7月19日 信徒的主
你们称呼我夫子，称呼我主，你们说的不错，我本来是。（约十三13）
我们的主从不坚持他的主权；他从不说——“你必须这样”。他给我们绝对的自由。我们可以吐唾沫在他面前，像世人一样；也可以把他置诸死地，像昔日的人一样；他不会发一言。可是当他的生命藉救恩创造在我里面后，他在我身上便有绝对的主权。这属道德上的管治——“你配得”。只是我里面那不配的，拒绝向那配的俯伏。当我碰见一个比我圣洁的人，不肯去尊敬他，也不肯顺服从他发出的命令，这正暴露了我的不配。神往往用一些比我们好的人——不是知识上比我们好，而是比我们圣洁的人——来管教我们，直至我们服在他的管治之下，直至我们整个的人生态度都顺服他。
若我们的主坚持要我们顺服，他就成了一个管工，不再有什么权威了。他从不坚持要我们顺服，可是我们若真看见他，就必立时顺服。他很自然地成为我们的主，从早到晚我们都活在对他的钦慕之中。对顺服的看法，可以显示我在恩典中有多少长进。“顺服”一词，指到必须从泥坑中救拔出来。只有地位平等才有顺服，这是父子的关系，而非主仆的关系。“我与父原为一”，“他虽然为儿子，还是因所受的苦难学了顺从”。身子的顺服是要做救赎者，他顺服是因为他是儿子，而不是为了成为儿子而顺服。
祈祷◆主啊，带领我更加靠近你，直至我在你的工作中，对你愈来愈有用。
July
19 The Submission of the Believer
“You
call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.” —John 13:13
Our Lord never insists on having authority over us.
He never says, “You will submit to me.” No, He leaves us perfectly free to
choose— so free, in fact, that we can spit in His face or we can put Him to
death, as others have done; and yet He will never say a word. But once His life
has been created in me through His redemption, I instantly recognize His right
to absolute authority over me. It is a complete and effective domination, in
which I acknowledge that “You are worthy, O Lord…” (Revelation 4:11). It is
simply the unworthiness within me that refuses to bow down or to submit to one
who is worthy. When I meet someone who is more holy than myself, and I don’t
recognize his worthiness, nor obey his instructions for me, it is a sign of my
own unworthiness being revealed. God teaches us by using these people who are a
little better than we are; not better intellectually, but more holy. And He
continues to do so until we willingly submit. Then the whole attitude of our
life is one of obedience to Him.
If our Lord insisted on our obedience, He would
simply become a taskmaster and cease to have any real authority. He never
insists on obedience, but when we truly see Him we will instantly obey Him.
Then He is easily Lord of our life, and we live in adoration of Him from
morning till night. The level of my growth in grace is revealed by the way I
look at obedience. We should have a much higher view of the word obedience,
rescuing it from the mire of the world. Obedience is only possible between
people who are equals in their relationship to each other; like the
relationship between father and son, not that between master and servant. Jesus
showed this relationship by saying, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30).
“though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered”
(Hebrews 5:8). The Son was obedient as our Redeemer, because He was the Son,
not in order to become God’s Son.
