0629 最嚴格的紀律訓練
若是右手叫你跌倒，就砍下來丟掉，寧可失去百體中的一體，不叫全身下入地獄。《馬太福音 5:30》
耶穌並沒有說每個人都必須砍掉自己的右手，而是說在你與祂同行路上，「如果你的右手叫你犯罪」，那麼最好「就砍下」。有很多事情是完全合法的，但如果你想專註於神，你就不能做這些事情。你的右手是你擁有的最好東西之一，但耶穌說，如果它妨礙你遵守祂的誡命，那麼，就「砍掉它」。這裡所教導的原則是人類有史以來最嚴格的紀律或教訓。
當神藉著重生改變你，藉著屬靈的重生賜你新的生命時，你的生命最初就有殘廢的特徵。有一百零一件事情是你不敢做的——這些事情對你來說是罪，並且那些真正了解你的人也會認為是罪。但你周圍不屬靈的人會說：「做那個有什麼錯？你是多麼荒謬啊！」從來沒有一個聖徒最初不曾經歷過殘廢的生活，然而，殘廢地進入生命，但在神眼中是可愛的，好過在人眼中看起來可愛，但在神眼中是跛腳的。首先，耶穌基督通過祂的靈必須禁止你做很多事，那些對其他人來說可能完全是正當的，但卻不適合你的事情。然而，請注意不要用你的限制去批評別人。
基督徒的生命最初是殘缺的生命，但在馬太福音 5: 48中，耶穌向我們描繪了一副完全而圓滿的生活圖景——「所以你們要完全，像你們的天父完全一樣。」
來自章伯斯的智慧
自然地說，沒有什麼比衰敗更能讓我們迅速喪失信心了——身體美麗的衰退、自然生命的衰退、友誼的衰退、關係的衰退，所有這些都使人心灰意冷；但保羅說，當我們信靠耶穌基督時，這些事情就不會令我們沮喪，光明會透過它們而來。《幫助之地》
0629 The Strictest Discipline
If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. —Matthew 5:30
Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off his right hand, but that “if your right hand causes you to sin” in your walk with Him, then it is better to “cut it off.” There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but Jesus says that if it hinders you in following His precepts, then “cut it off.” The principle taught here is the strictest discipline or lesson that ever hit humankind.
When God changes you through regeneration, giving you new life through spiritual rebirth, your life initially has the characteristic of being maimed. There are a hundred and one things that you dare not do— things that would be sin for you, and would be recognized as sin by those who really know you. But the unspiritual people around you will say, “What’s so wrong with doing that? How absurd you are!” There has never yet been a saint who has not lived a maimed life initially. Yet it is better to enter into life maimed but lovely in God’s sight than to appear lovely to man’s eyes but lame to God’s. At first, Jesus Christ through His Spirit has to restrain you from doing a great many things that may be perfectly right for everyone else but not right for you. Yet, see that you don’t use your restrictions to criticize someone else.
The Christian life is a maimed life initially, but in Matthew 5:48 Jesus gave us the picture of a perfectly well-rounded life— “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. –The Place of Help