Intro to Chapter 12: Jesus & the Golden Rule.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself, Jesus told us. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Love your enemies.
Jesus gave us our self-love as the model for loving others. Why? Because our love for ourselves is as close to perfect as anything human can be. We may not think much of ourselves sometimes, but self-esteem is different from love. Aristotle noted that “it is for himself most of all that each man wishes what is good.” When great good befalls us, do we resent it? Do we rejoice in the wrongs done to us? Do we work to bring disease, disgrace, and financial ruin on ourselves? No. We do not, and the reason is that we love ourselves. What Jesus demanded is that we devote this same kind of love to others.
No one before Jesus had been this demanding. Five hundred years before, Confucius had said, “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” There was no obligation to do anything, only to refrain from doing. We don’t have to feed the poor, but we can’t rightfully steal their food. Aristotle said, “We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.” He imposed a positive obligation, but it extended only as far as our friends. We would be obligated, under Aristotle’s standard, to feed our friends–but only our friends–if they were in need.
Jesus for the first time imposed an obligation that was both positive and universal.