page_title: Golden Rule
section_title: Christianity
hierarchical_section_title: Golden Rule / Religious context / Abrahamic religions / Christianity
context_page_description: The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as you want to be treated. It is a maxim that is found in many religions and cultures. It can be considered an ethic of reciprocity in some religions, although different religions treat it differently.
  The maxim may appear as a positive or negative injunction governing conduct:
  Treat others as you would like others to treat you
  Do not treat others in ways that you would not like to be treated
  What you wish upon others, you wish upon yourself
  The idea dates at least to the early Confucian times, according to Rushworth Kidder, who identifies that this concept appears prominently in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and "the rest of the world's major religions". 143 leaders of the world's major faiths endorsed the Golden Rule as part of the 1993 "Declaration Toward a Global Ethic". According to Greg M. Epstein, it is "a concept that essentially no religion misses entirely", but belief in God is not necessary to endorse it. Simon Blackburn also states that the Golden Rule can be "found in some form in almost every ethical tradition".
context_section_description: The "Golden Rule" of Leviticus 19:18 was quoted by Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 7:12; see also Luke 6:31) and described by him as the second great commandment. The common English phrasing is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". A similar form of the phrase appeared in a Catholic catechism around 1567 (certainly in the reprint of 1583).
  The Golden Rule is stated positively numerous times in the Old Testament:  Leviticus 19:18 ("Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD."; see also Great Commandment) and Leviticus 19:34 ("But treat them just as you treat your own citizens. Love foreigners as you love yourselves, because you were foreigners one time in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.").
  The Old Testament Deuterocanonical books of Tobit and Sirach, accepted as part of the Scriptural canon by Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Non-Chalcedonian Churches, express a negative form of the golden rule:
  "Do to no one what you yourself dislike."
  — Tobit 4:15
  "Recognize that your neighbor feels as you do, and keep in mind your own dislikes."
  — Sirach 31:15
  Two passages in the New Testament quote Jesus of Nazareth espousing the positive form of the Golden rule:
  Do to others what you want them to do to you. This is the meaning of the law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.
  — Matthew 7:12
  And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
  — Luke 6:31
  A similar passage, a parallel to the Great Commandment, is Luke 10:25-28
  Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
  He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"
  He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself."
  
  He said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live."
  The passage in the book of Luke then continues with Jesus answering the question, "Who is my neighbor?", by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan, which John Wesley enterprets as meaning that "your neighbor" is anyone in need. 
  Jesus' teaching goes beyond the negative formulation of not doing what one would not like done to themselves, to the positive formulation of actively doing good to another that, if the situations were reversed, one would desire that the other would do for them. This formulation, as indicated in the parable of the Good Samaritan, emphasizes the needs for positive action that brings benefit to another, not simply restraining oneself from negative activities that hurt another.
  In one passage of the New Testament, Paul the Apostle refers to the golden rule:
  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
  — Galatians 5:14
  St. Paul also comments on the golden rule in the book of Romans:
  “The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  Romans 13:8-9 (NIV).
caption: The Sermon on the Mount by Carl Bloch (1877) portrays Jesus teaching during the Sermon on the Mount
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