假装在悔改The Unrepenting Repenter

作者: Jim Elliff  译者: Duncan Liang

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AQFVG7fZoD_D5WqdMIkyfg

http://www.ccwtoday.org/article/the-unrepenting-repenter/

相信基督的人是终身悔改的人，他始于悔改，持续悔改（罗8:12-13）。大卫犯了大罪，但先知无需拾起一块石头，只是动动手指头，就把他击倒，皆因他是一个从内心悔改的人（撒下12:7-13）。彼得三次不认基督，但受三倍懊悔煎熬，直到痛哭流泪悔改为止（太26:75）。每一位基督徒都被称为是悔改的人，但他必须是一个在悔改的悔改之人。圣经教导教会纪律惩治时，认定所有真信徒的本质是悔改。受到教会爱心责备却不愿悔改的人，只能被看作是和“外邦人和税吏”并无两样（太18:15-17）。

The believer in Christ is a lifelong repenter.  He begins with repentance and continues in repentance. (Rom. 8:12-13) David sinned giant sins but fell without a stone at the mere finger of the prophet because he was a repenter at heart (2 Sam. 12:7-13). Peter denied Christ three times but suffered three times the remorse until he repented with bitter tears (Mt. 26:75). Every Christian is called a repenter, but he must be a repenting repenter. The Bible assumes the repentant nature of all true believers in its instruction on church discipline. A man unwilling to repent at the loving rebuke of the church can be considered nothing more than “a heathen and a tax collector.” (Mt. 18:15-17)

什么是悔改？

What is repentance?

悔改是改变对罪和神的看法，从里离开罪归向神，由它的果子，就是顺服显明出来（太3:8；徒26:20；路13:5-9）。悔改是恨你从前所爱，爱你从前所恨，用一位不可抗拒的基督取代不可抗拒的罪。真悔改的人完全投靠神，信是他唯一的选择。当他完全知道罪彻底辜负了他，神就把他扶起（太9:13）。他不是有了信心，就是彻底绝望；知罪不是挽救他，就是把他吞噬。

Repentance is a change of mind regarding sin and God, an inward turning from sin to God, which is known by its fruit—obedience. (Mt. 3:8; Acts 26:20; Lk. 13:5-9) It is hating what you once loved and loving what you once hated, exchanging irresistible sin for an irresistible Christ. The true repenter is cast on God. Faith is his only option. When he fully knows that sin utterly fails him, God takes him up. (Mt. 9:13b) He will have faith or he will have despair; conviction will either deliver him or devour him.

只讲宗教的人常常在他的悔改方面自欺。信徒可能会犯最恶劣的罪，情况确实如此；但留在对罪的爱慕当中，在罪的氛围中悠然自得，这就是一种致命的标志，因为唯有悔改的人才会住进天堂。自欺以为悔改的人，若是能够就会成为更恶劣的罪人，但社会把他拉扯回来。他能相当忍受、甚至享受其他属世口头认信的基督徒和牧师，但却不渴慕圣洁的团契，火热神圣的敬拜。如果他不能忍受十五分钟的敬拜，认为这“太长”，经过一千五百万年天上永远的敬拜，他会有何感受？他盼望上一个轻松愉快安逸和娱乐的天堂，一段悠长的假期；但对这样的人而言，一个圣洁的天堂就如地狱一般。但神是圣洁的，神在天堂。不圣洁的人虽然有最流利的认信，神把他送下地狱，这却怪不了神（来12:14）。

The religious man often deceives himself in his repentance. The believer may sin the worst of sins, it is true; but to remain in the love of sin, or to be comfortable in the atmosphere of sin, is a deadly sign, for only repenters inhabit heaven. The deceived repenter would be a worse sinner if he could, but society holds him back. He can tolerate and even enjoy other worldly professing Christians and pastors well enough, but does not desire holy fellowship or the fervent warmth of holy worship. If he is intolerant of a worship service fifteen minutes “too long,” how will he feel after fifteen million years into the eternal worship service of heaven? He aspires to a heaven of lighthearted ease and recreation—an extended vacation; but a heaven of holiness would be hell to such a man. Yet God is holy, and God is in heaven. He cannot be blamed for sending the unholy man to hell despite his most articulate profession (Heb. 12:14).

真悔改的仿冒品

What are the Substitutes for true Repentance?

