The Strictest Discipline

If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell —Matthew 5:30

Jesus did not say that everyone must cut off his right hand, but that “if your right hand causes you to sin” in your walk with Him, then it is better to “cut it off.” There are many things that are perfectly legitimate, but if you are going to concentrate on God you cannot do them. Your right hand is one of the best things you have, but Jesus says that if it hinders you in following His precepts, then “cut it off.” The principle taught here is the strictest discipline or lesson that ever hit humankind.

When God changes you through regeneration, giving you new life through spiritual rebirth, your life initially has the characteristic of being maimed. There are a hundred and one things that you dare not do— things that would be sin for you, and would be recognized as sin by those who really know you. But the unspiritual people around you will say, “What’s so wrong with doing that? How absurd you are!” There has never yet been a saint who has not lived a maimed life initially. Yet it is better to enter into life maimed but lovely in God’s sight than to appear lovely to man’s eyes but lame to God’s. At first, Jesus Christ through His Spirit has to restrain you from doing a great many things that may be perfectly right for everyone else but not right for you. Yet, see that you don’t use your restrictions to criticize someone else.

The Christian life is a maimed life initially, but in Matthew 5:48 Jesus gave us the picture of a perfectly well-rounded life— “You shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

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操練的方向

若是右手叫你跌倒，就砍下來丟掉。寧可失去百體中的一體，不叫全身下入地獄。 （太五30）

耶穌並沒有叫人把手砍掉，他只是說：[若你右手阻礙你與我同行，就把它砍下來。 ]有許多事本來是完全合情合理的，但你若要專心跟​​從神，就不能去做了。右手是你最有用的東西，但耶穌說如果它阻礙你跟從他，就把它砍掉。這種鍛煉的方法，是人類空前最嚴厲的。

神藉著重生改變了一個人，那生命起初的特徵就是殘廢。你有許多事不敢做了，而那些事在你眼中，在認識你的世界眼中，是等於你的右手或眼睛那樣重要。不屬靈的人就會說：[這件事有何不妥？你真是太古怪了！ ]有史以來，從沒有一個聖徒開始的時候，不是從無手無足的殘缺中起步的。可是，寧可被神視為美好而帶著殘廢進入永生，勝過在人眼中看為美麗，在神卻視為殘廢。重生初期，有許多事情是耶穌藉著殘廢禁止你做的；雖然別人作這些事或許完全沒有問題，你卻不可作。但得小心；不可以用你所受的限制去批評別人。

生命的開始是殘廢的，但在第四十八節中，耶穌卻展開了一幅豐盛生命的圖畫－－[你們要完全，像你們的天父完全一樣。 ]

祈禱◆主啊！願你今天帶領我進入你更多恩慈和奇妙的作為中。願你那滿有恩典和能力的慈手，今天覆庇我。