Most of us have heard the old adage “treat others how you’d like to be treated” our whole lives. We instill this principle into our children in hopes that they will be kind and put others first. It has become a foundational principle in modern ethics, such that even the business world has realized that it is actually beneficial to make their employees feel cared for. According to an article from Harvard Business Review, this can even affect the bottom line. In his article “Profiting from the Golden Rule” Fred Reichheld writes, “treat others as you yourself would want to be treated. Each time you live up to the Golden Rule, your reputation is enhanced; each time you fail, it is diminished. And the mathematics of long-term financial success — revenues, profits, cash flow — square perfectly with this scorecard.”1 While perhaps simple cash flow makes for a poor reason to treat your employees with dignity, it does reveal a universal truth. Something within us flourishes when the people in our lives act selflessly towards us and we to them.
This hallmark principle of ethics is of course not a modern invention. It is, in fact, ancient wisdom. Likely, when we think of who exemplified this concept of self-sacrifice we rightly think of Jesus Christ. Afterall, the Golden Rule, this cornerstone of ethics, is based upon Jesus’ own words.
In a defining moment of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus is asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus’ response is representative of what he came to do on this earth. He says, “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.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
These famous words have been used in countless sermons, devotionals, books, and all other forms of media. We rightly identify Jesus as the one who embodied these virtues, but this truth was not established in the early 1st century CE. It is far older. As he says, the entirety of the Law and the Prophets are bound up with love of God and love of neighbor. The impression that we often have then—of Jesus as loving and kind and the Old Testament God as wrathful and angry—is clearly amiss. The love that Jesus espouses and that he is known for is found in the Torah long before his earthly ministry.
Love of neighbor is, perhaps surprisingly, a core feature of the Torah.
When Jesus states the greatest commandments, he is quoting from Deuteronomy and Leviticus. The first and greatest command comes from a section of the Torah known as the Great Shema. Found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, this command is revered by Jewish communities and continues to be prayed daily. The second comes from Leviticus 19:18 and commands that, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” This emphasis on love of neighbor was entirely unique amongst cultures in the Ancient Near East. The most well-known legal code that could be considered comparable to the Torah is the famous Code of Hammurabi. This Babylonian legal document shares many similarities with the Torah, but there are also striking differences. Chief among these differences is the Torah’s insistence on love of neighbor.
Torah is also clear, however, that “neighbor” is not restricted to one’s geographical location. It is not only fellow Israelites in the Torah that are meant to be given dignity and protection, but also the foreigner. Only a few verses after the command to love one’s neighbor in Leviticus 19, YHWH declares through Moses that, “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34) Love of neighbor means love of foreigner. Certainly, this is precisely what Jesus has in mind when he tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. That quintessential story of selfless love, even for one’s enemy, is rooted in the wisdom of the Torah.
In fact, Torah consistently reminds Israel to look after three categories of marginalized people in their midst: the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner. Declaring God’s own care for these vulnerable people in society, Deuteronomy 10:18 states, “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.” The care that YHWH has for those who would have been unable to look after themselves is something that the prophets routinely emphasize, urging Israel to look after their neighbor in true worship.
Zechariah 7:9-10: “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.”
Jeremiah 49:11: “Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive. Your widows too can depend on me.”
Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
It is this same principle that James has in mind as he writes, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27) Again, neither James nor Jesus are inventing new categories when they express God’s desire for people to love and care for one another. These ideas are well established in the Torah that they held dear.
The ethical system that we unwittingly ascribe to in the West has been indelibly marked by the Torah. One’s love for neighbor and the care and defense of those who cannot defend themselves are essential parts of who God has always called his people to be. These principles were not new discoveries by early Christians, nor were Jesus’ teachings entirely novel. Instead, he radically lived out the wisdom of the Torah and was its fulfillment. The truth that Torah revealed was made complete in the person of Christ. It was given as a way to teach Israel who God was and who they ought to be. It is indicative, perhaps, that Israel failed to live out this command to love when they did not recognize the one who gave it.
“Profiting from the Golden Rule.” Harvard Business Review, July 23, 2014.
I love this one! I felt spoken to when you quoted Isaiah. To take up the cause of the fatherless. I never read that so clearly before. Thank you for sharing your thoughts so clear and accessible.