We have all heard about the Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would have them treat you.” Christ famously imparts this bit of wisdom in passages contained in the books of Matthew and Luke. However, two millennia later, it seems as if we humans are still having a problem grasping this concept, doesn’t it?
With the rise of the information age, we are flooded nonstop with an absolute cascade of sensory input. Most of the news that we get is by far negative, which we actually happened to be attuned to, and so we are able to see and hear in great detail how we as a civilization are failing to live up to a teaching that is excruciatingly simple, yet difficult to enact.
So, what have we missed? For starters, let’s look at this teaching a bit more closely. I feel like we always assume that Christ is presenting this as an original thought and teaching himself, but he is in fact quoting The Old Testament (which is something he often does, both in words and actions). If you’ll take a look at Leviticus 19:18, you’ll find this verse: “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” This occurs again in verse 34.
So, we can establish that this rule predates Christ, but obviously the Hebrew people had trouble implementing this rule, just as we continue to struggle with it to this day.
Now, one important instance that the Golden Rule is mentioned is in Matthew 22:34-40. Even while under Roman rule, the Jews enjoyed a fair measure of autonomy and were able to enforce their own laws and customs, which were tied closely to their religion. Once Christ enters the scene, he begins causing trouble among the community by doing things such as healing on the Sabbath (since there were laws in place that forbade many activities on the Sabbath in order to keep the day sacred). In other words, which is more important—healing someone or keeping the Sabbath a holy day? Which is the greater rule?
When Christ is questioned by the religious rulers of his day about what the most important commandment is, he answers with two:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
These two commandments are similar, because as image bearers of the divine, when we love, respect, and honor others, we love, respect, and honor God. Essentially these two rules are one and the same. This is a golden rule to guide our actions in the world.
So, why might Jesus have chosen these two as the most important? You see, even with these two most powerful rules, we still live in a society with many, many other rules. Some of these rules are law, and some of these might be unspoken rules, or cultural norms, or whatever. Either way, some rules are more important than other rules. For instance, stealing is greater offense than yelling like a crazy person in church.
So, we live within a hierarchy of rules, and the two rules (or one rule, really) at the top govern the other rules. It’s a meta rule. What this means is that if we have a lower rule that requires us to violate the top rule, then we may want to re-evaluate the lower rule. It may not be a very good rule, and it may need to be thrown out. Or it may not need to be acted upon if it causes us to not love our neighbor. Either way, the top rule(s) must be maintained.
There is a lot of wisdom packed into this teaching, and we are to hold it high above all the others. There can be no mistake in this, as Christ himself mentions it on more than one occasion, and as we established earlier, this teaching has its origins in the very beginnings of Hebrew law.
So how can we live this out? You’ll have to stay on your guard—if there is some rule, tradition, or closely-held belief that you hold dear that causes you to act in a harmful way toward your neighbor, you may want to think on it a while before you speak or act.
Make no mistake—this will not be easy. You and I will fail at this countless times before the end, but this teaching is a cornerstone of our beliefs and our society, and it is something we can aim for. It is worth striving for—for God, for our neighbors, and for ourselves. Narrow is the gate, and I aim to go through it as much as I possibly can.
