The Golden Rule
This devotional considers Luke 6:27-31 and Romans 5:8 and 10.
It’s what we teach children. It’s what I teach my girls when they mistreat each other, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And we teach the King James Version like most memorized Scripture…He maketh me to lie down. It feels wrong any other way. When I read the Golden Rule this morning, I had that fond, familiar feeling of having learned it so long ago. It was short-lived.
Have I never read what it’s attached to? It comes at the end of a paragraph, so it’s more like a concluding thought. But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. What? But I would never do those things. I mean, what kind of sinner does Jesus think I am?
The as you would have them do to you part calls me an enemy, one who hates others, one who curses others, one who mistreats others. I, apparently, slap people on the cheek, take coats and things that belong to others in a way that would require them to pour out love and forgiveness on me.
When we listen to discussions on forgiveness, we often hear that it’s not for the other person, it’s for you, so you can move on with your life in peace. So you don’t destroy your mental and physical health with the darkness that is unforgiveness. The other person is left to wander about in the wilderness of their sin. This morning, as I contemplate my own sinfulness—that I’m on the receiving end of the Golden Rule, I’m reminded also that forgiveness is just as much, if not, many times more for the wrongdoer than the wronged. When I am an enemy to others, Jesus says that I am to be treated as if I am not, as if I am what would have to be, family. In this way, when the tables are turned I will know how to give this good gift to another who has become like I was.
Jesus said, the Most High…is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. And what mercy we have received from our Lord: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And again, For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Today, I pray that we understand with thanksgiving how much we have received from the Lord as his children who continue to act like enemies because of our sin. And I pray that like little children, we would receive the wisdom, compassion and humility of Jesus’ teaching.
Amen.