Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets - Jesus (Matt. 7:12)
The Golden Rule is effective because we are already excellent at half of it.
The first half. Not the second.
Since the day we were born we have been meditating on
“whatever you wish that others would do to you.” It starts as a natural,
God-given ability to take care of ourselves (cf. Eph. 5:28-29), and then,
because sin corrupts the core of every part of us, it grows into selfishness.
We become obsessed with loving ourselves and knowing all our favorite this-and-that's.
Our heart’s motto becomes “Treat Yourself How You Want to Be Treated.” (Burger
King’s “Have It Your Way” is so unoriginal).
So we are good at the first half of the Golden Rule. And
oblivious to the second.
Then Jesus comes.
He sees this not-so-hidden talent in us, this power within
us to love ourselves, and he turns it into love with the wisdom of the Golden
Rule, by the power of the His Holy Spirit, made possible by His death and
resurrection. He now teaches us to put ourselves in another person’s shoes and take
out our excellent self-loving skills, and to consider how they would want to be
treated. Then Jesus calls us to love them in that way, to take action and care
for them with as great a care and consideration as we would for ourselves.
Jesus changes our heart’s motto into “Treat Others
How You Want To Be Treated!”
So the Golden Rule is actually a rebuke that we are very good at being selfish and a call to freedom through repentance and love.
