Tuesday 25th of June
“Treat others as you would like them to treat you.”
Matthew 7:6,12-14
What is a principle that Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and all other people trying to live a good life would agree on? Jesus’ commandment to “Treat others as you would like them to treat you” is called the Golden Rule because it is followed by so many people from different faiths and cultures. It summarises the thousands of rules and laws in the Old Testament. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, a father teaches his daughter, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.
Jesus tells us to pray for those who persecute us. We can use our prayer to imagine being in the shoes of a person with whom we are in conflict. How does our relationship seem through their eyes? How would we think and feel if we were walking around in their shoes? God, please give us a spirit of empathy and understanding and a generous heart full of love, so that we can understand others and treat them how we would like to be treated.