“What is the Golden Rule?”
Matthew 7:12 (NLT)
“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.
The “Golden Rule” is the name given by Bible translators to a principle Jesus taught. The actual words “golden rule” are not found in Scripture but Bible translators began to ascribe the phrase to this passage of Scripture during the 16-17th centuries. Christians sometimes unknowingly and incorrectly assign it to Jesus’ actual words.
By ending the “rule” with the “Law and the Prophets,” Jesus condensed the entire Old Testament into this principle as Moses wrote in Leviticus 19:18
It gave Jesus’ audience a place to start in how they should treat others as they would want to be treated.
As good as the Golden Rule is in its command to treat others, Jesus knew people universally demand respect, love, and appreciation whether they deserve it or not, and used it to show how His people should treat others: So He named it the second in the greatest of commandments (Matthew 22:39).
No other mainline religious or philosophical system is equal to this principle. Liberal critics and secular humanists tried to explain the golden rule as a common ethic shared by all religions.
But then Jesus gave this principle in Matthew 7:12. It was radically different from all other forms of it—except for the Jewish Torah.
But there is a subtle and very important difference.
The biblical Golden Rule is a positive command to show active love, as opposed its negative, passive counterparts.
A quick survey of Eastern religions and philosophies will expose this common inversion, some have described it as the “silver rule”:
- Confucianism: “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you” Analects 15:23.
- Hinduism: “This is the sum of duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you” Mahabharata 5:1517.
- Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” Udana-Varga 5:18.
The Golden Rule is radically different, it is an active, positive command to do good to others, as opposed to the negative, restraining commands to not hurt others.
The command to love separates the Christian ethic from every other system’s ethic.
The Bible is so radical in its command to actively love, that Christians are told to love even their enemies, unheard of in other religions (Matthew 5:43-44)(Exodus 23:4-5)
Obeying the Christian ethic and to love others is a mark of a true Jesus Follower. (John 13:35) By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Christians cannot claim to love God if they don’t actively love other people (1 John 4:20)
We often live in a way NOT to hurt someone or to avoid an enemy but that is not what Jesus said. His principle is to love (positive action – not just NOT hurting).