Do I treat others, in every situation, the way I would want to be treated?

12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

INSIGHT:  Jesus did us such a wonderful favor by sharing this teaching with us.  It takes much of the complexity out of understanding how to live as a Christian in relationship to others.  For the most part it is just this simple.  Do you want forgiveness—forgive others?  Do you want to be trusted—be trustworthy to others?  Do you want others to listen to and respect you—listen to and respect others?  Do you want to be loved—give love to others?  Again, we reap what we sow (Gal 5:6-7).

I used to own an online training business with my first spouse, where we helped subject matter experts to create and sell their online training material.  When my spouse decided to leave the marriage, she kept control of the business administration and finances. Within 7 months, the business became a victim of the divorce, and I was left with the phone calls from clients who wanted to know how I was going to fulfill my obligation to them.  Even though I no longer had access to anything financially or contractually with the company, I was the company to them, so they came to me.  Most of the clients were easy to take care of, but one of my favorite clients, James Brown, needed a huge amount of training material migrated to an entirely new system. The issue fell into a very gray area in his contract that did not seem to demand my involvement, but it would be very difficult for him alone.  I was an emotional mess and didn’t want to have to do this.  Just tying my shoes was a taxing event some days.  During some difficult email correspondence between myself, my ex-spouse, and him, one time he simply wrote, “All I ask is that you consider whether or not you are treating me the way you would like to be treated?”  In the end I was deeply convicted, and I decided I needed to help him.  It was a real sacrifice for me to do this, but he was greatly pleased, and my conscience was eased, but more importantly the Lord would have been pleased.

Treating others the way you would want them to treat you, in a similar situation, does not always mean that the action we take towards them will be perceived as something kind or loving.  Take for instance correcting someone who is in sin or deceived.

Exactly as Jesus often did with His disciples, Paul taught ministers to correct them sharply, so that they would be sound in the faith (Tit 1:13).  Not many people will receive a sharp rebuke as something loving or desirable, but when you truly understand the dangers of sin and deception, you would very much appreciate a sharp rebuke, which was meant to save you from error or even eternal condemnation. 

In my public ministry, the Lord has allowed me to sharply correct a number of people in sin or deception.  Only rarely do people receive those rebukes as something loving and good for them.  Because of the terrible days we are living in, the rebuke is often received as something unloving and even sinful on my part.  Those corrected by Jesus said, “who do you think you are?” (John 8:53)

And let us not over spiritualize this teaching, forgetting the small ways we can live out this verse in the small, everyday things.  I find such joy in things like letting people pull out in front of me in traffic, letting others go first in a long line, picking up something a person dropped, holding the door for others, picking up a random piece of trash on the restaurant floor, giving a nice smile and thank you to the person who served me, leaving our table as clean as possible for the person who cleans it, telling the employee that she undercharged me for my purchase, buying the piece of fruit I dropped at the store rather than replacing it, paying for the small craft art piece Lisa accidentally knocked off the shelf, rather than pretend it didn’t happen, or just letting the owner say, “don’t worry about it”, helping my Airbnb host to unload two trucks of firewood and fixing his shower leak, even though I was the customer, reporting a shoplifter, or verbally expressing my gratitude for good service to an employee or their boss.  In what way might you do the same to someone else today?