Obama Invokes the Golden Rule

Last week, the President invoked the Golden Rule to justify his endorsement of gay marriage, implying 1) it was the “Christian” thing to do, and 2) it is what Jesus would do! The phrase “Golden Rule” is not in the Bible, but the principle is: “Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them” (Matt. 7:12).

Certainly Jesus never intended the Golden Rule to be the litmus test for right behavior—and certainly not as a license to sin. And He certainly would not have approved gay marriage. How can we know this? Because Jesus defined marriage for us in Matthew 19:4-5: “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh?’”

Parsing scripture to gain moral ground is nothing new. People have been splicing and dicing God's Word for their own purposes ever since the Serpent first did it to Eve. (Centuries later, he tried the same strategy (Luke 4) on Jesus.) The Body of Christ has never been in greater need of those who can “accurately handle the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).