Mat 7:12 | PNT | STEP | Whatsoever . . . do ye even so to them . This does not imply that we are always to do to others as they wish, but what we would like to have done to ourselves if we were placed in their condition and they in ours. We might injure them by complying with their foolish wishes. A maxim similar to the Golden Rule is found in the teachings of various sages; Socrates among the Greeks ("What stirs you to anger when done to you by bothers, that do not to others"), Buddha and Confucius ("What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others") among the Orientals, and Hillel ("Do not do to thy neighbor what is hateful to thyself") among the Jews. But the other teachers do not come up to Christ's standard. Their maxim is negative and passive. They say: "Do not do to others what you would not have done to you". It is a rule of "not" doing, rather than of "doing".

Matthew 7:12

Whatsoever . . . do ye even so to them. This does not imply that we are always to do to others as they wish, but what we would like to have done to ourselves if we were placed in their condition and they in ours. We might injure them by complying with their foolish wishes. A maxim similar to the Golden Rule is found in the teachings of various sages; Socrates among the Greeks ("What stirs you to anger when done to you by bothers, that do not to others"), Buddha and Confucius ("What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others") among the Orientals, and Hillel ("Do not do to thy neighbor what is hateful to thyself") among the Jews. But the other teachers do not come up to Christ's standard. Their maxim is negative and passive. They say: "Do not do to others what you would not have done to you". It is a rule of "not" doing, rather than of "doing".