6月16日 你怎样对这事？

人为朋友舍命，人的爱心没有比这个大的。……我乃称你们为朋友。（约十五13、15）

耶稣虽然没有叫我为他死，却要我为他把生命放下。彼得说：“我愿意为你舍命。”他说的是真心话，他的英雄意识是伟大的。若不能像彼得那样宣告，实在太差劲了。我们的责任感只有藉着英雄意识，发挥出来。主曾否问你说：“你不愿意为我舍命吗？”在平凡的生活中，因不忘从上而来的呼召而放下生命，比一死了之困难得多。人生不是为壮烈的一刻而活，乃是在平凡的路上，行在启示的光中。耶稣一生中，也只有一个壮烈的时刻，就是在登山变像的时候；后来他再度从荣耀中倒空自己，下到鬼附的山谷里。三十年之久，耶稣摆上自己的生命来遵行父神的旨意。

约翰说：“我们也当为弟兄舍命。”这样行是违反人性的。我若是耶稣的朋友，就要定意为他放下自己的生命。难是难的，感谢神，难并不要紧！救恩是易得的，因为神付出了重大的代价，但要在我生命中彰显出来，却是困难重重。神救了一个人，把圣灵赐给他，然后认真的对他说：“好了，要忠于我，即使周遭的事物会令你不忠。”“我乃称你们为朋友。”要忠于你的朋友，要紧记你肉身的生命，是神尊荣得失之所系。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，为着你所赐的救恩，为着圣徒的祷告所带来的好处和祝福，我赞美你。可是，我是那样悄悄地领受了你的恩惠，很久才开始思想自己是否配得领受，或是表现得好像自己配得领受一样。主啊，赦免我。

June 16 What Do You Make Of This?

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.” . . . “I have called you friends.” John 15:13, 15

Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him. Peter said – “I will lay down my life for Thy sake” and he meant it; his sense of the heroic was magnificent. It would be a bad thing to be incapable of making such a declaration as Peter made; the sense of our duty is only realized by our sense of the heroic. Has the Lord ever asked you – “Wilt thou lay down thy life for My sake?” It is far easier to die than to lay down the life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling. We are not made for brilliant moments, but we have to walk in the light of them in ordinary ways. There was only one brilliant moment in the life of Jesus, and that was on the Mount of Transfiguration; then He emptied Himself the second time of His glory, and came down into the demon-possessed valley. For thirty-three years Jesus laid out His life to do the will of His Father, and, John says, “we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” It is contrary to human nature to do it.

If I am a friend of Jesus, I have deliberately and carefully to lay down my life for Him. It is difficult, and thank God it is difficult. Salvation is easy because it cost God so much, but the manifestation of it in my life is difficult. God saves a man and endues him with the Holy Spirit, and then says in effect – “Now work it out, be loyal to Me, whilst the nature of things round about you would make you disloyal.” “I have called you friends.” Stand loyal to your Friend, and remember that His honour is at stake in your bodily life.