A person should respond not on the basis of how one is treated but on the basis of how one wants to be treated. Maybe nothing happens to enemies. They may hate one all the more, but incredible things happen within the one who lives this ethic out. Hate has nowhere to go except inside. Love frees up energy.
Luke – Exegetical Commentary, Zondervan, www.zondervan.com, 2011, p. 289.
The rule is a positive command that we should treat others as we would wish them to treat us. The negative form is well known in Jewish literature and in pagan literature… Jesus is, therefore, not saying something new here, but it is significant that He stresses the positive form of the rule. The negative form is merely a rule of prudence: do not hurt other people lest they retaliate. The positive form is not prudential but absolute: this is how you are to treat others (positively), regardless of how they treat you. Jesus thus goes beyond the negative form, citing the rarer and more demanding form (I. Howard Marshall).
The Gospel of Luke, Eerdmans, www.eerdmans.org, 1978, p. 262.
This is a golden rule indeed! It does not merely forbid all petty malice and revenge, all cheating and over-reaching. It does much more. It settles a hundred difficult points, which in a world like this are continually arising between man and man. It prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for our conduct in specific cases. It sweeps the whole debatable ground with one mighty principle. It shows us a balance and measure, by which every one may see at once what is his duty. Is there a thing we would not like our neighbor to do to us? Then let us always remember, that this is the thing we ought not to do to him. Is there a thing we would like him to do to us? Then this is the very thing we ought to do to him. How many intricate questions would be decided at once, if this rule were honestly used!
Commentary, Matthew 7.
You have heard of the “Golden Rule.” Rules like this have been floating around long before the time of Christ. There were some that advocated, “Balanced Reciprocity.” That is, do good to others so they might do good to you. Good for good. Treat others well because it will come back to benefit you. Karma. Give to get back. Then there was “Negative Reciprocity.” That is, do not treat others in a way you would not what them to treat you. We may tell our kids, “Would you like it if someone took your lunch money?” Or, “How would you feel if a person said those things about you?” Or, “Wouldn’t you be sad if you were the bus driver and kids acted that way.” Our Lord’s teaching in verse 31 goes beyond both of these. It’s a new imperative that was unheard of at the time, even in the teachings of Judaism. This command would have been bizarre to Luke’s Gentile readers. Unlike the other two rules I mentioned, the “Golden Rule” is positive. This one expects no reward in return from other humans it serves. People are not business deals! Treat others in a way you want them to treat you. So it’s not, “Just don’t pick on that kid, but rather sit with him when he’s alone at the lunch table because that is what you would want if you were in his shoes.”
Sermon, Enough Evidence to Convict?, Luke 6:27-36, June 3, 2018.
My friends, according to the Bible, every person is a special creation of God, personally stamped with His image. Our Lord’s response is to love all people and treat them in a way we would like to be treated. It’s to respond with good for evil, blessing for insult; love extended to those we deem offensive and opposition.
Sermon, A Biblical Response to School Shootings, Jeremiah 17:5-10, February 18, 2018.