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Give What You Expect

5. Which man among you here gives a stone when his child asks for bread, or a serpent when he asks for a fish? If you, who are evil, can nevertheless give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him

6. Whatever you want that people should do to you, do it likewise to them, and whatever you do not want them to do to you, do not do it to them either; for this is the law and the prophets. (Chap. 27:5-6)

Christ explains, corrects
and deepens the word:

Recognize that you should not demand from your fellow man what you are not willing to give yourself.

If you expect your neighbor to do something for you, ask yourself the question: Why don’t you do it yourself? The person, for example, who expects money and property from his neighbor so that, in his laziness, he does not have to work himself, or the person who expects faithfulness from his neighbor while he is not faithful himself, or the person who wants to be accepted and received by his neighbor, yet neither accepts nor receives his fellow man – such a person is selfish and poor in spirit.

Whatsoever you demand of your neighbor is what you do not have in your heart yourself.

It is unlawful to force, from an attitude of expectation, your fellow man into actions, statements or certain behaviors, which, of yourself, you would not be willing to do.

If, in wanting something from your neighbor, you have recognized your expectant attitude, turn back quickly and do first what you would demand of your neighbor.

All coercion is the application of pressure, which produces, in turn, coercion and counter-pressure. Through such extortionary behavior toward your fellow man, you bind yourself to him and turn yourself – as well as the one who lets himself be blackmailed – into a slave of a base nature. Coercive methods such as “I expect of you and you expect of me” or “Each gives to the other what the other demands of the former” lead to binding.

What is bound has no place in heaven. Both who are bound to one another will meet again one day, either in a fine-material life or in further incarnations.

This form of binding does not apply to the workplace. When, in your professional life, you have freely taken a position in a certain field of work and the responsible person gives you duties that you should carry out within the framework of your job, you have given your consent to that upon joining the company. You have freely taken your place in the field of work and on the work team, in order to do what is assigned to you. So, when you choose a job, you should also carry out what is assigned to you, according to the field of work you have chosen yourself. The statement “Whatever you want people to do to you, do it likewise to them ...” therefore, does not apply to a self-chosen profession or field of work.

“Whatever you do not want them [the people] to do to you, do not do it to them either” means: If you do not want to be laughed at and ridiculed, or you do not want to be robbed or lied to, or you do not want to be deprived of your belongings, or you do not want to be led by the nose, or you do not want to be robbed of your free will, or you do not want to be beaten or insulted, then do not do it to your fellow man. For what you do to the least of your brothers, this you do to Me – and to yourself. What you do not want to be done to you, you should not do to any of your neighbors either – for everything that goes out from you returns to you. For this reason, examine your thoughts and guard your tongue!

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