0719 信徒的順服
你們稱呼我夫子，稱呼我主，你們說得不錯，我本來是。《約翰福音 13:13》
我們的主從不堅持對我們有權柄，祂從不說：「你要降服於我。」不，祂給我們完全的自由去選擇——事實上，如此的自由，以至於我們可以向祂臉吐口水，或像其他人所做的那樣置祂於死地；然而祂永遠不發一言。但一旦祂的生命透過祂的救贖被造在我裡面，我立刻就認識到祂對我有絕對權柄的權利；那是一種完全有效的統治，在其中我承認「我們的主，你是配得…」（啟示錄 4:11）。只是我內心裡的不配，拒絕向那位配的低頭或降服。當我遇見比我更聖潔的人，我卻不認得他的配得，也不順服他對我的指示/命令，這就是我自己的不配正在顯露的徵兆。神用這些比我們稍微好一點的人來教導我們；不是更高智力，而是更聖潔的人。祂會繼續這麼做，直到我們願意順服。然後我們整個人生的態度都是順服於祂。
如果我們的主堅持要我們順服，祂就只會成為一個【苛刻的】工頭，不再有任何真正的權柄。祂從不強求我們要順服，但當我們真正看見祂的時候，我們立刻就會順服祂，然後祂就很容易成為我們生命的主，我們從早到晚都活在對祂的敬拜愛慕中。我在恩典上成長的程度是通過我看待順服的方式來顯明。我們應該對「順服」這個詞有更高的觀點，把它從世界的泥沼中拯救出來。
順服只有在關係中彼此是平等的人之間才有可能，就像父子之間的關係，而不是主僕之間的關係。耶穌通過說「我與父原為一」（約翰福音 10:30）來展示了這種關係。 「…祂雖然為兒子，還是因所受的苦難學了順從。」（希伯來書5:8）。神子作為我們的救贖主是順服的，因為祂是兒子，而不是為了要成為神的兒子而順服。
來自章伯斯的智慧
基督教不是要對良心或堅信保持一致；基督教是要對耶穌基督真實忠誠。《聖經倫理學》
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