2月24日 牺牲的快乐

我也甘心乐意为你们的灵魂费财费力。（林后十二15）

圣灵一旦将神的爱浇灌在我们心里，我们就立即与耶稣基督一样关怀别人。耶稣基督对任何一种人都有爱心。在事奉的工作上，我们不能以自己的嗜好为指导；这是我们与主的关系中最大的考验之一。牺牲的快乐，在于我为“朋友”舍命，这并不是随手丢出，而是经过深思熟虑后，为他和他对人的爱，甘愿把生命舍去。这也不是为了别的什么使命。保罗只为一个目的而把自己耗尽——为主得人。他时刻被主吸引，而不体贴自己。“向什么样的人，我就作什么样的人。无论如何，总要救些人。”

人若一心独自与主一起，只为建立个人圣洁生命，他对别人就丝毫无益了；他不过把自己安置在台阶上，与人群脱节。保罗成了一个祭牲，他所到之处，主耶稣都使用他，作成神的旨意。我们不少人只追求自己的目标，以致主无法随意使用我们。若我们真的委身于耶稣，就该没有自己的目标了。保罗说他晓得怎样作一块门前的地毯而心无恼怒，因为他的生命已全属于耶稣了。我们很容易转移目标，不归属基督，而专注于那些叫我们心灵得自由的事物。保罗的动机不是这样：“为我弟兄，我骨肉之亲，就是自己被诅咒，与基督分离，我也愿意。”——太狂放，太夸大了，是吗？人在爱情里这样说话，并不是夸大，乃是爱上了基督，如保罗一样。

祈祷◆噢，主啊，求你今天保守我们，让我们完全不需要想到自己，只是喜乐地与你一起。

February 24 The Delight Of Sacrifice

“I will very gladly spend and be spent for you;” 2 Corinthians 12:15

When the Spirit of God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, we begin deliberately to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ's interests in other people, and Jesus Christ is interested in every kind of man there is. We have no right in Christian work to be guided by our affinities; this is one of the biggest tests of our relationship to Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests in other people, not for a cause. Paul spent himself for one purpose only – that he might win men to Jesus Christ. Paul attracted to Jesus all the time, never to himself. “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

When a man says he must develop a holy life alone with God, he is of no more use to his fellow men: he puts himself on a pedestal, away from the common run of men. Paul became a sacramental personality; wherever he went, Jesus Christ helped Himself to his life. Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends of our own to serve. Paul said he knew how to be a “door-mat” without resenting it, because the mainspring of his life was devotion to Jesus. We are apt to be devoted, not to Jesus Christ, but to the things which emancipate us spiritually. That was not Paul's motive. “I could wish my self were accursed from Christ for my brethren” – wild, extravagant – is it? When a man is in love it is not an exaggeration to talk in that way, and Paul is in love with Jesus Christ.