Jesus Christ · The Sermon on the Mount
The Golden Rule
How do you treat others? With the same active care you already give yourself — “for this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.”
Carl Bloch paints the sermon as its first hearers knew it — Jesus seated above the crowd on the hillside, teaching with open hands. The Golden Rule is this scene's closing line: seven chapters of teaching, handed down the hill in one sentence.
The Rule
Matthew 7:12 — the sermon's middle, summed in one sentence
In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.“The Law and the Prophets” closed the frame it opened at 5:17 — everything between was Jesus showing what the phrase requires.
How to Treat Others
six verses spell the rule out — follow any arrow that catches you
WITH PATIENCE AND KINDNESS
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”
1 Corinthians 13:4 · BSBFORGIVING, AS YOU WERE FORGIVEN
“Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:32 · BSBHONORING THEM FIRST
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.”
Romans 12:10 · BSBPUTTING THEM ABOVE YOURSELF
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.”
Philippians 2:3 · BSBEVEN WHEN THEY ARE ENEMIES
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
Luke 6:31 · BSBLuke sets the same rule inside the enemy-love teaching (6:27–35).
“As Yourself” — the Measure You Already Carry
how does one treat oneself?
The rule assumes something: that you already know how to care for someone — yourself. You feed yourself, defend yourself, excuse yourself, want the best for yourself. Scripture says so plainly, and makes that built-in care the yardstick: take the active, daily, detailed care you spend on you, and aim it at the person in front of you. That is the whole measurement.
Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.The rule's hidden premise, stated: you already nourish and cherish yourself — as Christ does the church.
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.The Torah already carried the rule, positively stated — “as yourself.”
Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”The two commandments everything hangs on — the same closing phrase, “the Law and the Prophets.”
Go Deeper
Hillel, the positive form, and the church's voices — each opens in place
Hillel's Golden Rule
The most famous parallel comes from Hillel the Elder, a Jewish sage who taught a generation before Jesus. According to the Babylonian Talmud, a would-be convert asked Hillel to teach him the whole Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel answered: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow — that is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary” (b. Shabbat 31a). Both sayings claim to summarize everything the law asks. The difference is worth naming plainly, without setting one teacher against the other: Hillel's rule is negative— a floor, telling you what to refrain from. Jesus's rule is positive — a ceiling with no top, telling you what to actively do.
Why the positive form asks more
A negative rule is kept by doing nothing: if you never harm your neighbor, you have obeyed it, even from your armchair. A positive rule cannot be kept that way — “do to others” requires action, imagination, and effort toward someone else's good. This is not a knock on Hillel, whose form has its own wide company: Confucius taught essentially the same negative shape (“what you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others,” Analects15.23), and versions of it turn up across the ancient world. That very breadth is what sharpens Jesus's form rather than diminishing it — the negative rule was common property; the positive one, arriving with no ceiling on how far it goes, was not.
The church's voices
Christ has here adopted it into this law; so that both the Old Testament and the New agree in prescribing this to us, to do as we would be done by. By this rule the law of Christ is commended, but the lives of Christians are condemned by comparing them with it. Aut hoc non evangelium, authi non evangelici.--Either this is not the gospel, or these are not Christians.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), Matt 7:12
This command has been usually called the Saviours golden rule, a name given to it on account of its great value.… The sentiment was in use among the Jews. Hillel, an ancient Rabbi, said to a man who wished to become a proselyte, and who asked him to teach him the whole law, Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. Something of the same sentiment was found among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and is found in the writings of Confucius.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832–1869), Matt 7:12
These words are the epilogue, or conclusion of our Lord's discourse; the sum of what he had delivered in the two preceding chapters, and in this hitherto, is contained in these words; for they not only respect the exhortation about judging and reproving; but every duty respecting our neighbour; it is a summary of the whole. It is a golden rule, here delivered, and ought to be observed by all mankind, Jews and Gentiles.
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746–1748), Matt 7:12
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men - This is a most sublime precept, and highly worthy of the grandeur and beneficence of the just God who gave it.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), Matt 7:12
Since the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ came to all men, He summed up all his commands in one precept, Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them; and adds, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Cyprian· Treatise VII (c. 258), on Matt 7:12
He that thinks he ought to do to another as he expects that others will do to him, considers verily how he may return good things for bad, and better things for good.
Gregory the Dialogist· Moralia in Job X.6 (c. 604), via Catena Aurea on Matt 7:12
Read the Great Books
the works that have carried this teaching — go further than this page
Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount
Augustine of Hippo · c. 394
The church's first full commentary on the sermon — sixteen centuries old and still the deep well the later commentators drew from, including the voices quoted on this page.
READ IT FREE AT CCEL →Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis · 1952
Lewis opens with exactly this page's ground: the moral law every person already appeals to the moment they say “that's not fair” — and follows it to the One who wrote it.
In print — find it wherever books are sold.
Closing
“Either this is not the gospel, or these are not Christians,” Matthew Henry wrote, comparing the rule to the lives of those who claim to follow it. The Golden Rule is not a slogan for ethics in general — it is Jesus's own summary of everything He has just taught, handed to ordinary people to carry out the door.
GO ON FROM HERE
Built from the gate-verified Sermon on the Mount research draft and its database quote pool — public-domain commentary quoted verbatim (Matthew Henry, Albert Barnes, John Gill, Adam Clarke, Cyprian, Gregory the Dialogist). Scripture BSB, fetched from the floor. Artwork: Carl Bloch, 1877, public domain.