More than a tee-shirt slogan

Last Sunday our church delivered a message about the Golden Rule, the principle that Jesus taught in Matthew 7:12

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets”

It’s a good rule to follow but along with Luke 10:27 it has been frequently misquoted, misunderstood and certainly misapplied and, in some cases, reduced to a self-improvement slogan.

Today many catchlines and self-help slogans are about the need to love ourselves - usually followed by “if you don’t love yourself you can’t love others” ....is that really the case? - do people really find it impossible to love others without focusing all their attention on themselves first? is it really imperative that we need to adore ourselves before we can be loving to others? but it seems this is the view of many as the biblical command from Luke 10:27 has been requoted and finessed to say “love your neighbour as you love yourself”….an extra love is added…self-love.

A closer look at the biblical verse will show that there is no command here to learn and work at loving ourselves first before helping other people, the true biblical command makes the assumption that we already have self-love and that the way the command of Jesus should manifest is this: that whatever we want for ourselves we should want for others, be that food, shelter, employment, health, finances, material goods etc. Not only that but we should approach this desire for providing for others with the same energy and urgency we have for our own requirements and desires to be met.

But back to the golden rule….“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets”

Confucius amongst others coined the fortune cookie phrase “Do not do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.”

Well now we’re talking, that’s a helpful rule for everyone, that’s an easy rule to keep….I’ll just do nothing – I won’t hurt people, or despise people, or lie about people, or steal from them and so on……..but I also won't love them, care about them, help them, feed them, give them shelter, tend their wounds, I just won’t do anything….I can obey this rule by simply doing nothing.

The command from Jesus demands much more of me, of us; it demands action, it demands we show love, an enduring love that causes us to provide for others with the same energy and urgency we have for our own requirements and desires to be met.

Jesus is talking of a whole revolutionary way of living, not a tit-for-tat relationship with people, but a pro-active caring way of living, one that puts others before ourselves, even those people that we don’t get on with and to display a lifestyle that showcases Gods love and generosity. Now, how do we get that on a tee-shirt?