. . . do you love Me? . . . Tend My sheep —John 21:16
Jesus did not say to make converts to your way of thinking, but He said to look after His sheep, to see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Him. We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate . . . , he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, “If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me.” A person touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says, “Now I see who Jesus is!”— that is the source of devotion.
Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people— the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a “doormat.” The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that “falls into the ground and dies”— it will spring up and change the entire landscape (John 12:24).
熱誠的事奉
你愛我麼？ ……你牧羊我的羊。 （約二十一16）
耶穌並沒有叫人追隨祂的思想，而是要你看顧祂的羊，使他們因認識祂而得著滋養。我們把事奉的工作，視作事奉主；但耶穌基督卻視我們與祂的關係為事奉，而不是我們為祂所做的工作。做門徒，是基於對耶穌基督的忠誠，而不是由於服贗一套信徒規條。 [人到我這裡來，若不愛我勝過……，就不能作我的門徒。 ]沒有爭議，也沒有強逼，只直截了當地－－[你若做我的門徒，必須專心歸我]。一個人被聖靈摸著了，就說：[我如今認識了耶穌是誰。 ]這就是專心歸依的根源。
時至今日，我們已把信條代替了個人的信仰，所以致力於事工的人多，而一心歸服耶穌基督的人卻少。人不要歸服耶穌，只想致力於他所創立的事工。他們只認耶穌為同志。主首先順服的，是祂父的旨意，而不是人群的需要。他之所以救人，是順服父神的必然結果。我若只致力於人群的事工，不久就會精疲力竭，落到愛心冷淡的地步；但若我愛耶穌基督，就是認把我當作地席，我仍要服侍他們。門徒生活的秘訣就是全心歸依基督。那生命的特徵是隱藏不露，就如一粒麥子落在地裡死了，不久就萌芽生長，改變整個田園的景象（約十二24）。
祈禱◆願祢感動我的靈，使他被祢所充滿，直至湧溢。願祢透過我的意念思想，直至我形成[在基督耶穌裡的心懷意念]。
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