1THE IDEAL DISCIPLE

貢獻者:胖哥学打字 類別:英文 時間:2020-07-21 02:47:29 收藏數:9 評分:0
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It is more than a coincidence that whereas the last word of the Old Testament, which enshrines the
Old Covenant, is "curse," the first word of our Lord's first recorded sermon under the New Covenant
is "blessed." This latter word is the keynote of His kingdom.
The Old Covenant of law could pronounce only a curse on those who failed to fulfill its demands.
The New Covenant, which was sealed with Christ's blood, does not reduce the law's demands but
imparts the desire and the dynamic to fulfill them. The "thou shalt, thou shalt not" of
the Old is replaced by the "I will, I will" of the New.
In the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12), Jesus set forth the characteristics of the ideal subjects
of His kingdom- qualities that were present in perfection in the life and character of the One who
announced them. It is a fascinating exercise to match each of those virtues to the
life and ministry of the Lord.
In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus addressed His words primarily to His disciples but did so in the
hearing of the crowd (v. 1). "His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them."
So this is a message for disciples.
He directed their attention away from the idea of being satisfied with mere outward presentability
to an immeasurably higher and more demanding lifestyle. The standard He set is so high that no one
can live the life depicted in the Sermon who is not the one depicted in the Beatitudes. The whole
Sermon is revolutionary, but nowhere more so than in these verses. They cut right across the
popular idea of the definition of blessedness and happiness.
Many think that if they had abundant wealth, absence of sorrow and suffering, good health,
a good job,unrestricted gratification of appetites, and kind treatment from everyone, that
would be blessedness indeed. But Jesus completely reversed that concept and substituted many
of the very experiences we would like to sidestep- poverty, mourning, hunger, thirst,
renunciation, persecution. True blessedness is to be found along this path, He told them.
The word blessed can be rendered "O the bliss!" or "to be envied, to be congratulated,"
and it is applied to eight conditions of life that divide into two groups
Four Passive Personal Qualities
Christ begins by calling four passive personal qualities
blessed.
Spiritual Inadequacy. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (v. 3),
or "O the bliss of those who feel inadequate!"
On the surface those words have a hollow ring to those whose lives are plagued by that
debilitating condition. Of course it is to the poor in spirit that our Lord is referring here,
not to the poor in pocket. There is no virtue in poverty per se; it is certainly not
an automatic blessing
There are two words for "poor" in Greek. One means someone who has nothing superfluous;
the other, one who has nothing at all, is bankrupt, and has no resources. It is this second
meaning that Jesus referred to. The lesson is clear. The person who is to be envied is the one who,
in consciousness of his spiritual bankruptcy, is cast back on God and draws on His
limitless resources. As Luther said, "We are all beggars, living on the bounty of God."
But such poverty leads to spiritual affluence. "Theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Spiritual Contrition. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (v. 4), or
"O the bliss of the penitent!"
This is another paradox. It is as though one said, "How happy are the unhappy!"
This quality is the product of the poverty of spirit of the first beatitude. It is
not bereavement that is primarily in view, although that need not be excluded.
The word mourn conveys the idea of grief of the deepest kind. It is mourning over sin
and failure, over the slowness of our growth in likeness to Christ-mourning over
our spiritual bankruptcy.
There are two mistakes that the disciple may make. One is to believe that Christians must
never be happy and laughing; the other, that Christians must always be happy and laughing.
As a wise man said, "There is a time for everything . . . a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4).
No one attains full maturity without the experience of sorrow. There is room for the disciple
to mourn over the slowness of his growth and the paucity of his spiritual attainment altogether
apart from any actual sin in his life. Mourning and bliss are not incompatible, for Jesus said,
"Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh" (Luke 6:21). The blessedness is in the
comfort God gives, not in the mourning itself. "They will be comforted."
Spiritual Humility. "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (v. 5), or
"O the bliss of the humble!"
Humility is an exotic flower in our sooty and smoggy world. It is no native of earth and
is little esteemed by man in general.
The word meek is more than amicability or mere mildness of disposition. Its meaning has been
weakened by the line in the children's hymn "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild." He was meek but
was far from mild. The impression the hymn leaves is that Jesus was rather weak and ineffective.
In fact, He was the very reverse of weak
Was it mildness He displayed when, alone and with uplifted whip, He drove the materialistic
traffickers with their sheep and cattle out of the Temple? He was anything but servile and
spineless. When He asked the disciples who men said that He was, they replied, "Some say Elijah,
some John the Baptist"-two of the most rugged characters in the Bible! The word meek was used
of a horse that had been broken and domesticated, giving the idea of energy and power,
controlled and directed.
