2月24日 犧牲的快樂
我也甘心樂意爲你們的靈魂費財費力。（林後十二15）
聖靈一旦將神的愛澆灌在我們心裏，我們就立即與耶穌基督一樣關懷別人。耶穌基督對任何一種人都有愛心。在事奉的工作上，我們不能以自己的嗜好爲指導；這是我們與主的關係中最大的考驗之一。犧牲的快樂，在于我爲“朋友”捨命，這幷不是隨手丟出，而是經過深思熟慮後，爲他和他對人的愛，甘願把生命舍去。這也不是爲了別的什麽使命。保羅只爲一個目的而把自己耗盡——爲主得人。他時刻被主吸引，而不體貼自己。“向什麽樣的人，我就作什麽樣的人。無論如何，總要救些人。”
人若一心獨自與主一起，只爲建立個人聖潔生命，他對別人就絲毫無益了；他不過把自己安置在臺階上，與人群脫節。保羅成了一個祭牲，他所到之處，主耶穌都使用他，作成神的旨意。我們不少人只追求自己的目標，以致主無法隨意使用我們。若我們真的委身于耶穌，就該沒有自己的目標了。保羅說他曉得怎樣作一塊門前的地毯而心無惱怒，因爲他的生命已全屬耶穌了。我們很容易轉移目標，不歸屬基督，而專注于那些叫我們心靈得自由的事物。保羅的動機不是這樣：“爲我弟兄，我骨肉之親，就是自己被詛咒，與基督分離，我也願意。”——太狂放，太誇大了，是嗎？人在愛情裏這樣說話，幷不是誇大，乃是愛上了基督，如保羅一樣。
祈禱◆噢，主啊，求你今天保守我們，讓我們完全不需要想到自己，只是喜樂地與你一起。
February 24 The Delight Of Sacrifice
“I will very gladly spend and be spent for you;” 2
Corinthians 12:15
When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we
begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests in other
people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is. We have
no right in Christian work to be guided by our affinities; this is one of the
biggest tests of our relationship to Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is
that I lay down my life for my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay
my life out for Him and His interests in other people, not for a cause. Paul
spent himself for one purpose only – that he might win men to Jesus Christ.
Paul attracted to Jesus all the time, never to himself. “I am made all things
to all men, that I might by all means save some.”
When a man says he must develop a holy life alone with God, he is of no
more use to his fellow men: he puts himself on a pedestal, away from the common
run of men. Paul became a sacramental personality; wherever he went, Jesus Christ
helped Himself to his life. Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ
cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends
of our own to serve. Paul said he knew how to be a “door-mat” without resenting
it, because the mainspring of his life was devotion to Jesus. We are apt to be
devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which emancipate us
spiritually. That was not Paul’s motive. “I could wish my self were accursed
from Christ for my brethren” – wild, extravagant – is it? When a man is in love
it is not an exaggeration to talk in that way, and Paul is in love with Jesus
Christ.
