Matthew 7:12

THE GOLDEN RULE (Luke 6:31). This v. ought to form a distinct paragraph. Our Lord looks back to what He has been saying in Matthew 5 about the fulfilling of the Law, and sums up His teaching on the whole subject with this important practical maxim. As originally spoken, it probably formed part of our Lord's utterances upon the Law, as it still does in St. Luke, who brings it into connexion with the command, 'Love your enemies': see Matthew 5:44. There are certain parallels to this saying. Once a would-be proselyte went to Rabbi Hillel and demanded to be taught the whole Law while he stood upon one leg. The good rabbi made him a proselyte, saying, 'What is hateful to thyself, that do not thou to another. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary. Go, thou art perfect.' The pious Tobias thus instructs his son Tobit (Tob 4:15), 'What thou thyself hatest, do thou to no man.' The Chinese sage Confucius is reported to have said, 'Do not to others what you would not wish done to yourself.' All these are noble sayings, but they fall far short of Christs golden rule, which means, 'Not only avoid injuring your neighbour, but do him all the good you can.' They simply forbid injuries: Christ commands active benevolence.

A saying ascribed to the Gk. philosopher Aristotle is closer in form to the Golden Rule than any other, but it applies only to friends. Aristotle was once asked how we should act towards our friends, and replied, 'As we would that they should act towards us.'

Therefore all things] The 'therefore' looks back to Christ's teaching about the Law. The sense is, 'Because ye are my disciples, and bound to understand the OT. in its higher and more spiritual sense, therefore do unto others all that you would they should do unto you, for this is the true meaning of the Law and the Prophets.'

13, 14. The broad way and the narrow way (Luke 13:24). Although it is a blessed thing to be a Christian, it is not easy. The Christian journeys along the narrow way of self-denial discipline and mortification, perhaps of contempt and persecution, but the end of it is life. Much easier is the broad way of selfindulgence, avarice, pride and ambition, but the end of it is death. How many choose death, rather than life! St. Luke speaks only of the narrow 'door,' not of the narrow way, and describes the terrible condition at the last day of those who have not entered it. There is a fine heathen parallel in the allegory called 'the Tablet,' by Cebes, a disciple of Socrates: 'Seest thou not a certain small door, and a pathway before the door, in no way crowded, for only a very few travel that way, since it seems to lead through a pathless, rugged, and stony tract? That is the way that leadeth to true discipline.' There is another in the philosopher Maximus of Tyre (150 b.c.): 'There are many deceitful bypaths, most of which lead to precipices and pits, and there is a single narrow straight and rugged path, and few indeed are they who can travel by it.'