Golden Rule revisited

The saying of our Lord Jesus to "treat people the same way you want them to treat you" (Mat 7:12, NASB) that appears in His Sermon on the Mount is known as the Golden Rule. Jesus gave a specific example of how this rule might be applied: If you do not want others to judge you, then you should not judge them, either. If you judge others, you would be like trying to take a speck out of their eyes, when you have a log in yours. Not following this rule is just being a hypocrite.

What is not often talked about this command is that it is begun with the Greek conjunction οὖν, usually translated as "therefore", "then", or "accordingly" and indicating that something follows from another necessarily. This implies that in order to understand the Golden Rule fully, one must examine what preceded the command in the Sermon.

What precedes the Golden Rule is His command to ask, seek, and knock. If we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! Because of this, we should treat people the same way we want them to treat us. The reason for the Golden Rule is then that we want our Heavenly Father to treat us in a certain way.

We want our Father to forgive our trespasses; so we should forgive others. We want our Father to bless us; so we should be a blessing to other people. We want our Father to lead us to the path of righteousness; so we should be a messenger of the good news that brings us righteousness in Jesus. We want to join our Father in His Heavenly Kingdom in glory; so we should seek others to join us there as well.

Father, I have been ignorant and have not treated others, not been generous to others, even though You have been all-forgiving and all-giving to me. Let me be giving, the way I have already received from You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.