12月3日 遵守神的诫命
12月3日，周三
遵守神的诫命
“我们遵守神的命令，就是爱祂了；而且祂的命令是不难遵守的。”（约翰壹书5:3）
在所有属灵的事上，最容易自我欺骗的，就是“我爱神”这句话。一个人也许对我说他爱神，也可能像诗人布朗宁那样自信地说：“神在天堂，一切都很好。”但只要有事情与他的心意冲突，他立刻就发现自己并不是真的爱神，他会马上发问：“神为什么要这样？”情绪是最容易欺骗我们的。那么我们怎样知道自己是真的爱神呢？答案就在下一句话里：“我们遵守神的命令。”
主耶稣在约翰福音14:21明明地说：“那领受我的命令，并且遵守的，就是爱我的。” 遵守命令和爱神，这两者绝不能分开。爱不是感觉，而是生命中最活跃、最真实的动力。 如果我爱神，我自然愿意讨祂喜悦——也就是遵行祂的诫命。 反之，如果我所谓的“我心里爱神”的感觉不能带来顺服，不能使我按祂的旨意生活，那这种“爱神”的感觉就不过是一种虚幻的自欺。
“可是，”有人会问，“你只是把问题挪走了——什么叫遵守祂的诫命呢？” 约翰似乎在下一节要进一步解释，因此在此先加上了一句“注脚”式的提醒：关键不只是行为本身，而是你对神诫命的态度。 当你面对神的诫命时，你心里是否抗拒？是否觉得神给你的是难以承担的重担？你是否抱怨、埋怨，说：“啊，神要求我做不可能做到的事，这太苛刻了！”
约翰的意思是：“如果这是你对神诫命的态度，那么你根本没有遵守祂的诫命；你也不是在爱神，你也没有爱弟兄——你仍然在生命之外。” 因为一个真正重生的基督徒——一个拥有新心、新灵的新造之人（结36:26-27）——不会觉得神的诫命与自己的性情相冲突。神的诫命反而成为他的喜悦（诗 40:8），因为圣灵已将神的律法写在他的心上（来 8:10）。
默想主题：
一个真正重生的基督徒，不会觉得神的诫命与自己的性情相冲突。（这不是说基督徒不会软弱，而是说他的心向着神的律法是“阿们”的；顺服是他重生后的“新性情”的自然方向。）
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：代下2章，约壹2章
个人灵修：鸿1章，路17章
December 3, Wednesday
KEEPING GOD’S COMMANDMENTS
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. (1 JOHN 5:3)
There is nothing about which we can so deceive ourselves as the fact that we love God. A man may come to me and say he loves God. He says with Browning, “God’s in His heaven, / All’s right with the world”; but when something goes against him, he finds he does not love God. He says, “Why does God . . . ?” Feelings are very deceptive. How do we know we love God? There is the next step— when “we keep his commandments.”
Our Lord emphasizes that in John 14:21: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” You cannot separate these things. Love is not a sentiment; it is the most active, vital thing in the world. If I love God, I want to please Him— I keep the commandments. And what I may regard as the love of God in my soul is a pure delusion unless it leads me to keep God’s commandments and to live life as He wants me to live it.
“Again,” says someone, “you have just shifted the problem. This keeping of the commandments—what is this?” “Well,” says John in essence in a kind of footnote on which he is going to elaborate in the next verse, “what matters in this whole question of keeping the commandments is my attitude toward them. When I face the commandments of God, do I resent them? Do I feel that God is imposing an impossible load upon me? Do I groan and grumble and say, ‘Oh, this hard taskmaster who asks of me the impossible’?”
“If that is your attitude toward the commandments of God,” says John in effect, “you are not keeping them, and neither are you loving God, and you are not loving your brethren—you are outside the life altogether.” For someone who is truly Christian does not find the commandments of God to go against the grain.
A Thought to Ponder: Someone who is truly Christian does not find the commandments of God to go against the grain.