The Golden Rule

If there is one thing many people remember or know about the Bible is that somewhere in there is the Golden Rule.  It is often misquoted as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you".  In a backhanded humorous way we hear people say "do unto others before they do unto you".  Its quoted as a sort of proverb, something clever or helpful for your life, but not something to be taken seriously.

In the passage we are going to look at, where Jesus is addressing the crowds, we are going to see the full context and just how serious this passage really is.


Luke 6:27 "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.


  Jesus has just finished telling us that we should expect people to hate us for following Him.  Ok, maybe you bought that and realize that yes following Jesus means that some are not going to like you, some might even make fun of your faith and in some parts of the world you will be persecuted for believing as a Christian.

So what should be our reaction?  How human wisdom and our society would expect you to be hurt, resentful, angry, frustrated or vengeful.

But in this passage we are confronted with an even more radical idea.  We are to love our enemies.  LOVE!!! That isn't easy.  What do you mean love?  Send them flowers?   In this passage we are to:

• Bless them 
• Pray for them
• Turn the other cheek if struck
• Allow yourself to be robbed
• Give to anyone who asks

Yes we are to do all these things to our enemies.  This is a tough teaching.  Even the most devout Christian struggles with this teaching.  Anyone who follows this teaching, will be viewed as weak.  Not able to stand up to a fight. Like many of the teachings in the coming passages we are confronted with commands that we will never be able to fully live up to.   We can't do it.  Many people will say I am good enough, I am nice to other people.  But when confronted with enemies at the best we walk away and try not to acknowledge they exist.  At the worst we hate them.

This is what brings us closer to God.   We look at His commands and we can't live up to them.  We fail.  Sin is our own weakness.  Instead of doing what God commands we do what we want.  Till the point where we realize we don't have a relationship with God, we can't make up for our rebellion.  There are no grand scales where our good works are balanced against our bad.  We will always come up short.  When we reach that point we need an answer.  Jesus is that answer.  His death on the cross wasn't not some miscarry of justice.  Their really was a penalty to pay.  The penalty for our sin.

When you get to the point where you see that you can't do it. You can't follow the golden rule and you want a relationship with God.  Then you need to confess your sin, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and accept His gift of sacrifice for you as your savior.

If this is something you want to do or have questions about, please leave a comment on my blog or Facebook entry.

Praying for you always.