Prayer
Before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 119:57-58,
Lord, You are my portion; You are everything I need;
I have promised to obey your words,
so now I seek Your face with all my heart.
Be gracious to me and show me Your ways,
in accordance with Your promise. Amen.
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your awareness to the voice of God, coming to you through His Word.
Reading
In this beautiful summary of His Way of living, Jesus commanded what has come to be known as “The Golden Rule”:
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” (v.12a)
What an incredible way to go through life!
Ancient Judaism was familiar with this kind of rule in the negative form, “What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else.” But Jesus raised the bar for His followers by turning it on its head and stating it positively: “Do to others what you would have them do to you.”.
That change is the difference between, for example, simply not stealing from a poor person (not doing what is hateful) and actively feeding them and helping them to find a job (doing what you would have them do for you). It’s putting goodness and kindness into action.
To live by this Golden Rule is to live the Jesus-Way of Love. To follow it actively is to pursue the highest best of others in everyday situations. And, just as Jesus said that the whole Law and the Prophets hang on loving God and neighbour (Matthew 22:37-40), here He declares that “doing to others what you would have them do to you”, sums up the Law and the Prophets (v.12b). This is what it’s all about: Loving others through doing to (or for) them what we would want done to (or for) us in their situation.
It sounds so simple, and yet it goes directly against the sinful human nature, which is inherently selfish. That’s why, in verse 13-14, Jesus very accurately describes this life-giving Way of Love as a very narrow Way. The broad and easy road is the self-seeking way of life. No human would find it difficult to go through life that way. But this Way of Jesus, this Way of Love, is narrow and winding, and very few actually walk on it. May we all be found among those who do, each and every day of our lives!
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will do to others what I would have them do to me.
Lord, please deliver me from a selfish heart. Help me to put myself in the shoes of those whose paths cross mine, and to sense how I am able to minister to their needs Amen.
Dave's Diary 
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