Do to Others as You Would Have Them Do to You
Today is a special day for my family, literally. March 8th is what we call "Gary's Special Day." On this day in 1961 we adopted my brother Gary. It was one of the greatest days of my life. Every year thereafter as I was growing up we'd do something fun as a family. For Gary, it was like having a second birthday. (In the picture to the right, Gary shows his prowess as a bowler. Professionaly, he's a sheriff in Los Angeles.)
There were times, however, when Gary and I encountered a bit of conflict in our boyhood relationship. For example, one time when Gary was about six years old, he clobbered me with a stick. In pain, I tried to show him that he shouldn't do such things, arguing that hitting me wasn't what Jesus wanted him to do. He disagreed, saying to me robustly: "Do unto others what you want to do unto them."
Well, Gary was in the ballpark, but didn't get it quite right. In fact, Jesus said, "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (6:31). Interestingly, there are quite a few parallels in Jewish and other sources to this saying of Jesus, though they're not quite the same. The most common Jewish rule was given expression by Rabbi Hillel, who said, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor, that is the whole Torah, while the rest is commentary" (b. Sab. 31a). From the other side of the world, Confucius once said, "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others" (Analects 15:23). (For these and other examples, see Darrell Bock, Luke, Vol 1, [Baker, 1994] pp. 596-597.) But, you no doubt noticed, these statements approach the issue from the negative: Don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself. Jesus is unique among moral teachers in the strength and clarity of the positive: Do to others what you want done to yourself.
Now there's a trustworthy rule of thumb for human behavior. When in doubt, do to others what you would like to have done to you. If you and I would only follow this rule, we'd be home free in the ethical and relational realm. If you and I would do this, virtually every conflict in our families would evaporate. Plus, we'd no longer waste energy in our lives hurting each other, but we'd be able to focus even more on the ministry of the kingdom.
You'll notice that Jesus didn't qualify the "others" to whom we are to do as we wish they'd do to us. He didn't say "Do only to those you like what you'd like them to do to you." In context, it's clear that He's including among the others those we'd consider our enemies. "Treat even your enemies as you'd like to be treated." Now that's a tall order!
I wonder what our lives would be like if we too seriously the call to do to others as we'd like them to do to us. It would be an interesting to try this for one week. Treat the checkout clerk as you'd like to be treated. Treat the people in your office as you'd like to be treated. Do to your spouse as you'd like your spouse to do to you. And so forth, and so on. Why not give it a try?
