經文: 「我心裡柔和謙卑，你們當負我的軛，學我的樣式；這樣，你們心裡就必得享安息。」— (聖經·馬太福音 11章29節)
許多在教會的基督徒，自詡上帝所賜的智慧與學習能力，卻忘記仰賴耶穌和聖靈的大能。因著學習的成就，人就高抬自己、內心驕傲，完全失去倚賴聖靈教導的謙卑。
人類智力潛能因著墮落之故已退化很多，遠不如自然生理本能的正常健康，需要更多的節制自我、否定自我才行。為做到這地步，我們需要做到兩點，第一，我們的得救是包括從老我脫離出來。第二，萬事萬物當中，再沒有比在我們裡面彰顯耶穌的謙卑更重要的事；所以，對我們罪人而言，耶穌曾說：「這樣，你們無論什麼人，若不撇下一切所有的，就不能作我的門徒。」(路加福音 十四33)
而這只是救恩基礎的開端，耶穌又繼續說道：「我心裡柔和謙卑，你們當負我的軛，學我的樣式；這樣，你們心裡就必得享安息。」(馬太福音 十一29) 那些肯背負十架者，這金句猶如一道真光，因為「老我」是墮落天性的元兇，老我捨棄是得救後應走的道路，耶穌就是「至極謙卑」的榜樣。
墮落的天使或人類，都有自我膨脹的劣根性，換句話說，他們是無神論者，或是偶像崇拜者，前者他們拒絕承認上帝，後者他們自認自己就是上帝。從另一方面說，所有屬靈的美德都源自於謙卑，無論是音樂、榮耀、讚美都是藉著謙卑俯伏在上帝面前才達到。因著謙卑我們才能越過天堂與地獄的鴻溝，這是福音最淺顯也是最主要的真理，而耶穌本身就是空前絕後，謙卑表達最淋漓盡致的活生生模範。
信仰之路，謙卑的真意與內涵，比我們想像的要深奧得多，那不是一種美德而已，而是我們靈魂最根本迫切的需要。其讓我們了解自己的貧乏，一無所有、一無所能，裡面毫無良善可言。而使我們轉眼定睛於耶穌，思想耶穌的謙虛降卑，以致上帝豐富的恩典能力，豐豐滿滿的洋溢在耶穌裡面，只要我們憑藉信心求告，就可支取耶穌為我們所預備的恩典，那是祂預定好要給我們的各樣福份。
—《 神 的 心 意 》
(每日靈修 8月12日)
作者：慕安德烈
編輯：榮華興
『 Humility 』
Scripture: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” — (Matthew 11:29)
After writing what we have given extracts from, Law goes on to prove how m the Church of Christ the gifts of human learning and wisdom speedily asserted themselves, instead of that entire dependence upon the Holy Spirit, of which Christ had spoken. And with that learning came, as a natural consequence, the exaltation of self, and the whole difference became the question between Pride, in the power of human learning and wisdom, and Humility, in the absolute dependence on the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
“Man’s intellectual faculties are, by the Fall, in a much worse state than his natural animal appetites, and want a much greater self-denial. To realize this we only need to know two things: 1. That our salvation consists wholly in being saved from ourselves, or that which we are by nature; 2. That in the whole nature of things nothing could be this salvation or Saviour to us, but such a humility of God manifested in human nature as is beyound all expression. Hence, the first unalterable Term of this Saviour to fallen man is this, ‘Except a man deny himself, forsakes all that he has, yea, and his own life, he cannot be My disciple.’ And to show that this is but the beginning or ground of man’s salvation the Saviour adds: ‘Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart.’ What a light is here for those who can bear or love the light: Self is the whole evil of fallen nature; self-denial is our capacity of being saved, humility is our Saviour.”
“All the vices of fallen angels and men have their birth and power in the Pride of self, or I may better say, in the atheism and idolatry of self, for Self is both Atheist and Idolater. It is Atheist because it has rejected God, it is an Idolater because it is its own idol. On the other hand, all the virtues of the heavenly life are the virtues of humility. Not a joy, or glory, or praise, in heaven, but is what it is through humility. It is humility alone that makes the unpassable gulf between heaven and hell. This is the most plain and capital truth of the Gospel, namely, that there never was, nor never will be, but one humility in the whole world, and that is, the one humility of Christ.”
In the life of faith, humility has a far deeper place than w& think. It is not only one among other virtues, but is the first and chief need of the soul. It leads us to know our absolute and entire impotence as unable of ourselves to do any good. It leads us to look to the humility of our Lord Jesus, as being what He has prepared in His life for us, and will most surely work in us in response to our faith.
— God’s Best Secrets by Andrew Murray
「 12 August 」
