Real Golden Rule: Treat Others as God Treats You

This summer in Australia, competitors will be “going for the gold” as they strive for the Olympic ideal. Is there a parallel religious ideal?

The Golden Rule is said to be the epitome of values and social order, but it falls short. For one thing, it is self-centered. “Do unto other as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12). That puts self at the center--not very religious.

For another thing, I can’t find the expression “golden rule” in the Bible. I find golden bells, golden rings, golden altar, golden dish, golden calf and golden chariot, but not golden rule. Where did the expression come from?

Bruce Metzger, writing in “The Designation ‘Golden Rule,’ ” found it used in 1885 by William Dean Howells in his novel “The Rise of Silas Lapham”: “In our dealings with each other, we should be guided by the golden rule.” And in 1785, Edward Gibbons remarked that a certain person “violated the golden rule of doing as he would be done by.”

Rabbi Samuel Tobias notes in “A Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament” that negative forms of the rule appear frequently in Jewish and Greek writings before Christ. From Tobit 4:15: “That which you hate, do to no man.” And from Isocrates’ Nicoles 61: “Do not do unto others that which angers you when others do it to you.”

Is there a rule that is God-centered? Jesus hints at one in the parable of the hard-hearted servant. After the king forgave him his debt and saved him from prison, the servant went and imprisoned the people who were in debt to him. When the king found out, he was livid and said, “Should you not have had mercy on your fellow servants in the same way I had mercy on you!” (Matthew 18:33) And Jesus states it clearly when he says, “This is my command: that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)

The paradigm here is that, because mercy was done to us, we are to do mercy to others. From a Christian point of view, “While we were yet in sin, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) The apostle John understood the ramification of that when he argued: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he has loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since this is how God has loved us, that is also how we ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:10-11)

And from a Jewish point of view, the Lord brought his people out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, therefore they were enjoined not to oppress others who come as foreigners into their land. “You shall also love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 20:2, 23:9; and Deuteronomy 10:19.) Says Stephen Mott in “Biblical Ethics and Social Change”: “Because God has been gracious to us, graciousness is to characterize our relationship with others. We are to act out what God has done in the context of our own lives.”

Perhaps that is why the apostle Paul argues that we should “become kind to each other and compassionate, being gracious and forgiving each other, just as God, in Christ, was gracious to you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32) Jesus taught repeatedly and plainly, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:34) “Do unto others as the Lord has done unto us.”

Now there’s a rule that’s golden--and worth going for.

On Faith is a forum for Orange County clergy and others to offer their views on religious topics of general interest. Submissions, which will be published at the discretion of The Times and are subject to editing, should be delivered to Orange County religion page editor Deanne Brandon.