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The Golden Rule

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 22, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 12.

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The Golden Rule.

By W. N. Glenn

BY W. N. GLENN.
It is quite common for those who reject the Bible and Christianity to claim for their religion the "Golden Rule," generally condensed into "Do as you would be done by." The infidel, the atheist, and even the rum-seller will parade this doctrine as his creed, with the boastful intimation that he possesses something far superior to Bible religion, and to which Christianity is antagonistic. And many of these pretenders apparently imagine that they are indebted to Plato, or Aristotle, or Paine, or Darwin, or some other anti-Christian "free-thinker" for this creed.
They "err, not knowing the Scriptures," and that Jesus himself gave this instruction to the world: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Matt. 7:12. Also, in Luke 10:27, his words are recorded thus: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thy self." And by the same Spirit, this doctrine had been promulgated centuries before, as recorded in Leviticus 19:18, and various other Old Testament scriptures.
And there is another class, professing to be Christians, who make flippant use of this text as a motto, knowing whence the sentiment emanated. They argue that the law of ten commandments was abolished at the cross, and claim immunity from obeying it, while avowing the golden rule of "do as you would be done by" as their rule of belief. They apparently overlook the fact that Jesus gave as the reason for this injunction, "For this is the law and the prophets."
It will not do to say that he meant this rule was given as a substitute for the old moral code of ten commandments, for he spoke in the present tense, at a time when the decalogue was in full force as acknowledged by all classes of Bible believers. The phrase "and the prophets" contravenes such a construction, for no one could say this golden rule was to take the place of the prophets, or prophecies. It is evident by this that Jesus virtually said, this is the teaching of the law and the prophets. A simple reading of the commandments will clearly show that this principle, enunciated by the Saviour in his model sermon on the mount, is the most prominent feature. In fact, considering this unequivocal indorsement by the Lord Jesus, if there be any rule of action entitled to the appellation, "The Golden Rule," it surely is found in the law that God spake with his own voice, and wrote on tables of stone.