Day 301 The Golden Rule and Its Universal Truth

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells his followers that they are the salt of the earth, and in the same sentence offers a warning that savorless salt is good for nothing. Join me in an attempt to be savory salt as I share each day one verse of scripture and one small thought. Perhaps this small daily emphasis can lead to greater savor in your life and ultimately you and I can be savory salt.

Hello, my friends and family, wherever you're listening from, thank you for joining me and know that I'm cheering for your every success. A golden rule for all of humanity. Welcome to day 301 on our 365-day journey through the Book of Mormon together.

Today, we're going to be reading 3 Nephi chapter 14 verses 10 through 27. You'll finish that chapter. And 3 Nephi chapter 15 verses 1-6 as we continue breaking down the teachings of Jesus Christ to the Nephites.

Today we're going to be looking at 3 Nephi chapter 14 verse 12. Take a little look at the Golden Rule through the way that Christ teaches it to the Nephites. It says, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.

For this is the law and the prophets." This is the Golden Rule. It's been referred to as the Golden Rule for millennia. And it's interesting when we look at the Golden Rule and its applications, because I want to take you just down a historical road for just a second.

A few different philosophers and a few differences, because one of the things I love about this, when I travel the world, one of my favorite things to do is to look for truth wherever I can find it. I love going to especially different religious sites and just find the pieces of truth that seem to permeate all concepts, right? It seems to permeate all cultures, all peoples.

There are nuggets inside of all cultures and peoples that have these truths to them. And this is one I believe exists pretty much everywhere in the world. And so just a quick little historical journey here.

Confucius, right, would come out of roughly, you know, 500 BC or so, says, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself." That comes straight out of the Confucian Analects. So you've got that there. You've got a Jewish sage, right?

Hillel the Elder, that says, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the whole Torah. The rest is the explanation.

Go and learn." In fact, this is roughly, this is about 100 BC or so. So this is interesting because it sounds pretty much what Christ is saying and he very well could be referencing this elder, right? From this time.

We have Aristotle, which would be around 300 BC, right? He talks about the relationship between friends and the reciprocity of that friendship in friending yourself and friending others, and then treating yourself that way. You get Buddha, right?

Inside of the Buddhist teachings you get, "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." You can find this in Zoroastrianism, right? You can find that that roughly what it is, is 600 BC or so: "That nature alone is good, which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for its own self." And then you see it again in Lao Tzu, which is even a hundred years before Buddhism and whatnot begins in sixth century, 600 BC or so. It says, "Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain and your neighbor's loss as your own loss." Look at the different ways that the Golden Rule is given to us.

My friends, what does it take for us to actually apply it in our lives? To truly treat others the way that we want to be treated? I think it's worth time and reflection for us as we dive in to see that this is the Golden Rule.

This isn't just a suggestion. Think of the ways the world would change if we just thought about how we want to be treated and then went about our lives treating others in that way. And for those that are just kind of pause and saying, "Yeah, but there's some people that just, you just got to make sure you get it to them," you know, I think there's an example I want to wrap up with one more quote.

It comes from Viktor Frankl, who was a survivor from the Holocaust. He lived in the concentration camps and then he wrote a book called "Man's Search for Meaning." If there was anyone that should be hateful towards the way they were treated, it would be those that were put in concentration camps and lived in that way. And this is what he says about it.

He says, "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." My friends, that's worth some time and reflection to think into as you go about living the Golden Rule in your life. That's all for today, my friends.

Remember that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. Keep it small, keep it simple, and always seek to be savory salt. I'll be here tomorrow and I hope you are too.