擁抱真相Embracing the Truth
[每日靈修] 2/3/2019, 駱鴻銘編譯
對真理保持一種開放態度，不拘一格，是一種長存的美德，它的前提假設是，客觀真理是存在的，因此我們應該對此保持一種開放的態度。受高等教育的學生現在被教導一種貫徹始終的美德：「開放」。他們受教的目的不是讓他們成為學者，而是為他們提供一種道德上的美德——一種開放性和相對主義，要避開任何固定形式的客觀價值觀或真理。它簡單化的信條是：沒有絕對真理。
要是沒有客觀的真理標準，我們所擁有的就只有情感、印象、直覺，而這些是永遠無法被判定為虛假或不好的。這種方法說到底，不僅僅是無知和懷疑，更是徹底地把人非人化。如果每個人都是對的，那麼就沒有人是對的。如果每一種觀點都同樣有價值，那麼任何觀點都沒有價值。
作為基督身體的肢體，我們面對的是雙重的敵人，而兩者都是致命的。首先，我們傾向於接受世俗世界的思維模式，好叫我們的思想可以跟得上時代，有現實的意義。我們害怕被視為與世界「脫節」。
其次，我們可能會受到一種嶄新形式的修道院孤立主義所引誘，在這種形式中，我們把科學、邏輯、教育交給世俗世界，與此同時，我們試圖在一個充滿宗教情感的孤島上，活出一種空洞的、永遠無法滿足的信仰。
這兩種選項的終點都是墳墓，真理就這樣被草草埋葬。身體在哪裏被殺害，就把它留在原地埋葬是一件合乎禮儀的事。
活在神的面光中（在神面前禱告）：
檢查你自己的生活：你是否會受到誘惑，要去接受世俗世界的思維模式，好叫你的思想可以跟得上時代，有現實的意義？你是否在修道院式的隔離狀態中活出一種空洞的、內心不滿的信仰？
進一步研讀：
約十六3 他們這樣行，是因未曾認識父，也未曾認識我。
約十七17 求你用真理使他們成聖；你的道就是真理。
約壹四6 我們是屬神的，認識神的就聽從我們；不屬神的就不聽從我們。從此我們可以認出真理的靈和謬妄的靈來。
Embracing the Truth
Openness
to truth where truth may be found is a long-standing virtue that worked on the
assumption that there is such a thing as objective truth, to which we should be
open. Students of higher education now taught one overarching virtue: to be
“open.” The purpose of their education is not to make them scholars but to
provide them with a moral virtue—an openness, a relativism that eschews any
form of fixed objective values or truth. Its simplistic creed is that there are
no absolutes.
Without
objective standards of truth, we are left with feelings, impressions, and
intuitions that can never be judged as either false or bad. The bottom line of
such an approach is not merely ignorance and skepticism, but the ultimate
dehumanization of persons. If everybody is right, then nobody is right. If
every viewpoint is equally valuable, no viewpoint is valuable.
As
members of the body of Christ, we face twin enemies, both of which are deadly.
First, we are tempted to embrace the thought patterns of the secular world in
order to be modern and relevant in our thinking. We are terrified of being
perceived as being “out of it.”
Second,
we may be tempted to a new form of monastic isolationism, in which we surrender
science, logic, and education to the secular world while we try to live an
empty, discontent faith on an island of religious feeling.
Either
option ends at the cemetery with a morbid funeral service for truth. A burial
is a decent thing to do for a body that has been left where it was slain.
Coram
Deo
Examine
your own life: Are you tempted to embrace the thought patterns of the secular
world in order to be modern and relevant in your thinking? Are you living an
empty, discontent faith in monastic isolation?
Passages
for Further Study
John
16:3
John
17:17
1
John 4:6