And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
"Do to them as you wish they would do to you." It sounds simple, almost too simple to be a foundation for anything. But notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say do to others what they've done to you. It doesn't wait for someone else to go first.
That's a strange kind of math if you think about it — Jesus is asking people to lead with generosity before they've earned any reason to. Most of us operate the other way: we wait, we watch, we protect ourselves until we're sure it's safe to be kind.
You don't have to believe anything in particular to test this out. Just notice, for one day, what happens if you go first — with patience, with the benefit of the doubt, with the kind of treatment you'd want on your hardest day. It's a small experiment. It might tell you something about the God who thought this rule up in the first place.
If a rule this simple can still be this hard to live, it might be worth asking who Jesus actually was.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.