6月17日 不挑剔的品性

你们不要论断人,免得你们被论断。(太七1)

耶稣对论断的看法是:“不要”。一般信徒是最擅于挑剔的。批评是人的本性,但在属灵领域里,批评绝不能成事。批评就是将被批评者的力量削弱。其实只有圣灵才真有批评的身分,指出错处而不至招来伤害。你若带着挑剔的脾气,是无法与神交通契合的。你会变得刚硬、敌视、残忍,或沾沾自喜,以为高人一等。耶稣说,作为一个门徒,应当培养口不言人过的品质。这不是一劳永逸的,要随时当心,不让任何事使你自高、睥睨一切。

耶稣洞悉一切,谁也无可遁形。我若见你眼中有刺,那我眼中必然有梁木。我见到你的任何错失,神都在我身上找到了。我什么时候论断人,就什么时候定自己的罪(罗二17-20)。不要在他人身上滥施尺度,每个人总有些隐情,是我们无法了解的。神首先要来一次属灵大扫除,使我们不再骄傲自满。每想到若非神的恩典,我里面根本一无所有,那就不会对任何人感到绝望了。

祈祷◆主啊,我仰望你,求你帮助我正确地敬拜你。为着我与生俱来可敬拜你,我赞美你,可是,我的生活却没有速速按照着它当行的去回应你和你的美善。主啊,帮助我。

June 17 The Uncritical Temper

“Judge not, that ye be not judged.” Matthew 7:1

Jesus says regarding judging – Don't. The average Christian is the most penetratingly critical individual. Criticism is a part of the ordinary faculty of man; but in the spiritual domain nothing is accomplished by criticism. The effect of criticism is a dividing up of the powers of the one criticized; the Holy Ghost is the only One in the true position to criticize, He alone is able to show what is wrong without hurting and wounding. It is impossible to enter into communion with God when you are in a critical temper; it makes you hard and vindictive and cruel, and leaves you with the flattering unction that you are a superior person. Jesus says, as a disciple cultivate the uncritical temper. It is not done once and for all. Beware of anything that puts you in the superior person's place.

There is no getting away from the penetration of Jesus. If I see the mote in your eye, it means I have a beam in my own. Every wrong thing that I see in you, God locates in me. Every time I judge, I condemn myself (see Romans 2:17-20). Stop having a measuring rod for other people. There is always one fact more in every man's case about which we know nothing. The first thing God does is to give us a spiritual spring-cleaning; there is no possibility of pride left in a man after that. I have never met the man I could despair of after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.