Do to others what you
would have them do to you.
—Matthew 7:12
Confucius put the Golden Rule in negative form: “Do not to others what you would not wish done to yourself.”
So did Rabbi Hillel. Asked by a prospective convert to state the whole law while he stood on one leg, Hillel said, “What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else.”
There is a vast difference between these negative maxims and the positive initiative Jesus taught: the negative can be fulfilled by inaction, the positive only by action. The person who declares, “I will not hurt,” is worlds apart from the one who vows, “I will help.”
When you follow Jesus’ Golden Rule, you are always respectful, never rude; always considerate, never callous; always kind, never cruel.
The Golden Rule only works
when you realize that it’s your move.