly as you would like to be treated by them—this is the essence of all true religion.” He renders Luke 6:31 with these words, “Treat men exactly as you like them to treat you.” By “men,” he means human beings--men, women, and children.
The Golden Rule was the first teaching of Jesus, which I learned as a child. I was led to understand that the spirit of this teaching was to treat other people with kindness. How we treated them should do good to them and should do no harm to them. This meant that some ways that we might like other people to treat us would not be in keeping with the spirit of the teaching. They would not be kind to other people. They would not do good to them but might do harm to them. They might make us happier, but they would not have that effect upon other people.
What my grandmother and my mother were teaching me was basically what Jesus is teaching in Luke’s Gospel. But it was also what Jesus was teaching in Matthew’s Gospel. Treating other people as I would like them to treat me—in a spirit of kindness, was entering the narrow gate and taking the hard road.
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