2月28日 現在你們信嗎?
因此我們信……耶穌說,現在你們信嗎?(約十六30-31)
“現在我們信。”耶穌說:“你們信嗎?時候將到……你們要分散……留下我獨自一人。”許多基督的工人留下主獨自一人,憑自己的責任感去作工,或憑自己的判斷覺得需要而做;這是因爲缺少復活主的生命,與神失去了親密的關係,只倚仗自己信仰上的知識(箴三5-6)。這個不涉及罪惡,也與刑罰無關;只是當發現這事成爲我們認識基督的障礙,帶來何等的困惑、愁苦、難處,就必然蒙羞抱愧,痛悔地回轉。
我們必須更深切地投靠主耶穌復活的生命,養成一種習慣,在一切事情上不斷尋求他的指引。可是我們往往會作出合常理的決定,然後才求神賜福。但他無法賜福,因爲這事不屬他國度的事,而且脫離現實。我們若憑責任感行事,就是堅立了一個標準與耶穌基督敵對。我們自視爲“超人”,說:“這件事我要這樣那樣做。”我們把責任感放在寶座上,代替了主復活的生命。神沒有叫我們行在良心或責任感的光中,乃是行在神的光中,正如神行在光中一樣。出于責任感的工作,可以言之成理,持之有故;但出于順服主的工作,沒有別的解釋——單單出于順服。正因如此,聖徒容易被人嘲諷和誤會!
祈禱◆噢,主啊,當我醒來,仍與你在一起。願你以大能的復活生命,激發我的血肉之軀;願你藉著不斷湧入的能力,在這一刻喚醒我。
February 28 Do Ye Now Believe?
“By this we believe . . . Jesus answered, Do ye now
believe?” John 16:30-31
Now we believe. Jesus says – Do you? The time is coming when you will
leave Me alone. Many a Christian worker has left Jesus Christ alone and gone
into work from a sense of duty, or from a sense of need arising out of his own
particular discernment. The reason for this is the absence of the resurrection
life of Jesus. The soul has got out of intimate contact with God by leaning to
its own religious understanding. There is no sin in it, and no punishment
attached to it; but when the soul realizes how he has hindered his
understanding of Jesus Christ, and produced for himself perplexities and
sorrows and difficulties, it is with shame and contrition he has to come back.
We need to rely on the resurrection life of Jesus much deeper down than
we do, to get into the habit of steadily referring everything back to Him;
instead of this we make our common-sense decisions and ask God to bless them.
He cannot, it is not in His domain, it is severed from reality. If we do a
thing from a sense of duty, we are putting up a standard in competition with
Jesus Christ. We become a “superior person,” and say – “Now in this matter I
must do this and that.” We have put our sense of duty on the throne instead of
the resurrection life of Jesus. We are not told to walk in the light of
conscience or of a sense of duty, but to walk in the light as God is in the
light. When we do anything from a sense of duty, we can back it up by argument;
when we do anything in obedience to the Lord, there is no argument possible;
that is why a saint can be easily ridiculed.