"Love your neighbor" and our golden rule
"Love your neighbor" and our golden rule
Love is the highest motive for following GR (which we also might follow for lower motives like habit or self-interest). If we follow GR out of love, then we do it because we care about others for their own sake.
GR, in turn, gives a workable way to operationalize the somewhat vague idea of "loving your neighbor." To love X in the GR way, get to know X as well as you can, imagine yourself in the X's place as vividly and accurately as you can, and act toward X only in ways that you're willing to be treated in the same situation.
"Love your neighbor" and our golden rule
Our GR doesn't tell us what concrete actions to do or what motivations to have. It only tells us not to combine an action (toward another) with a desire (about how we be treated in the same circumstances). This won't conflict with "Love your neighbor."
"Love your neighbor" and our golden rule
No, they're somewhat different in meaning. "Love your neighbor" tells us to have concern for others -- to seek to do good and not harm to them -- and to do this for their own sake.
"Love your neighbor" specifies a motivation (while GR doesn't). GR, in turn, gives a workable way to operationalize the somewhat vague idea of "loving your neighbor." So the two ideas are more complementary than equivalent.