By
Matthew 7:12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
I love things to be boiled down and reduced to a principle. In Matthew 7:12, Jesus reduces the entire law of God to this one principle: “whatever you wish others to do to you, do also to them.” We could also say it in the negative: “whatever you don’t wants others to do to you, don’t do that to them.”
In Matthew 22 a lawyer asks Jesus what the greatest commandment was. He said to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” In this passage, Jesus boils the entire law down to two. In Matthew 7, he boils the two laws into one principle; the golden rule.
We could benefit greatly if while we read the Old Testament we were asking ourselves how each law is fulfilled by the golden rule. We could also benefit greatly if we thought upon the golden rule while we worked at our jobs, while we parented our children, while we did our chores, and while we did our school-work.
Happy Black Friday! (Is that even something I can say?)
Scott
Leading Family Devotions 