1.你可能在行为方面改邪归正，内心却没有悔改（诗51:16-17；珥2:13）。这是极大的欺骗，因对罪的爱仍在（约壹2:15-17；徒8:9-24）。在这方面法利赛人是专家（可7:1-23）。人心是人的问题。一个人可能在行为方面表现完美，却因他的心而被定罪。他的行为充其量是为自我服务，假冒为善。从坏心发出的，绝不可能是良善。“泉源从一个眼里能发出甜苦两样的水吗？我的弟兄们，无花果树能生橄榄吗？葡萄树能结无花果吗？咸水里也不能发出甜水来。”（雅3:11-12）

1. You may reform in the actions without repenting in the heart. (Ps. 5 1: 16-17; Joel 2:13) This is a great deception, for the love of sin remains. (I Jn. 2:15-17; Acts 8:9-24) At this the Pharisees were experts. (Mk. 7:1-23) The heart of a man is his problem. A man may appear perfect in his actions but be damned for his heart. His actions are at best self-serving and hypocritical. What comes from a bad heart is never good. “Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.” (Jas. 3:11-12)

2. 你可能经历悔改的情感，却无悔改的果效。这可算是一种失忆。你在镜中看到罪可怕的幽灵，出于恐惧躲闪到一旁，却马上就忘记了你在镜中看到的是哪一种人（雅1:23-24）。没错，悔改包括了真挚的情感，对神的爱，对罪的厌恶。忧伤的洪流可能淹没了悔改之人的内心，而这是应当的（雅4:8-10）。但存在着暂时的情感这样的事，它仅仅与悔改相似；这种情感腿脚非常无力，不能推动行为走在顺服的长路上。你的忧愁甚至可能持续很长一段时间，却没有达致悔改，是属世的忧愁，活着已经死了——可能更严重（林后7: 10）。这是一种老到的欺骗。犹大经历这样的忧愁，却“出去吊死了”（太27:3-5）。

2. You may experience the emotion of repentance without the effect of it. Here is a kind of amnesia. You see the awful specter of sin in the mirror and flinch out of horror yet immediately forget what kind of person you saw (Jas. 1:23-24). It is true, repentance includes sincere emotion, an affection for God and a disaffection for sin. Torrents of sorrow may flood the repenter’s heart, and properly so (Jas. 4:8-10). But there is such a thing as a temporary emotion in the mere semblance of repentance; this emotion has very weak legs and cannot carry the behavior in the long walk of obedience. Your sorrow may even be prolonged. Yet if it does not arrive at repentance, it is of the world and is a living death—and maybe more (2 Cor. 7: 10). It is an old deceiver. Judas had such remorse but “went and hanged himself.” (Mt. 27:3-5)

3. 你可能口里说出真悔改之人的话，却从来没有悔改（太21:28-32；约壹2:4，4:20）。认罪本身不等于悔改。认罪动的是嘴唇，悔改感动内心。在神面前称一种行为是恶，这不等于把这行为抛弃。虽然你的认罪可能坦诚和动情，但除非表明内心真正改变，否则就并不足够。有一些人只是为了表现出认罪而认罪，他们所谓的悔改可能是戏剧性的，却不真实。如果你为了让自己看起来成功而表示悔改，你的悔改就不会成功。你会谦卑地说话，却骄傲地犯罪。扫罗显出堪称典范的认罪（撒上15:24-26），后来却下了地狱。“从牙缝里挤出来”的悔改不是悔改。

3. You may confess the words of a true repenter and never repent. (Mt. 21:28-32; 1 Jn. 2:4, 4:20) Confession by itself is not repentance. Confession moves the lips; repentance moves the heart. Naming an act as evil before God is not the same as leaving it. Though your confession may be honest and emotional, it is not enough unless it expresses a true change of heart. There are those who confess only for the show of it, whose so-called repentance may be theatrical but not actual. If you express repentance to appear successful, you will not be successful at repenting. You will speak humbly but sin arrogantly. Saul gave the model confession (I Sam. 15:24-26) and later went to hell. Repentance “from the teeth out” is no repentance.

