11月11日 神显明的爱
11月11日，周二
神显明的爱
神差遣祂的独生子到世上来，要使我们藉着祂而活；神的爱就在我们中间显明了。不是我们爱神，而是神爱我们，差遣祂的儿子为我们的罪作了赎罪祭，这就是爱了。（约翰壹书4:9-10）
使徒急切地提醒我们：神确实在显明祂的本性。祂是爱，但对我们而言，祂“显明”了这爱，使之明确无误、清晰可见，是对我们的怜悯。所以我们可以这样表述约翰的直接论证：“只要你真的明白这爱，只要你对它有一点认识，你的大部分问题与难处就会立刻消散。”因此约翰继续告诉我们更多关于神这伟大、奇妙、荣耀之爱的事。
毫无疑问，我们都必须承认，这一点同样真实地发生在我们身上。越是研读新约、越是在基督徒的生活中行走，我就越确信，我们最根本的困难和缺乏，就是没有真正看见神的爱。真正的问题不是我们缺少知识，而是我们以太过狭窄的视野来看待神的爱、看到的太少。因此，我们最大的目标与努力，就是要更认识神，好让我们更真实地爱祂。也正因为这样，约翰写信给当时的初代基督徒，就是要帮助他们在这一点上成长；因为约翰深信，只要他们真正爱神，就一定会彼此相爱。
这是整本圣经始终如一的原则：第二条诫命永远是建立在第一条诫命之上的。第一条诫命是“你要全心、全性、全意爱主你的神。…第二条也和它相似，就是要爱人如己。”（太22:37、39）。但你若不先爱神，你就不可能真正爱人。因此，一切必须从认识并扎根于神的爱开始。
默想主题：
真正的问题不是我们缺少知识，而是我们以太过狭窄的视野来看待神的爱，看到的太少。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：王下24章，来6章
个人灵修：珥3章，诗143篇
November 11, Tuesday
THE MANIFEST LOVE OF GOD
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 JOHN 4:9-10)
The apostle is anxious to remind us that God is actually manifesting that essential nature of His. He is love, but mercifully for us He has “manifested” that love, He has made it unmistakably plain and clear. So we can put John’s immediate argument like this: “If only you really understood this love, if only you knew something about it, then most of your problems and difficulties would immediately vanish.” So he proceeds to tell us something further about this great and wondrous and glorious love of God.
Surely we all must agree that this is something that is equally true of us. The more I study the New Testament and live the Christian life, the more convinced I am that our fundamental difficulty, our fundamental lack, is the lack of seeing the love of God. It is not so much our knowledge that is defective but our vision of the love of God. Thus our greatest object and endeavor should be to know Him better, and thus we will love Him more truly. Now John’s object is to help these first Christians to whom he writes in just this way, because he is quite sure that once they love God, they will love one another.
This is something we find running right through the Bible; the second commandment follows the first. The first commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. . . . And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:37, 39). But you will never do the second until you have done the first; so we must start with the love of God.
A Thought to Ponder: It is not so much our knowledge that is defective but our vision of the love of God.