"Do To Others As You Would Have Others Do To You."

"But I say to you who hear ME:  Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.  Bless those who curse you and pray for those who treat you badly.  To the one who strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek; from the one who takes your coat, do not keep back your shirt.  Give to the one who asks, and if anyone has taken something from you, do not demand it back.

 Do to others as you would have others do to you.  If you love only those who love you, what kind of grace is yours?  Even sinners love those who love them.  If you do favors to those who are good to you, what kind of grace is yours?  Even sinners do the same.  If you lend only when you expect to receive, what kind of grace is yours?  For sinners also lend to sinners, expecting to receive something in return.

But love your enemies and do good to them and lend when there is nothing to expect in return.  Then will your reward be great, and you will be sons and daughters of the Most High.  For HE is kind toward the ungrateful and the wicked.  Be merciful, just as your FATHER is merciful.

Don't be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over.  For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back." - Luke 6:31-34  

(Here, as in Matthew 5:43, JESUS does not refer mainly to personal resentment and friendships, but to opposition in the social, political or religious order: treating differently the people of one's group or party and those of the opposite side.  We love and respect those of our own group and are only moderately concerned about the rights of others: they are probably sinners and even in the best of circumstances of small interest...

JESUS invites us to overcome such differences: what counts is the individual and when my neighbor needs me, I must forget his color or whatever label has been given him.

If you lend only when you expect to receive.  Once again, we are dealing with a social attitude: people who look for friends among those who can promote their social climbing and who avoid all who might be a burden because they are people without influence: Luke 14:12.) 

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