"Therefore all things
whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them:for
this is the law and the prophets" (Matt. 7:12).
This is in no way dealing with men
according to their ways, but the contrary. It is saying, as it were, "You
who know the heavenly Father, who know what His grace to the evil is, you know
what is comely in His sight; always act upon that. Never act merely according
to what another does toward you, but according to what you would that another
should do to you. If you have the slightest love in your heart, you would
desire that they should act as "the children of your Father who is in
heaven" (Matt. 5:45). Whatever other persons may do, my business is to do
to them what I would that they should do to me, namely, to act in a way
becoming the child of a heavenly Father. "This is the law and the
prophets." He is giving them exceeding breadth, extracting the essence of
all that was blessed there. This was clearly the gracious wish of a soul that
knew God, even under the law; and nothing less than this could be the ground of
action before God.