The One Who Lifts Our Heads High

I was reading another email newsletter from the website www.SimpleTruths.com, and this one was on The Golden Rule. So I went ahead and looked up “The Golden Rule,” just to see what would come up online. I’ve found that whenever the Lord is speaking something to me, He’ll use anything and everything to let me know what He wants me to know, and when something comes into my mind to look up, it’s because the Lord has something to say to me about it. When I looked up “The Golden Rule,” this is what I found on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Rule:

“The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim, ethical code or morality that essentially states either of the following:

·         (Positive form of Golden Rule): One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

·         (Negative form of Golden Rule): One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated (also known as the Silver Rule).

The article goes on to speak about the different ways that the Golden Rule has been discussed and interpreted and spoken about throughout history in many different traditions, but the way that came most quickly to my mind was through the teachings of Jesus, some of which are listed in a section on Christianity:

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” (Luke 6:31)

There are also mentions from the Old Testament and from some of the Apocrypha, the Books of Tobit and Sirach:

“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)

And I also found something that I thought was really wonderfully and cleverly expressed:

“At the time of Hillel, an elder contemporary of Jesus of Nazareth, the negative form of the golden rule already must have been proverbial, perhaps because of Tobit 4:15. When asked to sum up the entire Torah concisely, he answered, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.” (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)

Jesus Himself says something very similar, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)

It seems such a perfect way of living your life, and one that would make things very simple, and I found myself wondering why it is that it is so hard to live our lives this way. Why is it that we can find ourselves feeling justified in doing things to other people that we would not want them to do to us? I’ve been having that experience lately with someone I know who has said they are a Christian, and yet everything that is being done to me by this person is definitely something they would not want to have done to them. And I don’t take myself out of this question either. I know that there have been times in my life when I have not treated people in the way that I would like them to treat me – for whatever the reason I have felt justified in doing what I thought was best for me without thinking about treating others in the way I would want to be treated. Even now in my dealings with the person who is treating me so badly, it is very difficult, even though I know the Lord and trust Him, to treat this person in a way that I would want to be treated. When someone is going after you, the gut response, at least for me, is to go after them too. It is only by the grace of God that I have been able to hold myself to His standard, and to treat them with respect even as they are completely disrespecting me.

God doesn’t want us to be doormats, but He does want us to hold ourselves to a high standard. He wants us to be kind when others are not, and to bless others when they are cursing us. It has been a lesson He has been teaching me in how to stand up for myself with His grace. In the past I would have either let people walk all over me or I would lose my temper. He’s showing me how to treat people in the way I would want to be treated, while still holding my own boundaries so they know how I want to be treated. And even more than that, He is showing me that I deserve to be treated well. He is showing me that if I am not treated well, I don’t have to say it’s ok. I don’t need to get angry about it or upset, but I can address it with all the respect and love He has put into me to let people know that I don’t deserve to be treated that way.

Psalm 3:3 puts it this way, “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.” We can walk in confidence and victory because He is our glory, and the One who lifts our heads high. When we have fully understood that, there is nothing that can put us down, because when we know that He is our shield and He is our glory, we will also know that we can hold our heads high because He is the one who lifts them up.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan