0424 對追求靈性成功的警告
不要因鬼服了你們就歡喜……《路加福音 10:20》
對我們基督工人來說，世俗並不是最危險的陷阱；罪也不是最危險的陷阱。我們落入的陷阱是過度渴望屬靈的成功；也就是，成功是由我們現在活的這個宗教時代所設定的形式來衡量和模仿的。永遠不要尋求除了神的認可之外任何事物，並且總是要願意「出到營外，就了祂去，忍受祂所受的凌辱。」（希伯來書13:13）。在路加福音 10: 20 中，耶穌告訴門徒不要因事奉成功而歡喜，然而這似乎是我們大多數人所真的引以為樂的事。我們有個商業化的觀點——我們計算有多少靈魂得救和成聖，我們感謝神，然後我們就認為一切都好。但是，我們的工作只有在神的恩典奠定了基礎的地方才開始的；我們的工作不是拯救靈魂，而是使他們作門徒。救恩和成聖是神至高無上恩典的工作，而我們作為祂的門徒，我們的工作就是使別人的生命成為門徒，直到他們完全降服於神。對神來說，一個完全獻身於神的生命，比一百個僅僅被祂的靈喚醒的生命更有價值。我們作為神的工人，就必須在屬靈上繁衍自己的同類，而那些人的生命就是神對我們作為祂的工人的見證。神通過祂的恩典使我們提升到生命的標準，我們是有責任在別人身上複製同樣的標準。
除非工人過着「與基督一同藏在神裡面」的生活（歌羅西書3:3），否則他很容易成為令人惱火的獨裁者，而不是一個積極、活潑的門徒。我們許多人都是獨裁者，將我們的慾望強加於個人和群體之上。但耶穌從未以那種方式迫使我們，每當我們的主談到作門徒時，他總是以「如果」作為開頭，從來不用強制或教條式的陳述——「你必須」；作門徒是帶有一個選擇性的。
來自章伯斯的智慧
我是越來越愛上作為聖潔的神？還是愛上一個和藹可親的存在者（存在者說：「哦，好吧，罪並不那麼重要」）的概念？《真的門徒》
0424 The Warning Against Desiring Spiritual Success
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you… —Luke 10:20
Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:13). In Luke 10:20, 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 a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and those lives will be God’s testimony to us as His workers. God brings us up to a standard of life through His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that same standard in others.
Unless the worker lives a life that “is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3), he is apt to become an irritating dictator to others, instead of an active, living disciple. Many of us are dictators, dictating our desires to individuals and to groups. But Jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced His words with an “if,” never with the forceful or dogmatic statement— “You must.” Discipleship carries with it an option.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, “Oh well, sin doesn’t matter much”? –Disciples Indeed, 389 L