NOTES for Mat 7:7-12
"In this are the Law and the Prophets"... That is, Jesus reduces all Old Testament teaching to a short phrase, a slightly altered ancient saying known as the "golden rule of ethics." How does He change it? He translates it from a negative form ("do not do...") into a positive one, and this is very important.
How often people suppose that religion is the opium of the people, that Christianity is a convenient psychological niche in which one can hide from the problems of the surrounding world. At times Christians themselves think this too, and that is probably why outsiderhood was so widespread among "underground" Christians in Soviet times. But Jesus sets a much higher standard for oneself. "A city set on a hill cannot be hidden"; the Christian position in the world is a position of action, of transforming this world, not of fleeing from it.
But of course not every action will be right. The Lord considers that every person still loves himself, and He invites us to act toward other people from the same motive: love.