4月24日 放縱的警告

然而不要因鬼服了你們就歡喜。（路十20）

作主工人的，世俗不會成為網羅，罪惡也不會成為陷阱，可是屬靈的放縱則會。這就是說，承受現今宗教潮流的模式，只專注於屬靈的成功。除了神的贊許，千萬不要追逐別的事物。要“出到營外就了他去，忍受他所受的淩辱。”耶穌吩咐門徒不要為事奉的成功而歡欣，但這卻偏偏是大多數人最慶倖的。我們的眼光是很商業化的——有多少人得救、成聖、於是就感謝神，因一切都辦妥了。神的恩已立好根基，我們乃是在這根基上作工；我們不是去拯救靈魂，乃是叫他們作門徒。救恩與成聖是神無限恩典的工作；身為他的門徒，我們的工作就是要使人作門徒，直至他們全然順服神。一個全然歸神的生命，比一百個僅僅被聖靈喚醒的人，更為神所珍貴。作為神的工人，我們必須在屬靈上繁殖同類的生命，這要成為我們作神工人的明證。

神既借著恩典把我們帶到更高的生活水平，我們就有責任使別人也達到這種水平。除非工人過的是與基督一樣藏在神裡面的生活，他勢必成為惹人討厭的獨裁者，而不是一個在主裡作門徒的人。我們不少人是獨裁者，喜歡支配人，操縱聚會，唯我獨尊。耶穌卻從來沒有這樣對我們。主每逢提到作門徒，他便一定加一個“若”字，他從來不用強制的命令說“你必須”。作門徒是有選擇的餘地的。

祈禱◆我在多方面需要你！我讚美你，因為你讓人尋見。主啊，讓我尋見你；但惟有當你親自來到，我才可以尋見你。

April 24 The Warning Against Wantoning

 “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you.” Luke 10:20

As Christian workers, worldliness is not our snare, sin is not our snare, but spiritual wantoning is, viz.: taking the pattern and print of the religious age we live in, making eyes at spiritual success. Never court anything other than the approval of God, go “without the camp, bearing His reproach.” Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have the commercial view – so many souls saved and sanctified, thank God, now it is all right. Our work begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation; we are not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace; our work as His disciples is to disciple lives until they are wholly yielded to God. One life wholly devoted to God is of more value to God than one hundred lives simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and that will be God’s witness to us as workers. God brings us to a standard of life by His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that standard in others.

Unless the worker lives a life hidden with Christ in God, he is apt to become an irritating dictator instead of an indwelling disciple. Many of us are dictators, we dictate to people and to meetings. Jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever Our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced it with an “IF,” never with an emphatic assertion – “You must.” Discipleship carries an option with it.