Do Unto Others As You Would Want Done To You
Do Unto Others as You Would Want Them to Do to You
“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”
Luke 6:31
This was another saying by my grandmother. I think many Bible verses stood out to her, even though I didn’t think of her as a religious person. This was a saying she would say to my grandfather, almost rhetorically, because she knew she couldn’t improve his actions sometimes by her kind words. It was almost playful at times.
My grandfather was a unique man. He was tall, very smart, loyal to work, a fixture at home and quirky. His quirks included watching what his neighbors were up to through the front window or door. Even though he had quirks, I hardly ever remember a time my grandfather and grandmother weren’t together.
I would hear the saying mostly when my grandparents were in the car together. Usually someone would drive too slow for my grandfather or cut him off and my grandmother would say, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you John@. He’d continue driving, giving up his wanted response at my grandmothers command.
It would be hard for me to walk around and interact with people based on my thoughts of how they would treat me.
In my past if I wanted someone to treat me well, I sold out and sucked up and told them what they wanted to hear to get praise or recognition or to bend their will to fit my need. And while this wasn’t the right way to go about things, it was effective. I was doing unto others as I wanted done to me, for me. We know this is wrong and I certainly knew it was wrong at the time.
In Luke chapter 6 Jesus tells us that it makes us no different than the sinner who loves us - if we are to love them the same. The same as if we lend or do good as the sinners do, there is no separation of us from the sinner.
We are to grant them the same rights and respect as we would want. It doesn’t mean to give them money because we want money in return. Or to only do good to someone so we get treated well. This wouldn’t make us any different than the sinner.
Doing good to someone just so they treat us good in return, is not the Will of God, this is the will of man.
When we give freely to someone without the expectation of them giving to us - our blessings will come from God. When we treat someone as Jesus would treat them, regardless of how that person would treat us, this is the Will of God.
Too many times our actions have strings attached. We give to get. Want something in return. We want to be cut a break. Or have something for less than everyone else gets it.
That’s not what God has intended through Jesus’s words here. We are to act in a way that would revere God and glorify Him, not us.
We are to be kind to those that hate us. Lend to those that need. Help the helpless. Without expectation of anything in return, because that’s the way we should expect to be treated.
In order to separate us from the actions of sin, we must behave differently then sin would behave.
Jesus makes this clear in this lesson;
“For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.”
Luke 6:32-34
We are to be as Jesus would be, by staying in God’s Will and responding the way Jesus would respond.
It’s interesting to me that Jesus doesn’t separate the sinner here, it isn’t a certain type of people, it is all people and he uses it that way in this lesson. Jesus doesn’t capitalize Sinner and use it as a label, he uses it to show us who we are. The sinner in this lesson is us.
“But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.”
Luke 6:35
Our love and our blessings will come from the Holy Father. The gifts of this world are temporary. We place too much emphasis on what this world and the people have to offer.
Too many times we live for this world can give us only to disappointed by where it went.
Continue reading the last few verses of this lesson in Luke. It’s an amazing part of the Gospel that truly tells us where good comes from.
“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
Luke 6:36-38