A 7:12 to change our perspective on 7/12
Matthew 7:12
Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
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We’re all good at repeating this one, the golden rule, it seems. But we tend to look at it in the same way it had been implied before Jesus. "The Law and the Prophets" gave us rules, and they are important of course, but here Jesus is teaching us something new - changing our perspective.
Before He came to us, the focus was on NOT doing. DON’T do things to others that you’d not want others to do to you. That’s the “negative” point of view, focusing on what we don’t want others to do to US - an inward focus.
Here’s, Jesus puts it in a different way. The difference may seem small at first, but it’s significant.
There are a lot of things we don’t do to others, because we don’t want those same things FROM others - focused on what we RECIEVE.
He's telling us to focus on what we DO, what we GIVE. What CAN we do for others?
This presents a change in how we live - from DON'T do TO others, to DO FOR others.
It’s much more to say I will love others as I want them to love me. It’s changing our thinking to an outward focus – thinking of others first.
That’s what Christ is challenging us to do.
We say “I wish others wouldn’t do that to me. I didn’t do anything to them”.
Maybe that's the problem. We didn't DO anything.
We didn't love.
We didn't forgive.
We didn't show mercy and compassion.
We didn't encourage.
We didn't help.
Re-read it with that in mind- not focusing on what we don't do, and focusing on what we SHOULD do.
It's one thing to not hate your fellow man.
Loving them unconditionally is far better.
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