五月廿九日
你……恨惡罪惡…(詩45:7)
“生氣卻不要犯罪。”若是一個人不疾惡,見了罪而不生氣的話,他就不是一個善良人;凡愛真理的人必定恨惡一切虛假和偽善的事。你看我們的主耶穌是多麼地痛恨試探呢!魔鬼三次用不同的方式來陷害他,但他每一次都嚴厲地拒絕了:“撒但,退我後邊去吧!“他也極其根惡別人的罪,他因恨罪常流出憐憫的眼淚而少用責備的話語。他曾說:“你們這假冒為善的文士和法利賽人有禍了!因為你們侵吞寡婦的家產,假意作很長的禱告,所以要受更重的刑罰。”有什麼話能比這責備更曆害、更像以利亞的話呢?他因恨惡罪惡甚至他的心因之受傷流血,他死為的是使罪死,他埋葬為的是使罪和他一同埋葬在墳墓裡,他復活為的是要把罪踏在他的腳下。基督在福音之中,因此福音與任何形式的罪惡是對立的。罪惡常以華麗的服裝為掩護,並且募仿聖潔的話語,但耶穌的話必像鞭子把罪惡趕出聖殿一樣,也必不容許它在教會中立足。因此,耶穌所治理的心中,基督和巴力常常爭戰!當救贖主來審判我們的時候,他的話必像雷霆一樣:“你們這被咒詛的人離開我!”這不過是他一向對罪的態度和教訓罷了!這時卻顯出他對罪的憎惡。他對罪人的愛心多麼火熱,對罪的恨惡也同一樣的火熱;他的義有多麼完全徹底,滅絕各樣的罪惡也必完全徹底。你這榮耀的正義的鬥士,除惡德豪俠呀!為此神“就是你的神,用喜樂油膏你,勝過膏你的同伴”。
May 29
“Thou hatest wickedness.” — Psalm 45:7
“Be ye angry, and sin not.” There can hardly be goodness in a man if he be not angry at sin; he who loves truth must hate every false way. How our Lord Jesus hated it when the temptation came! Thrice it assailed Him in different forms, but ever He met it with, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” He hated it in others; none the less fervently because He showed His hate oftener in tears of pity than in words of rebuke; yet what language could be more stern, more Elijah-like, than the words, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer.” He hated wickedness, so much that He bled to wound it to the heart; He died that it might die; He was buried that He might bury it in His tomb; and He rose that He might for ever trample it beneath His feet. Christ is in the Gospel, and that Gospel is opposed to wickedness in every shape. Wickedness arrays itself in fair garments, and imitates the language of holiness; but the precepts of Jesus, like His famous scourge of small cords, chase it out of the temple, and will not tolerate it in the Church. So, too, in the heart where Jesus reigns, what war there is between Christ and Belial! And when our Redeemer shall come to be our Judge, those thundering words, “Depart, ye cursed” which are, indeed, but a prolongation of His life-teaching concerning sin, shall manifest His abhorrence of iniquity. As warm as is His love to sinners, so hot is His hatred of sin; as perfect as is His righteousness, so complete shall be the destruction of every form of wickedness. O thou glorious champion of right, and destroyer of wrong, for this cause hath God, even Thy God, anointed thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.