0619 热爱献身的服事
你爱我吗？…牧养我的羊。《约翰福音21:16》
耶稣并没有说要使人们皈依你的思维方式，但祂说要照顾祂的羊，确保他们因认识祂而得到滋养。我们认为我们在基督徒工作中所做的就是事奉，然而耶稣基督称事奉是我们向祂的所是，而不是我们为祂所作的。门徒训练完全基于对耶稣基督的委身，而不是遵循特定的信念或教义。「人到我这里来，若不爱我胜过爱…，就不能作我的门徒。」（路加福音14:26）。在这节经文中，没有来自耶稣的争论和压力去跟随祂。实际上，祂只是在说：「如果你想作我的门徒，你就必须单单委身于我。」一个被神的灵触摸到的人会突然说：「现在我明白耶稣是谁了！」——这就是委身的根源。
今天，我们已经用教义的信仰取代了个人的信仰，这就是为什么这么多人致力于事业，而这么少人委身于耶稣基督。人们并不是真的想要委身于耶稣，而只献身于祂所创立的事。耶稣基督对当今受过教育者之心智，对那些只想要祂成为他们的朋友，对那些不愿以任何其他方式接受祂的人来说，是深深的冒犯。我们的主首要的顺服，是天父的旨意，而不是人的需要——救人是祂顺服天父的自然结果。如果我只致力于人类的事，我很快就会精疲力尽，落到我的爱会动摇和跌倒的地步。但如果我个人热爱耶稣基督，我就可以服事人，即使人们可能待我如「出气筒」。门徒生活的秘诀是对耶稣基督的忠诚，那种生命的特质看似微不足道和温顺的；然而，它就像一粒麦子「落在地里死了」——它会发芽并改变整个田园的景观（约翰福音12:24）。
来自章伯斯的智慧
新约根本不容许那些声称他是靠着恩典得救却未生出恩典的好果子的人。耶稣基督以祂的救赎可以使我们的实际生活与我们的宗教信仰相符合。《登山宝训研读》
0619 The Service of Passionate Devotion
…do you love Me?…Tend My sheep. —John 21:16
Jesus did not say to make converts to your way of thinking, but He said to look after His sheep, to see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Him. We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate…, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, “If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me.” A person touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says, “Now I see who Jesus is!”— that is the source of devotion.
Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a “doormat.” The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that “falls into the ground and dies”— it will spring up and change the entire landscape (John 12:24).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession. –Studies in the Sermon on the Mount