{"id":8964,"date":"2021-12-05T03:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-05T03:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=8964"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:34:37","slug":"without-excuse-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=8964","title":{"rendered":"WITHOUT EXCUSE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although extremely difficult to live up to, the Golden Rule is beautiful in its straightforward simplicity: &#8220;In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.&#8221; (Matthew 7:12)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beyond its simplicity, there is another aspect of the Golden Rule that had never occurred to me until I read <i>The Good Works Reader<\/i> by Thomas Oden: it demonstrates that we are without excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oden quotes early church Father, John Chrysostom: &#8220;In this statement Jesus briefly sums up all that is required. He shows that the definition of virtue is short and easy and known already to all.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nobody is able to plead ignorance before God of the good he or she should do for others!<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chrysostom continues, &#8220;What is less of a burden than this? What is more just? So we all know within ourselves what our duties are. We cannot ever again find refuge in ignorance.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When Jesus says to us, &#8220;Do unto others what you would have others do unto you,&#8221; his words are both challenging <i>and convicting<\/i>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although extremely difficult to live up to, the Golden Rule is beautiful in its straightforward simplicity: &#8220;In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.&#8221; (Matthew 7:12)\u00a0 Beyond its simplicity, there is another aspect of the Golden Rule that had never occurred [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8965,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8964\/revisions\/8965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}