In heaven, the seven angels sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb (Revelation 15:3)-Moses,
the meekest man on earth, and Jesus who said, "I am meek and lowly in heart." But both could
blaze with sinless anger when the interests of God were at stake. Meekness is no spineless quality.
This virtue challenges the world's standards. "Stand up for your rights!" is the strident cry
of our day. "The world is yours if you can get it." Jesus said, on the contrary, that the world
is yours if you renounce it. The meek, not the aggressive, inherit the earth. The meek have an
inheritance. The worldly have no future. "They will inherit the earth."
Spiritual Aspiration. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
will be filled" (v. 6), or "O the bliss of the unsatisfied."
The blessing promised here is not for mere wistfulness or languid desire.
It is for those who have a passionate craving not after happiness alone but after righteousness
-a right relationship with God. The truly blessed person is the one who hungers and
thirsts after God Himself, not only the blessings He gives. David knew that aspiration
when he wrote, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul
pants for you, O God" (Psalm 42:1)
The discovery that happiness is a by-product of holiness has been a joyous revelation
to many. We should therefore "follow after holiness." God is eager to satisfy all the holy
aspirations of His children. "They will be filled."
Four Active Social Qualities The ideal disciple will have four active social characteristics.
Compassionate in Spirit. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy" (v. 7),
or "O the bliss of the merciful!" It is always to the undeserving that mercy is extended.
If it were deserved, it would no longer be mercy but mere justice. It is possible to have a
passion for righteousness and yet lack compassion and mercy for those who have failed to attain it.
Mercy is the ability to enter into another's situation and be sympathetic toward his plight
or problem. Like meekness, this is a distinctively Christian grace. We are naturally geared more
to criticism than to mercy. Pity can be sterile. To become mercy, it must graduate from mere emotion
to compassionate action. Although mercy does not condone sin, it endeavors to repair its ravages.
Mercy encourages the one who has fallen to begin again.
Our personal experience will be the rebound of our attitudes and reactions.
Just as in physics, where action and reaction are equal and opposite-those who are
merciful will be shown mercy, and if we are shown mercy, we will be merciful.
"They will be shown mercy."
Pure in Heart. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (v. 8), or
"O the bliss of the sincere!" Cleanness of heart brings clearness of vision. The emphasis here is
on inward purity and reality in contrast to external respectability. The revelation of God envisaged
here is not granted to the mighty intellect unless that is accompanied by purity of heart. It is
more than an intellectual concept that is in view; it is not a matter of optics but of moral and
spiritual affinity. Sin befogs the vision. The word pure here means "unadulterated,"free
from alloy, sincere and without hypocrisy. "They will see God."
Conciliatory in Spirit. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God”
(v. 9), or "O the bliss of those who create harmony!"It is not peace-lovers or peacekeepers
who qualify for this beatitude, but peacemakers. Nor is it those who maintain an existing peace,
but those who enter a situation where peace has been broken and restore it. The beatitude speaks
not of a pacifist but of a reconciler. Very often peace can be made only at a cost to
the peacemaker himself. It was so with our Lord. "He made peace by the blood of his cross."
He achieved it by allowing His own peace to be broken. The disciple is to follow in His train.
To be a lover of peace is good. To be a promoter of peace is better.
"They will be called sons of God."
Unswerving in Loyalty. "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and
falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is
your reward in heaven" (vv. 10-11), or "O the bliss of the sufferer for Christ.
" What was done to the Savior will be done to the disciple. But even insult, reviling, injury,
and persecution can work blessing-not in the persecution itself but in the divine compensations
it brings. The tense of the verb conveys the sense, "Blessed are those who have been persecuted.
The blessing is in the results that flow from it. Suffering is the authentic hallmark of
Christianity. "Even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed,"
said Peter (1 Peter 3:14). But not all persecution is blessed. Sometimes Christians bring it on
themselves through unwise and unchristian actions. For persecution to bring blessing, there are
three conditions: It must be for righteousness' sake, not as a (1) result of our angularity or
fanaticism or tactlessness. The evil-speaking must have no basis in fact; (2) it must not be
something that is the outcome of our sin or failure. (3) It must be for Christ's
sake-suffering that arises from our consistent loyalty to Him. "Great is your reward in heaven."
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