The Challenge of the Gold Rule

During my childhood, I learned a simple rule. This rule has ended up forming my personality and directing my actions throughout my life. However, I first didn't learn this rule at church or from reading the Bible. It was taught in school know as the "Golden Rule."

I remember a list of rules hanging up in my elementary classroom such as, "raise your hand to talk", "ask for permission to use the restroom", etc. Additionally, the number one rule written with the usual glitter and stars around it read, "treat others how you would want to be treated." Even at a young age, it was not hard for me to understand the common sense behind this rule ,and I guess I thought that all other kids understood this too.

On the other hand, almost all children experience being made fun of, called names, or some other form of childhood persecution and when this happened to me, even though I did not treat the other children wrong, the golden rule became confusing. I could not understand why I was being treated in a bad way when I did nothing bad to them because according to the golden rule, if I was nice to them they were supposed to be nice to me.

Throughout grade school, middle school, and high school, I sometimes experienced ridicule and torment from other kids just like all people do at that age. However, the golden rule had a unique impact on me. I responded in a way that no matter how bad someone else made me feel, the feeling I experienced made me never want to make anyone else feel that way too, even if it was the person making me feel that way. Even though this rule has become more of a societal rule as it is taught in school, I discovered the greater importance behind it once I learned the original author of it.

In Matthew 22: 37-39, Jesus tells the Pharisees that the greatest commandment in the Law is to "love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Likewise, he says the second greatest commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself." Most importantly, the emphasis of why these two commandments are significant comes with Jesus' next sentence. In verse forty, he says, "On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." In other words, everything boils down to these.

It is amazing to me that all the religious teachings from all the people in the Bible and of the world that relate to peoples actions can be followed by following just two commandments. On a personal level, our greatest acts of worship include loving God and loving our neighbor because God first loved us. Likewise, on an interpersonal level, we can best share the message of the cross to others by living our lives as an example of Christ. As St. Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."

Because of God's love for me, I have especially tried to live out my life in a way that follows the commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself due to past experiences that have convicted me of this. Whether our actions are small, like acknowledging someone who looks like they need acknowledging, or big, like going on mission trips to help care for people who are in need, we should try to maintain an approach that the reason for doing such things is not to make ourselves feel like a better person but as a personal act of worship to God through our actions. If everyone treated other people how they wanted to be treated, the world would be a perfect place, but obviously it is not.

Consequently, there can be situations where other people may not deserve to be treated well, making it harder for us to follow through with this commandment. Jesus says, "What you do unto the least of these [or as I also consider the actions that are the hardest for us to do and require the most effort], you do unto me." This mindset has helped give me the motivation to follow through with this because I know that it is never possible for me to show as much love to other people as God has for me.

Charlie Hall is in his third year as a HELM Leadership Fellow and is a member of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Duncan, Oklahoma.