Ignoring the Golden Rule

Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of others. It’s “putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes.” 

It’s the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  Luke 6:31

When we do something foolish, we want our spouse to cut us some slack. So we cut our spouse some slack when he does something foolish. 

If we owned a company, we’d want our employees to be diligent, so we are a diligent employee at our workplace. 

When our children grow up, we’d like them to keep in touch and let us know they care, so we keep in touch with our parents and let them know we care. 

We want friends who don’t pick apart everything we do, so we don't pick apart everything our friends do.

Sadly, our culture has become more self-focused and less empathetic. We have low expectations for ourselves and high expectations for others. 

Instead of having a “Golden Rule” attitude, many people have the “Wooden Rule” attitude caused by a wooden plank in their eye, judging themselves leniently and judging others strictly, thinking they deserve more consideration than they are willing to give to others (Matthew 7:1-5). 

Empathy is important to God, so let’s honestly evaluate ourselves, dear Christians, and seek to genuinely treat others as we want to be treated. And it would be good for all of us to memorize Philippians 2:1-4 and Romans 12:10. 

Bible Love Notes