4.你可能仅仅因为害怕受罚，而不是出于恨恶罪而悔改。任何人被逮住，或相当肯定自己会被逮住，都会停止犯罪，除非连带的惩罚或羞辱不算严重（提前1:8-11）。当损失大得足以让人留意，他就会改过自新。如果这是他悔改的全部动机，他就根本还没有悔改。这是守律法的行为，但不是恩典。人会被恐惧控制，但神要求的，是内心改变。亚干被逮住之后认罪，但若非如此就不会。人可以在亚割谷找到他的尸骨，他的灵魂却极有可能落在地狱当中（书7:16-26）。

4. You may repent for the fear of reprisal alone and not for the hatred of sin. Any man will stop sinning when caught or relatively sure he will be, unless there is insufficient punishment or shame attached (I Tim. 1:8-11). When there are losses great enough to get his attention, he will reform. If this is the entire motive of his repentance, he has not repented at all. It is the work of law, but not grace. Men can be controlled by fear, but what is required is a change of heart. Achan admitted his sin after being caught but would not have otherwise. Find his bones in the valley of Achor; his soul, most likely, in hell. (Josh. 7:16-26)

5.你可能像真悔改的人一样公开发言反对罪，私下却从未悔改 （太23:1-3）。动口改变不了内心。你的罪就像一名娼妓，你在众人面前发言反对你的爱人，却在卧室里与她相拥。她若能在私下时得到你完全关注，就并不特别介意在众人面前被抨击。“你们这些淫乱的人哪，岂不知与世俗为友就是与神为敌吗？”（雅4:4）

5. You may talk against sin in public like a true repenter but never repent in private. (Mt. 23:1-3) The exercise of the mouth cannot change the heart. Your sin is like a prostitute. You are speaking against your lover in public but embracing her in the bedroom. She is not particular about being run down in public if she can have your full attention in private. “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (Jas. 4:4)

6. 你的悔改可能主要是为了现世的好处，而不是为了神的荣耀 。悔改的人要得到益处，但悔改的最终动机却不可能是为了私利。自我是一具死了、发臭的尸首，当被抛弃。我们要悔改，因神配得、并且是我们尊重的权威，即使我们一无所得也是如此。确实，我们悔改，可能看上去我们失去的，要比我们犯罪所得的要多（太16:24-26；腓3:7-8），而这是对真悔改的一种试验。

6. You may repent primarily for temporal gains rather than the glory of God. There are gains for the repenter, but the final motivation for repenting cannot be selfish. Self is a dead, stinking carcass to be discarded. We are to repent because God is worthy and is our respected authority, even if we gain nothing. Indeed, our repenting may appear to lose us more than our sin had gained. (Mt. 16:24-26; Phil. 3:7-8) And this is a test of true repentance.

7. 你可能为了避免较大的罪，而为较小的罪悔改（路11:42）。我们企图用某种小小的悔改动作来安抚我们唠叨不断的良心，这其实根本就不是悔改。信徒整个内心改变。悔改一半的人是分裂的人：部分反对罪，部分支持罪；部分反对基督，部分支持基督。但不是一部分，就是另一部分必然会胜出，因人不能既事奉神又事奉玛门（或任何别的偶像）；他必须爱一位，恶另一位（太6:24）。

7. You may repent of lesser sins for the purpose of avoiding the greater sins. (Lk. 11:42) We try to salve our nagging conscience by some minor exercise of repentance, which is really no repentance at all. The whole heart is changed in the believer. The half repenter is a divided man: part against sin and part for it; part against Christ, part for Him. But one or the other must win out, for man cannot serve God and mammon (or any other idol); he must love the one and hate the other. (Mt. 6:24)

8. 你可能如此泛泛悔改，以至于根本就没有为任何具体的罪悔改。太泛泛悔改的人，就像遮掩自己罪过（箴28:13）。如果没有具体的改变，就不存在着悔改。罪就像神话里的九头蛇，有许多脑袋；人不能泛泛对付，而是必须一个接一个把它的脑袋砍掉。

8. You may repent so generally that you never repent of any specific sin at all. The man who repents in too great a generality is likely covering his sins. (Prov. 28:13) If there are no particular changes, there is no repenting. Sin has many heads, like the mythological Hydra. It cannot be dealt with in general, but its heads must be cut off one by one.

9.你可能为了爱朋友和宗教领袖，而不是为了爱神而悔改 （赛1:10-17）。一个被人说服而悔改的人，可能为了朋友的爱，或属灵之人的尊重而改变，却没有任何实质的作为。一个人若转离罪，却不转向神，就要发现他的罪只不过是改了名字，隐藏在他骄傲的背后。现在这罪有了托辞，要击败它就更难了。你爱了其他人，却没有爱神。最要紧的，你已经爱了你自己。罗得的妻子在一位天使的催促下，为了爱她的家人，离开了罪的城，却转回头来。她把她的心留在身后。“你们要回想罗得的妻子。”（创19:12-26；；路17:32）

