11月12日 我们也应当……
11月12日，周三
我们也应当……
亲爱的，神既然这样爱我们，我们也应当彼此相爱。（约翰壹书4:11）
问题是：当有些人惹你心烦、让你觉得麻烦、甚至让事情变得非常难办时，你该怎么回应呢？约翰给出的答案是：“神既然这样爱我们，我们也应当彼此相爱。”意思就是说：我不要任凭自己本能的情绪去反应；我不马上说话、也不马上就做出行动、也不立即反击，而是先停下来，对我自己说话。我提醒自己所相信的基督徒的真理，并把这些真理，应用在眼前的处境里。这是你我都必须学习去做的。
新约所说的生命，是包含着思想、反省和判断的；它不是只靠感觉行事。你并不是等到有“感觉”了再去爱人——而是可以操练自己，主动去爱（“我们也应当”）。按照新约的标准，基督徒有能力迫使自己去爱另一个基督徒；若做不到，那就是极大的失败。
他们是怎么做到的呢？他们提醒自己“神既然这样爱我们。”这个真理。换句话说，步骤是这样的：当我的内在被激怒、困扰、迷惘，甚至开始产生敌意的时候，我做的第一件事不是去指责对方，而是先回头看自己。光是这样，我们就已经赢了一半。我们的经验都很清楚地说明，在这种情况下，我们的真正难处是——我们总是在看别人，却从不回头看自己。但若我从自身开始思考的话：如果神竟然这样爱“我”这样的一个人——那我还能说什么呢？我又会看见什么呢？
但通常，我的第一反应就是觉得自己受了委屈，没有被公平对待。我直觉地认定问题都在对方，是对方太难缠。福音却对我说：“等一下！先停一停，看一看你自己，提醒自己你究竟是谁。”这样，福音立刻就把我们带到我们里面的这个“自我”的面前——而这个“自我”，正是所有这些问题与冲突的真正根源。
默想主题：
基督徒可以操练自己，主动去爱其他基督徒。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：王下25章，来7章
个人灵修：摩1章，诗144篇
November 12, Wednesday
“WE OUGHT ALSO ...”
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. (1 JOHN 4:11)
The question is, what do you do about those people who seem to irritate you and are a problem to you and who really make things rather difficult? Here is John’s answer: “If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” This means something like this: Instead of giving way to that instinctive feeling that I have, instead of speaking or acting or reacting at once, I stop and I talk to myself. I remind myself of the Christian truth that I believe, and I apply it to the whole situation. Now that is something that you and I have to do. This life of which the New Testament speaks is full of the intellectual aspect. It is not a feeling. You do not wait until you feel like loving other people—you make yourself love other people (“we ought”). According to the New Testament, Christians can make themselves love other Christians, and they are failing sadly if they do not do so.
How do they do it? They remind themselves of this truth: “If God so loved us.” In other words, this is the procedure. The first thing I do when I feel irritated and disturbed and bewildered and perhaps antagonistic is to look at myself. Now that is half the battle. We all know perfectly well from experience that in this kind of problem the whole difficulty is that we are always looking at the other person and never at ourselves. But if I start with myself—if God so loved me—what do I find?
But usually I instinctively feel that I am being wronged, that I am not being dealt with fairly. I feel it is the other person who is difficult. “One minute!” says the Gospel; “stop for a moment and look at yourself and remind yourself of exactly what you are.” The Gospel brings us immediately face to face with this self that is in us that is the cause of all these troubles.
A Thought to Ponder: Christians can make themselves love other Christians.