11月2日 权柄与自主

你们若爱我，就必遵守我的命令。（约十四15）

我们的主从不坚持要人顺服他；他虽然强调什么是当行的，却从不运用手段强逼我们去行。我们顺服他必须出于灵里的合一。因此，主谈到作门徒时，总加上“若”字 – 你要是不想，可以不做。“若有人要跟从我，就当舍己。”你要放弃自己的主权，把它交给主。主并不是论及永世的地位，他乃是说在现今的景况中，怎样才可以成为他合用的器皿。正因如此，主的话听来是这样严厉（比较路十四26）。千万不要撇下说这话的那一位主，去解释经文。

主并没有给我什么规条，他把标准说得很清楚；我若是爱他，会毫不犹豫去遵行他的话。若我犹豫不行，就表明我另有所爱，而这一位与他争竞的，就是我自己。主耶稣不会推我顺服他，我必须自己顺服。一顺服，我就成就了在属灵领域中神所命定的。个人生命中也许充塞了无数琐事，根本无人留意的；可是若在这等无常的际遇中顺服主，这些事就成为我见神面的洞口。

当我与神面对面，会发现千万人因我的顺服而蒙福。人的心一旦顺服，神的救赎就必然产生创造力。我若顺服基督，神的救赎就会透过我涌流到别的生命上，因为在顺服的行动背后，是全能神的实体。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，愿你探测我灵里最深藏的动机 – 圣灵就在此处为我们代求，并且看出我们未能表达的祷文。

November 2 Authority And Independence

“If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments.” John 14:15 (R.V.)

Our Lord never insists upon obedience; He tells us very emphatically what we ought to do, but He never takes means to make us do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit. That is why whenever Our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an IF – you do not need to unless you like. “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself,” let him give up his right to himself to Me. Our Lord is not talking of eternal positions, but of being of value to Himself in this order of things, that is why He sounds so stern (cf. Luke 14:26). Never interpret these words apart from the One Who uttered them.

The Lord does not give me rules, He makes His standard very clear, and if my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without any hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love some one else in competition with Him, viz., myself. Jesus Christ will not help me to obey Him, I must obey Him; and when I do obey Him, I fulfil my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small petty incidents, altogether unnoticeable and mean; but if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God, and when I stand face to face with God I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When once God's Redemption comes to the point of obedience in a human soul, it always creates. If I obey Jesus Christ, the Redemption of God will rush through me to other lives, because behind the deed of obedience is the Reality of Almighty God.