Submitted by Pastor David Shadinger, Rock Port & Watson United Methodist Churches

A lot of the world – including our own nation – rumbles along without paying much attention to the golden rule. Every now and then it gets twisted. A negative example might be, “I won’t steal from my neighbor in hope that he won’t steal from me.” There’s necessarily nothing wrong with that negative version, but it demands far less of us than the way Jesus taught it. This type of golden rule mutation is more of a self-preservation statement.

A negative version is also very self-centered. It’s one thing to say, “I won’t injure others because I would object to them hurting me.” It’s quite another thing to say, “I will go out of my way to help others, just as I would want them to do for me.”

Jesus embraced this concept when he said, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31). By the way, Jesus didn’t originate that command. It exists in the Old Testament in slightly different form: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). The golden rule is also a great summary for an ethic Christianity shares with other faiths.

It’s a solid reason for small acts of kindness, such as when you find a wallet and instead of taking the cash, you contact the owner and return it intact. We should hear Jesus asking his disciples: “What do you do more than others?”

Incidentally, we’re not responsible for our adherence to the golden rule having the effect we hope for. Often it will, but keeping that rule is not so we can get credit for changing the world; it’s so we can keep faith with Jesus, who calls us to follow Him.

Jesus calls us to show by our actions that we take him seriously.