Obeying Christ’s Golden Rule

Jesus gave us two instructions that would ensure we grow in a continuum of maturity that leads to the end described in Proverbs 4:18 “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day”. The first is in Mark 12:31 when He asked us to ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you obey this law you can not think bad thoughts about yourself or your neighbor. The second is in John 13:34 “As I have loved you, so you must love one another”. If you obey this law you must consciously think good thoughts about yourself and your neighbour because that is what God and His Son, Jesus, do for us. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”-Jeremiah 29:11. God thinks good thoughts towards us and Jesus thinks God’s thoughts towards us and so to obey Jesus’s new commandment of John 13:34 we must also think good thoughts about our neighbors  and ourselves.