9. You may repent for the love of friends and religious leaders and not repent for the love of God. (Isa. 1: 10-17) A man talked into repentance may reform for the love of friends or the respect of the spiritually minded, yet do nothing substantial. If a man turns from sin without turning to God, he will find his sin has only changed its name and is hidden behind his pride. Now it will be harder to rout for its subterfuge. You have loved others but not God. And you have loved yourself most of all. Lot’s wife left the city of sin at the insistence of an angel and for the love of her family, but turned back. She had left her heart. “Remember Lot’s wife.” (Gen. 19:12-26; Lk. 17:32)

10.你可能为了罪完成的动作，却没有为继续留在罪的习惯中悔改。一个人若诚实，在人看来他就是一个好人；但除非治死罪，他就不是一个悔改的人。如果他要成为一个属神的人，他就必须要作一个杀戮的人：“你们若顺从肉体活着，必要死；若靠着［圣］灵治死身体的恶行，必要活着。”（罗8:13）神知道你做了什么，祂所要的，就是顺服（路6:46）。

10. ‘You may confess the finished action of sin and not repent from the continuing habit of sin. If a man is honest, he is a good man in human terms; but he is not a repenting man until the sin is stabbed to death. He must be a murderer if he would be God’s: “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Rom. 8: 13) God knows what you have done; what He wants is obedience. (Lk. 6:46)

11.你可能尝试为罪悔改，与此同时却有意识地为犯罪的机会打开大门。一个说“我悔改”，却不离开那罪的源头或环境的人是值得怀疑。虽然一些招引试探的局面无法改变，大多数局面却是能改变的。一个能够，却不愿逃离他受试探环境的人，是依然爱着他的罪。在猫的床下筑窝的老鼠是愚蠢。“总要披戴主耶稣基督，不要为肉体安排，去［放纵］私欲。”（罗13:14）

11. You may attempt repentance of your sin while consciously leaving open the door of its opportunity. A man who says ” I repent” but will not leave the source or environment of that sin is suspect. Though some situations which invite temptation cannot be changed, most can. A man who will not flee the setting of his temptation when he is able still loves his sin. A mouse is foolish to build his nest under the cat’s bed. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” (Rom. 13:14)

12. 你可能努力为一些罪悔改，却不为着你知道的所有罪悔改。生意人学会表达对客户需要的关注，却因疏忽而苦待妻子。另一个人每周把钱放在奉献的盘子上，却天天偷窃他雇主的时间。人人都为某些他们征服的罪夸口，但真正的悔改，是对整体的罪深恶痛绝。悔改的人恨恶所有罪，虽然在某些罪上，要比面对其他的罪更容易失败。他可能不知道他所有的罪，但他知道的，他是摈弃。信徒身上的悔改是全面的，即使肉体软弱，心灵也是愿意（太26:41）。

12. You may make an effort to repent of some sins without repenting of all the sin you know. The businessman learns to show concern for the needs of his clients, yet he batters his wife through neglect. Another gives his money in the offering plate weekly but steals time from his employer daily. Every man boasts of some sins conquered, but true repentance is a repulsion of sin as a whole. The repenter hates all sin, though he fails more readily in some than in others. He may not know all his sins, but what he knows he spurns. Repentance is universal in the believer; the spirit is willing even when the flesh is weak (Mt. 26:41).

悔改与相信是联系在一起。一个悔改的人，若不相信一切圣洁的源头，就是神祂自己，就没有盼望能顺服。他为罪悔改，就放弃了以自我的力量为满足。使他成圣的是神（犹24-25；帖前5:23-24；彼前1:5）。

Repentance and faith are bound together. A repenting man has no hope for obedience without faith in the source of all holiness, God Himself. In repenting of sins, he loses his self-sufficiency. God is his sanctifier. (Jude 24-25; 1 Thess. 5:23-24; 1 Pet. 1:5)

悔改是从神而来的一种恩赐（徒11:19；提后2:25），也是人的一种本分（徒17:30；路13:3）。因着行悔改，你就知道神已经赐你悔改（腓2:12-13）。不要坐等悔改；要飞奔迎接悔改。“所以你要发热心，也要悔改。”（启3:19）追求悔改，你就要得着；忘记悔改，你就要灭亡。

Repentance is a gift of God (Acts 11:19; 2 Tim. 2:25) and a duty of man (Acts 17:30; Lk. 13:3). You will know if it has been granted by the exercise of it. (Phil. 2:12-13) Do not wait for it; run toward it. “Be zealous and repent.” (Rev. 3:19) Pursue it and you will find it; forget it and perish.