Sharing, compassion, and just plain getting along with others is something that must be learned. As a father and grandfather I can testify to seeing at least two generations of toddlers snatch a toy away from another child while growling “mine!” They are born seeming to care only about themselves. It’s only through years of patient, repetitive counseling and more importantly, modeling, that they begin to learn to share and care about others.
It seems the Golden Rule of “do unto others as you’d have them do unto you” can be defensively twisted to mean “Well, I’d leave your stuff alone, so you should leave my stuff alone!” Not what was intended by the Author, but we self-centered humans tend to look for and find loopholes in just about anything.
The Golden Rule, radical and impactful as it was, has been supplanted by the final and ultimate commandment Jesus gave, as recorded in John 15:12; “love one another as I have loved you.” This directive for ethical conduct represents a monumental difference in both approach and expectation from the Golden Rule.
As I ‘would have others do unto me’ is no longer the highest standard of conduct. I need to grow from a warped attitude of “I’m leaving you alone because that’s what I’d want you to do to me?!” to asking “what would Jesus do unto these people?” The answer is…I have to… (gulp!) love them. How to read this as not coming from a position of “holier than thou?” The secret to me is perspective. Since I believe I’ll live forever, I enjoy a relative peace in both good times and bad. They will not last nearly as long as I will. This perspective motivates me to have a heart for others as I really want for everyone to experience and enjoy this same peace.
The humanness in me continues to look for a way out, but God’s Spirit helps me to pray for the strength needed to model the peace, generosity, love, selflessness, and grace He has afforded to me. Only then can I experience the perspective that it is through His gift, unearned and undeserved, of faith that I can love another. And that’s better than gold to me.