What Luke 6:31 Means

Luke 6:31

What Luke 6:31 means

And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. The golden rule turns our own longing to be treated well into the measure of how we treat others. It is a simple, searching test for every relationship: begin by giving what you yourself hope to receive.

This is the Golden Rule: treat others the way you would want to be treated. "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." Jesus makes our own desires the measuring line for how we love our neighbour, turning love into something active and imaginative rather than merely avoiding harm. Instead of asking what others deserve, we ask what we would hope for in their place, and then we go and do it. It is a positive command, not just do not hurt people, but do good to them first, even to those who cannot repay. Simple enough for a child and deep enough to reshape a whole life, this one sentence gathers up how God means us to treat everyone we meet.

Luke 6:31 in different translations

Understanding Luke 6:31

Jesus speaks these words in what is often called the Sermon on the Plain, after he came down and stood in a level place to teach a great crowd (Luke 6:17). The immediate context is radical love: he has just said, "Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you," and "unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other" (Luke 6:27-29). Verse 31 sits inside this call, and what follows presses it further, for even sinners love those who love them, but his people are to love without expecting return (Luke 6:32-35). The setting is Luke's Gospel, which repeatedly highlights mercy, the poor, and the outsider, and here Jesus gives a plain rule anyone can carry into daily life.

This verse does not mean be nice so that people will be nice back, as though it were a strategy for getting good treatment; the surrounding verses aim it precisely at people who may never repay, even enemies. Nor is it merely the negative rule of refraining from what you would hate, for Jesus states it positively: actively do the good you would wish done to you. It leads to Christ because he is the one who kept it perfectly and beyond measure. While we were still his enemies, he did for us the greatest good, giving himself for our salvation (Romans 5:8-10). His love for us both commands and empowers this way of living, so that we love others out of the fullness of having first been loved.

Luke 6:31 in context

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