When our children were small, we ran across a piece of parenting advice that we liked and implemented in our family. Instead of giving them a bunch of rules for appropriate behavior, we narrowed it down to only one rule.
Don't hurt anyone or anything.
We liked this rule because it made things simple. It covered everything from hitting your sibling to scratching your toy on the wooden furniture. It was an umbrella for people, animals, and things. Name calling, insults and other emotional offenses qualified as hurting people. The "anyone" covered self, which helped cover overly risky tricks. The word 'hurt' left some room for interpretation. For example, does jumping on the bed really hurt the bed? Short jumps, no. Big hard jumps, yes. The rule taught the kids to think about their behavioral decisions. It also helped us be more relaxed parents, although it is unlikely our kids would ever use that adjective to describe me.
Overall it was a great filter for encouraging reasonable behavior without having to nag all the time. It's not a bad filter to apply to our adult selves as well. But I found a pair of rules that is even better than our parenting rule.
Jesus Christ provided these as the first and second commandments. He was being tested by a lawyer on which commandment of the Jewish law was the greatest. He responded in Matthew 22:37-40 [ESV]:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and Prophets.
The second commandment to love my neighbor trips me up even more often. I prefer to love my neighbors when they are nice to me and keep their yards looking nice. It's harder when they are mean or do me wrong. I want to feel justified by simply not hating back. But loving others the way I love myself requires more. I must love when I'm not loved back.
In fact, Luke's version of Jesus' response went further to define our neighbor in Luke 10:29-37. The lawyer asked the follow up question 'and who is my neighbor?' Jesus answered by telling the parable about the man who helped a stranger who had been robbed and beaten. He had so much compassion for the victim that he provided first aid, carried him to safety, and paid for a hotel room where the man could recover. Strangers from two conflicting cultures. But one was in need and the other showed mercy. And that made them neighbors.
So like a good parent, our Heavenly Father simplified things. He only gave us two rules to live by. He just wants us to love Him and others. I sure love Him, and I'm trying to learn how to love others like He does.
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