2016年1月18日
和好的職分
Minister of Reconciliation
读经: 哥林多後書5章16-21節
Reading: 2 Corinthians 5: 16-21
我們作仇敵的時候，且藉著上帝兒子的死得與上帝和好。-羅馬書5章10節
While we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.- Romans 5:10
全年读经: 創世記43-45章;馬太福音12章24-50節
Bible in a Year: Genesis 43–45; Matthew 12: 24-50
在1957年，馬丁路德·金恩博士在一次的主日證道中，反對人們以報復來對抗當時充滿種族歧視的社會。
面對著阿拉巴馬州浸信會的會眾，他問：「如何愛你的仇敵？你要從自己開始做起，當可以擊敗仇敵的機會臨到你時，你要制止自己以牙還牙。」
金恩博士引用主耶穌的話：「要愛你們的仇敵（有古卷加：要給咒詛你們的祝福；要好待那恨惡你們的），要為那逼迫你們（有古卷加：和誣衊你們）的禱告。這樣，你們才可以做你們天上的父的兒女。」（馬太福音5章44-45節，呂振中譯本）
每當想到傷害我們的人時，我們不要忘了，自己以前也曾是上帝的仇敵（羅馬書5章10節） 。但上帝「藉著基督使我們與祂和好，又將勸人與祂和好的職分賜給我們」 （哥林多後書5章18節） ，這正是保羅告訴我們的。現在我們有了這個神聖的責任，因為上帝已「將這和好的道理託付了我們」 （19節） ，我們便要將這信息帶給世人。
種族歧視和政治緊張屢見不鮮，教會的責任不是分門結黨。我們不應攻擊那些與我們不同、意見相左，甚至是蓄意挑釁的人。我們身負「和好的職分」，要效法基督無私僕人的心腸。
在主耶穌基督之中，不分南北西東；
整個廣大無邊世界，契合在主愛中。
仇恨讓恨人的與被恨的一同被摧毀。–金恩博士
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As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached on a Sunday morning in 1957, he fought the temptation to retaliate against a society steeped in racism.
"How do you go about loving your enemies?" he asked the Dexter Avenue Baptist congregation in Montgomery, Alabama. "Begin with yourself. . . . When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it."
Quoting from the words of Jesus, King said: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you . . . ; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:44-45 kjv).
As we consider those who harm us, we are wise to remember our former status as enemies of God (see Rom. 5:10). But "[God] reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation," wrote Paul (2 Cor. 5:18). Now we have a holy obligation. "He has committed to us the message of reconciliation" (v. 19). We are to take that message to the world.
Racial and political tensions are nothing new. But the business of the church is never to feed divisiveness. We should not attack those unlike us or those who hold different opinions or even those who seek our destruction. Ours is a "ministry of reconciliation" that imitates the selfless servant-heart of Jesus.
In Christ there is no east or west, in Him no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth. John Oxenham
Hate destroys the hater as well as the hated. Martin Luther King Jr.