Living Out God’s Heart

Sometimes the Scriptures are confusing. There are a lot of laws and rules, stories and promises. Can someone just simplify it for us? In Jesus' day, Rabbis were often asked to summarize the teachings of the Scriptures. One prominent Rabbi, Hillel, had a student come up to him and ask him if he could summarize the Torah while he stood on one foot. What I like to call the flamingo question. Hillel responded, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.”

The Rabbi Jesus some years later also offered a summation of the Law and the Prophets; the summation we now know as the Golden Rule: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” This pithy phrase helps us live life in the Kingdom of God, loving God and loving others.