69 基督徒的本分——讨神喜悦而活Love - Loving is basic toChristian behavior
《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to
Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。
69 基督徒的本分——讨神喜悦而活
Love - Loving is basic to Christian behavior
我们......不是要讨人喜欢，乃是要讨那察验我们心的神喜欢。（帖前2:4）
每一个基督徒都当以荣耀神为他的人生目的，这乃是耳熟能详的真理，也是信徒所受公开的呼召。我们所说，所做的每一件事，我们对神命令所有的顺服，我们与别人之间所有的关系，如何运用神所赋予我们的一切恩赐、天分和机会，在所有的逆境和敌意中忍受苦难，凡此种种都要使神得到尊荣和称赞，因为祂对蒙祂所爱的人是何其的良善（林前10:31；另参太5:16；弗3:10；西3:17）。
另一项同样重要的真理是：每一个基督徒理当全时间投入的，就是要一味讨神的喜悦。这点可称之为基督徒个人的呼召。耶稣不为祂自己喜悦而活，我们也当效法祂那样（约5:9；西1:10；帖前2:4；4:1）。要做到这点，我们要将信心（来11:5-6）、赞美（诗69:30-31）、慷慨（腓4:18；来13:16）、对神所设立之各式权柄的顺服（西3:20），和服事中心思想的专一，合而治之。我们若肯过这种生活方式，神必要加力，祂也喜悦我们如此去行。神以其主权的恩典发出命令，又乐见其成，这是祂的常用之道（来13:21；另参腓2:12-13）。
从管治我们一生、并要求我们讨神喜悦的呼召里，我们精准地学习且感受到：真实的敬虔是与神为友，并富于创意的。神与基督徒之间的关系不只像父子，也像朋友。亚伯拉罕被称为神的朋友（代下20:7；赛41:8；雅2:23）；基督称门徒为祂的朋友（路12:4；约15:14）。神恩典的度量之大，可由祂肯与罪人作朋友看出；基督徒敬虔的度量，则应视为他会否寻求讨他天上的朋友的喜悦，一如配偶会为了表达爱意，彼此寻求对方的喜悦一样（林前7:32-35）。基督教的信仰是一则爱的故事，而敬虔在本质上就是籍着讨神的喜悦，向祂倾诉感激、爱慕之情。
创造力是神在人身上所显露之形象的一部分，在寻求如何向神感恩之祭，这种创造力能使我们籍着生活本分上的一些方式找出自己表达的方法。爱总是使我们自问，为讨主喜悦，我们还能再多摆上些什么？而多给邻舍一些爱，多服事一些别人的需要，永远是这问题的主要答案（约一3:11-18）。假如我们讨神喜悦的计划涉及冒险，我们就当想到，耶稣在祂所讲的才干比喻中，曾称扬那些在市场上冒风险投资的人，却责备那些无所作为的人（太25:14-30）。
ENTERPRISE
A CHRISTIAN LIVES TO PLEASE
GOD
....
We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. 1 THESSALONIANS
2:4
It is
a familiar truth that every Christian’s life-purpose must be to glorify God.
This is the believer’s official calling. Everything we say and do, all our
obedience to God’s commands, all our relationships with others, all the use we
make of the gifts, talents, and opportunities that God gives us, all our
enduring of adverse situations and human hostility, must be so managed as to
give God honor and praise for his goodness to those on whom he sets his love (1
Cor. 10:31; cf. Matt. 5:16; Eph. 3:10; Col. 3:17).
Equally
important is the truth that every Christian’s full-time employment must be to
please God. This may be properly described as the Christian’s personal calling.
Jesus did not live to please himself, nor may we (John 8:29; Rom. 15:1-3).
Pleasing God in everything must be our goal (2 Cor. 5:9; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess.
2:4; 4:1). Faith (Heb. 11:5-6), praise (Ps. 69:30-31), generosity (Phil. 4:18;
Heb. 13:16), obedience to divinely instituted authority (Col. 3:20), and
single-mindedness in Christian service (2 Tim. 2:4) combine to form the
prescribed way to do it. God both enables us for this kind of living and takes
pleasure in our practice of it. It is his regular procedure in sovereign grace
to give what he commands and delight in the result (Heb. 13:21; cf. Phil.
2:12-13).
From
the life-controlling summons to please God, we learn the precise sense in which
true godliness is both relational and creative. God relates to Christians not
only as Father to child but also as Friend to friend. Abraham was called God’s
friend (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23); Christ calls his disciples his
friends (Luke 12:4; John 15:14). The measure of God’s grace is that he makes
friends with sinners; the measure of the Christian’s godliness is that one
seeks to please one’s heavenly Friend, just as spouses seek to please each
other in order to show their love (1 Cor. 7:32-35). Christianity is a love
affair, and godliness is in essence a matter of expressing grateful, adoring
love by seeking to please.
Creativity
is part of God’s image in man, and it is meant to find expression in an
enterprising style of life as we look for ways to show gratitude to God. Love
will always ask whether more can be done to please, and more neighbor-love,
more service of other’s needs, will always be a major part of the answer (1
John 3:11-18). If our plans for pleasing God involve risk, we should remember
that Jesus’ parable of the talents commends those who risked their money in the
market and condemns the practitioner of timid inaction (Matt. 25:14-30).
