The Ubiquitous Law of Reciprocity

The Islamic prophet Mohammed once taught, “None of you has faith until he loves for his brother or his neighbor what he loves for himself.”

The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius reasoned, “What you don’t like done to yourself, don’t do to others.”

In Buddhist philosophy, it is written, “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

The people of Moses were commanded in Leviticus, “thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord.”

And then of course, in what we know as the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew, Jesus taught a small group of followers and listeners, “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.”

The wisdom of this teaching transcends religions, cultures and philosophies. Even in secular vernacular, it is dubbed the ‘law of reciprocity’. Of course, you may know it better as the Golden Rule.

As a principle, the golden rule has been elaborated upon many times in the scriptures and repurposed for a variety of applications.

In regards to marital relations, Paul taught, “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself.”

With respect to labor relations, Israelite masters were counseled to free their slaves and compensate them generously, because as they may recall, “thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee.”

And the principle was taught in an inverse proverbial fashion by King Solomon when he advised, “Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work.”

But perhaps Jacob elaborated upon it most eloquently when he taught:

“Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you.”

As Jacob implied, the Golden Rule is a principle of empathy.

‘Empathy’ as a word didn’t exist when the Bible or Book of Mormon was translated, and it never caught on in the English language until the 1950s. But the concept of it is scattered throughout the pages of scripture, often in the context of love.

Recall that when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, his response was:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

It is worth highlighting that “all the law and the prophets” are contingent on this great commandment to love, with the law being the law of Moses.

Interestingly, the Jewish rabbi Hillel who was a contemporary of Jesus also taught similarly, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Now go, and study.”

Within the Mosaic law are the ten commandments, six of which are based on love toward fellow man, with the remaining four based on love toward God. The two great commandments and the Golden Rule both serve as powerful guides to fulfilling all ten of the Mosaic commandments, and then some.

Returning to Jacob’s teaching, there are three things I would like to make note of.

First, while we often associate the word ‘do’ with the golden rule, here Jacob uses ‘think’ — “think of your brethren like unto yourselves.” Of course, all actions spring from our thoughts, and if love is a verb that we associate with do, then empathy is a verb that we associate with thinking and feeling.

Second, Jacob adds the counsel to “be familiar with all.” In the true sense of the word, familiarity is a state bearing resemblance to family. Indeed, we refer to one another at church as ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ regardless of how well we may know each other in an effort to “be familiar with all.”

As we become familiar with people, we become familiar with their circumstances and life experiences, sometimes to the extent that they almost become our own. We become familiar with the miracle of birth, familiar with the difficulty of loss, familiar with success, familiar with poverty, familiar with ways of life and processes of thinking that would otherwise be foreign to our own limited experiences.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton once elaborated on this idea when he taught:

Empathy is the ability to understand someone else’s feelings and to feel what he feels. Meaningful help can never be given without empathy for the recipient. This requires gaining the confidence of the person; listening with eyes, ears, and heart; trying to comprehend how this person feels; and then letting him know by your personal performance that you really understand. One who really understands and practices empathy doesn’t solve another’s problems, doesn’t argue, doesn’t top his story, make accusations, or take away free agency. He merely helps the person build his self-reliance and self-image so he can try to find his own solutions.

Finally, once we have become “familiar with all” Jacob extended the invitation to be “free with your substance, that they might be rich like unto you.” Here, one no longer is only thinking of their brethren like themselves, but also acting in a way that enables their brethren to become that way too — on a temporal level. The reciprocal benefit to the generous giver is the edification of spiritual qualities.

In this interpretation, the Golden Rule in its fullest capacity is in essence a principle of spiritual and temporal equality. It is consecration. When motivated by love and charity, it remains the commandment on which the law and the prophets hang — ancient, modern and future.