Living In Glass Houses
"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." Lexicographers have traced the proverb back to Geoffrey Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1385), written when glass windows were extremely rare. Most windows, depicting biblical scenes in "stained glass," were found in churches.
Based on a Greek legend, the 8,239-line poem is the tragic love story of Troilus, son of the Trajan King Priam, and Criseyde, the widowed daughter of the deserter priest Calchas. Tolerance and sympathy are major themes of the tale, for many people want to keep the lovers apart--and in the end succeed (p. 210).
At some point, the saying came to mean that those who are vulnerable should not attack others (ibid.). Truly, in the broadest sense, the fact we are all sinners should keep us from hypercriticism with the faults of others (Romans 3:23).
But, a proper sense of our own faults, in marriage, childrearing, and Christian living, should cause a humility that addresses the faults of others not with stones but with prayer and compassion, "considering ourselves lest we also become tempted" (Galatians. 6:1).
The Golden Rule Isn't All There Is to God's Will
Vox Day writes, "Jesus Christ's version of the Golden Rule, given in Matthew 7:12, is merely summary advice, not the whole basis of Christian morality. 'So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.' This is practical advice given in the context of a general admonishment and it cannot possibly be the essence of Christian morality, for in the very same chapter, Jesus informs his listeners that 'only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven' will enter that kingdom. He did not say 'only he who does to others what he would have them do to him....' Obviously, a moral system based on loving the Lord your God (Matthew 22:37) and obediently submitting your will to His is a...far more objective one than the Golden Rule, which is subject to human rationalization and psychopathy."
Mr. Day's warning is a good reminder that the Golden Rule is a summary statement of what our moral INTENTIONS should be. It is not a summary of the entire Christian MORALITY. "If we would all just follow the Golden Rule.." is a noble desire, but isn't meant to replace the other commands of the New Testament.
"But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does" (James 1:25).
O, Ye Nominal Christians!
"Olaudah Equiano, born in 1745 (in what is now Nigeria) … was one of the first Africans to live through chattel slavery and write about it. …
"The first time the young lad set eyes on a slave ship, he was terrified. He thought he was brought on board to be eaten by the white men:
‘When I looked round the ship too and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted my fate and quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted...I asked if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces and long hair?’
Conditions on board ship were so bad … many of the kidnapped Africans thought death was preferable to living on a slave ship. Some of the captives jumped into the water, committing suicide. More would have followed had the crew not stopped them."
"Equiano's ship arrived in Barbados. He, and the other captured Africans, were sold as slaves on the Caribbean island. He spent many years at sea as the slave of a naval man. Although he became a freeman in 1766, for the sum of forty pounds sterling, he never saw his family again.
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"Thanks to the Library of Congress, you can read an early edition of Equiano's narrative. Initially published in 1789 - when he was Britain's leading abolitionist - Equiano's book asks compelling questions:
'O, ye nominal Christians!' he proclaims. 'Is this what you learned from your God who said to you ‘Do unto all men as you would have them do unto you’?'”
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12, cf. Luke 6:31). "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8).