Devotions: The Gold Standard

Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.

Luke 6:31 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

One of the standards we have been brought up with is the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is a basic concept for all interactions involving people, directly or indirectly. At the heart of this principle is love and humility, putting aside our own desires and feelings in order to do what is best for another. It is not so much that we are thinking of ourselves first, but that we stop and think about how we treat others before we act, that we consider if we are about to act lovingly or not. It really is putting their best interests before ours. Of course we all want to be treated well, but we don’t always want to treat others well. Love treats others well no matter how they have treated us. This is another way of saying “put yourself in their shoes” by considering what we are about to do to them and whether we would want to be treated that way. The flip side is the Golden Result: people will usually treat you the way you treat them. Our standards of conduct influence others. If we are to be lights in this dark world, if we are to be ambassadors for the love of God, we need to hold fast to His standard of interacting with others and consider how we treat others before we act or speak. How do you treat others? Do your interactions mirror the love and grace of God? Ask Him to help you live up to His gold standard.