Do You Treat People Well?

Last week, we talked about how to be a neighbor as we looked at the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Today’s writing goes right along side of that topic.  The whole idea of loving your neighbor and being like the Samaritan hinges on the verse above.  Luke 6:31 is the “how-to” in our efforts to neighbor well.  How do you want people to treat you?  That is how you are to treat others.

Makinze is full of wisdom and beyond full of compassion.  A few days ago, both qualities were on display when we had the opportunity to be a neighbor and help someone around us.  Isn’t it funny how God gives us opportunities to practice what we preach??  Not long after helping, we noticed that what we did actually could have been done a little better.  Makinze thought we ought to fix it and make it better.  Honestly, I was thinking that we had done enough.  “If we were in their situation, we would want someone else to do all that they could,” Makinze said next.  Talk about a Luke 6:31 shot to the gut!  She was right.  We should do for others what we wish they would do for us.

Jesus, in context, is talking about some pretty hard things in Luke 6.  He is talking about loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, praying for those who abuse us, giving to everyone who begs from us, and more.  Not quite the easiest teachings to digest!  His summary is to simply do to others as we would want them to do to us.  Doesn’t that make extremely hard teachings seem tangible?  That’s how powerful this simple idea is!  Living in the mindset of treating others as we want to be treated empowers us to love enemies, do good to those who hate, pray for abusers, and give to everyone.  Amazing!

So, our application today is simple.  If you struggle with naturally putting others first, like I do, our best weapon is to put ourselves in the shoes of others.  How would we want to be treated if we were in their shoes?  Our selfishness starts to slowly crumble when we see situations through the lens of Luke 6:31.  We don’t want to be judged, so why do we judge?  We don’t want to be hated, so why do we hate?  We want to be prayed for, so why don’t we pray for others?  We would want others to be generous in our time of need, so why don’t we give?

Our best weapon is to put ourselves in the shoes of others.

I pray that this short writing encourages you and pushes you into the shoes of others.  Being like the Good Samaritan, being a good neighbor, seems more practical and more attainable when we have such a simple reminder: treat others as you would want to be treated.  Let’s pray for God to give us opportunities to put this into practice.  When those opportunities come your way, think about how you would want to be treated in the given situation.  It will change your perspective.  It will move you to action.  It will show the world exactly what being a neighbor is all about.

• How does Luke 6:31 change your perspective on how to treat people?

• Think about a situation when you treated someone differently than how you would have wanted to be treated.  What could you have done differently?