Love's Golden Rule

Jesus said, "Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets." (Matthew 7:12 NLT)

How often have we heard the words or said, I'd like to give them a piece of my mind, or I hope I don't have to lay down my religion and take care of them, or well they got what they deserved. Isn't it say that we as Christians even live with such thoughts in our minds. Instead of stopping and see how we would want to be treated in those situations, we let the carnal man be the controlling factor.

If we would live each day to treat other people the way we would want to be treated, the world would be a much better place. Let's think about it. How do we want to be treated? We want people to be honest with us, so let's be honest. We want people to be trustworthy, so we too must be trustworthy. We want people to be kind, so even on our bad days we should strive to be kind. We want everyone to love us, so we must love everyone. These are just a few.

Maybe as our challenge today we should make a list of all the things we would want others to be to us and then we should strive to be those things to others. Our treatment of others says so much about our character. When we allow someone else's actions to cause us to do things we shouldn't then we are showing our lack of self-control. We are allowing them to control us.

It is not always easy because we are carnal beings. But we have to crucify the flesh each day and allow the Spirit to work in and through us. Walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. We have to choose each day to walk in the spirit. We choose each day what clothes we will wear, how we will do our hair, what we will eat, what time we will go to bed, what tv shows we will watch, and much more. Decisions are made each day that affect our lives. But we also must choose if we will walk in the flesh or in the spirit. If we will live to please ourselves or please God. These decisions will have eternal value to them.

I have often referred to a statement made by Sis. Tennison of how we are so much kinder to strangers than we are to our own loved ones. Bump into them at Wal-mart and we are so sorry. We can't apologize enough. Bump into a loved one and we tell them to get out of our way, they saw us coming. The kindest words we speak should be for those who are closest to us.

So our challenge for you today is to evaluate how you are treating those around you. Are you treating them like you would want to be treated? Especially those closest to us. Your family, spouse, loved ones. Those who have been given to us as a gift from God. How do we treat them?