0223 事奉的决心
人子来，不是要受人服事，乃是要服事人。《马太福音20:28》
耶稣也说：「我在你们中间，如同服事人的。」（路加福音 22:27）。保罗的服事理念与我们的主一样，「自己因耶稣作你们的仆人。」（哥林多后书 4:5）。我们不知何故就有这样的想法：蒙召进入事奉的人乃是蒙召与众不同、并高于他人。但根据耶稣基督的说法，蒙召是要成为他人的「脚垫」，蒙召成为他们的属灵领袖，但绝不是他们的上级。保罗说：「我知道怎么样处卑贱……」（腓立比书4:12）。保罗的服事理念是为他人倾倒生命直到最后一滴。无论他受到赞美还是责备，都无关紧要。只要还有一个人不认识耶稣，保罗就会觉得对那人有服事的债，直到他真正认识耶稣为止 。但保罗事奉背后的主要动机不是对别人的爱，而是对他的主的爱。如果我们的奉献为了人类的事业，我们很快就会被击败和心碎，因为我们经常会遭遇到其他人很大程度的忘恩负义。但如果我们受到对神的爱的激励，任何程度的忘恩负义也无法阻止我们彼此服事。
保罗对基督如何对待他的理解是他决心服事他人背后的秘密。「从前我是亵渎神的，逼迫人的，侮慢人的。」（提摩太前书 1:13）。换句话说，无论其他人如何恶待保罗，他们都无法像他曾经以恶意和仇恨对待耶稣基督那种程度对待他。一旦我们意识到耶稣已经服事了我们，甚至到了我们的卑微、自私和罪孽的深处，我们从别人那里遇到的任何事情都无法耗尽我们为祂的缘故服事别人的决心。
来自章伯斯的智慧箴言
神创造人类，让他成为地上、海里和空中生命之主，而他之所以不是，是因为他擅自掌握律法，成为自己的主，但却不是其他之主。 《痛苦的阴影》
0223 The Determination to Serve
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve… —Matthew 20:28
Jesus also said, “Yet I am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22:27). Paul’s idea of service was the same as our Lord’s— “…ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5). We somehow have the idea that a person called to the ministry is called to be different and above other people. But according to Jesus Christ, he is called to be a “doormat” for others— called to be their spiritual leader, but never their superior. Paul said, “I know how to be abased…” (Philippians 4:12). Paul’s idea of service was to pour his life out to the last drop for others. And whether he received praise or blame made no difference. As long as there was one human being who did not know Jesus, Paul felt a debt of service to that person until he did come to know Him. But the chief motivation behind Paul’s service was not love for others but love for his Lord. If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.
Paul’s understanding of how Christ had dealt with him is the secret behind his determination to serve others. “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man…” (1 Timothy 1:13). In other words, no matter how badly others may have treated Paul, they could never have treated him with the same degree of spite and hatred with which he had treated Jesus Christ. Once we realize that Jesus has served us even to the depths of our meagerness, our selfishness, and our sin, nothing we encounter from others will be able to exhaust our determination to serve others for His sake.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. –The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L