0719 信徒的顺服
你们称呼我夫子，称呼我主，你们说得不错，我本来是。《约翰福音 13:13》
我们的主从不坚持对我们有权柄，祂从不说：「你要降服于我。」不，祂给我们完全的自由去选择——事实上，如此的自由，以至于我们可以向祂脸吐口水，或像其他人所做的那样置祂于死地；然而祂永远不发一言。但一旦祂的生命透过祂的救赎被造在我里面，我立刻就认识到祂对我有绝对权柄的权利；那是一种完全有效的统治，在其中我承认「我们的主，你是配得…」（启示录 4:11）。只是我内心里的不配，拒绝向那位配的低头或降服。当我遇见比我更圣洁的人，我却不认得他的配得，也不顺服他对我的指示/命令，这就是我自己的不配正在显露的征兆。神用这些比我们稍微好一点的人来教导我们；不是更高智力，而是更圣洁的人。祂会继续这么做，直到我们愿意顺服。然后我们整个人生的态度都是顺服于祂。
如果我们的主坚持要我们顺服，祂就只会成为一个【苛刻的】工头，不再有任何真正的权柄。祂从不强求我们要顺服，但当我们真正看见祂的时候，我们立刻就会顺服祂，然后祂就很容易成为我们生命的主，我们从早到晚都活在对祂的敬拜爱慕中。我在恩典上成长的程度是通过我看待顺服的方式来显明。我们应该对「顺服」这个词有更高的观点，把它从世界的泥沼中拯救出来。
顺服只有在关系中彼此是平等的人之间才有可能，就像父子之间的关系，而不是主仆之间的关系。耶稣通过说「我与父原为一」（约翰福音 10:30）来展示了这种关系。 「…祂虽然为儿子，还是因所受的苦难学了顺从。」（希伯来书5:8）。神子作为我们的救赎主是顺服的，因为祂是儿子，而不是为了要成为神的儿子而顺服。
来自章伯斯的智慧
基督教不是要对良心或坚信保持一致；基督教是要对耶稣基督真实忠诚。《圣经伦理学》
0719 The Submission of the Believer
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. —John 13:13
Our Lord never insists on having authority over us. He never says, “You will submit to me.” No, He leaves us perfectly free to choose— so free, in fact, that we can spit in His face or we can put Him to death, as others have done; and yet He will never say a word. But once His life has been created in me through His redemption, I instantly recognize His right to absolute authority over me. It is a complete and effective domination, in which I acknowledge that “You are worthy, O Lord…” (Revelation 4:11). It is simply the unworthiness within me that refuses to bow down or to submit to one who is worthy. When I meet someone who is more holy than myself, and I don’t recognize his worthiness, nor obey his instructions for me, it is a sign of my own unworthiness being revealed. God teaches us by using these people who are a little better than we are; not better intellectually, but more holy. And He continues to do so until we willingly submit. Then the whole attitude of our life is one of obedience to Him.
If our Lord insisted on our obedience, He would simply become a taskmaster and cease to have any real authority. He never insists on obedience, but when we truly see Him we will instantly obey Him. Then He is easily Lord of our life, and we live in adoration of Him from morning till night. The level of my growth in grace is revealed by the way I look at obedience. We should have a much higher view of the word obedience, rescuing it from the mire of the world.
Obedience is only possible between people who are equals in their relationship to each other; like the relationship between father and son, not that between master and servant. Jesus showed this relationship by saying, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). “…though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The Son was obedient as our Redeemer, because He was the Son, not in order to become God’s Son.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Biblical Ethics, 111 L