We see it all too often: People berating a customer service associate or cashier. Students displaying disrespect to their teachers. Faceless individuals typing insults or mercilessly bullying others on social media. Protesters shouting epithets, sometimes engaging in acts of physical violence.
TV commentators showing little patience or respect, shouting down each other’s statements and opinions. Athletes spitting on each other. In some cities, looters breaking into stores and carrying out goods of all kinds. Hostile politicians grandstanding to demonstrate opposition to the speaker.
The list could go on. Depending on who they happen to agree with, observers either applaud such actions or condemn them. A couple lines from the 1966 Vietnam-era protest song by Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth,” summarized what we’re still seeing 60 years later:
“There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong…
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and a-carrying signs
Mostly say hooray for our side….”
Sound familiar? Why has our society come to this? What has spawned this age when incivility has become the norm; acrimony is viewed as acceptable, even commendable behavior; and common manners and decorum have been cast into the dumpster?
In a time when people across the political spectrum build arguments based on their own interpretations of “the rule of law,” it seems we’ve forgotten – or dismissed – a far greater rule. It’s what we commonly know as “the Golden Rule”: “In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31).
Jesus Christ addressed this in a variety of ways. Matthew 22:36-40 records an occasion when the Pharisees, religious leaders who prided themselves on external rules-keeping, asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Perhaps they presumed He would select a particular favorite from the Ten Commandments.
His response wasn’t what they expected. “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The first is foundational for everything, but let’s focus on the second. Jesus’ words, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” were another way of saying, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’ as the King James Version translates it. The phrase is repeated elsewhere in the New Testament, including Romans 13:8-9, Galatians 5:14 and James 2:8.
Unfortunately, the prevailing mindset these days seems very different, more like, “do to others before they can do it to you.” Do whatever you feel like doing; worry about the consequences later.
What does it actually mean to “do to others as you would have them do to you”? Maybe the best way to answer that is to look at the last part and ask, “How do you want others to treat you?”
Would you want people to politely hear and respect your opinions, even if they don’t agree with them? Whether in your home, at work or another setting, would you want someone to genuinely listen to what you had to say? If you were a teacher and had spent hours preparing the lesson for the day, would you want your students to be attentive and desiring to learn?
Looking at it another way, if you were a sales associate in a department store, would you want someone angrily accosting you about some grievance, even if you had nothing to do with it? If you were a law enforcement officer, would you want folks throwing objects at you simply because you’d been assigned to that area to maintain order? If you owned a retail business, would you want people breaking windows and stealing everything within reach?
This brings to mind the adage attributed to native Americans about walking a mile in the moccasins of another individual. Doing to others as we would have them do to us involves putting ourselves in their place, trying to understand their needs and feelings, and responding appropriately.
Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) illustrates this perfectly. A man, a Jew, had been robbed and beaten, left for dead. Two upright religious leaders, a priest and a Levite, saw the man but moved to the other side of the road, acting as if they hadn’t noticed them. Obviously, they never considered what if they had suffered the same plight.
Then a Samaritan came along and even though Jews and Samaritans weren’t exactly bosom buddies in those days, he attended to the wounded man, took him to an inn nearby and promised to pay all expenses for his care. Whether he knew the commandment or not, the Samaritan literally did for another what he would have wanted someone to do for himself.
Years ago, people wore WWJD bracelets representing the question, “What would Jesus do?” Maybe we need to start wearing bracelets that read, DUOAYWHTDUY – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It could help to usher in a new season of civility and compassion.
