85 世界——基督徒在社会中服务并改造它TheWorld - Christians are in society to serve and transform it
《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。
85 世界——基督徒在社会中服务并改造它
The World - Christians are in society to serve and transform it
你们若是与基督同死，脱离了世上的小学。为什么仍像在世俗中活着，服从那“不可拿、不可尝、不可摸”等类的规条呢？这都是照人所吩咐、所教导的。说到这一切，正用的时候就都败坏了。（弗5:21）
[世界]一词在新约圣经里，有时其意思和在旧约圣经里是一样的，即指地球——神所创造那美好自然的秩序。不过一般说来，它通常是用来指人类整体，即现今已堕入罪恶和道德的乱序中，变得极端反对神。极端邪恶的世人。偶尔这两种意思也会混在一块儿使用，以致只要提到世界这个字，就带有乖僻之人滥用受造之物，引发罪恶感、羞耻感的复杂意味。
主差遣基督徒到这世界来（约17:18），为要向这世界见证神所立的基督和祂的国度（太24:14;另参罗10:18；西1:6,23），并供应这世界的需要。但是当他们这么做的时候，千万要谨防自己成为牺牲品，不要落入物质主义的陷阱中（太6:19-24,32），不要变得和这世界一样不在乎神和来世（路12:13-21），不顾一切倨傲地追求享乐、利益和地位（约一2:15-17）。这世界目前是属撒旦的国度（约14:30；林后4:4；约一5:19；另参路4:5-7），所以，人类社会的观点和想法反应撒旦的骄傲，多于反映出基督才有的谦卑。
基督徒应和基督一样，了解人们的焦虑和需要，这样才能有效地服事他们，并与他们沟通。然后，基督徒们这样做，其最基本动机必须建立在与世界分离的基础上。他们不过是暂时经过这世界，走回神的家；当他们还在这世界上时，应专心致志地以讨神喜悦为目的（西1:9-12；彼前2:11）。修道院式的遁世隐居并非主所许可的（约17:15），而世俗化也是不对的（任何朝向世俗的自我专注作风，信徒要远避，更不可将之融为自我意识的一部分，多2:12）。虽然耶稣鼓励祂的门徒为达成服务世界的目标，当灵巧地效法世人善用资源；但主也指明，门徒们合宜的目标，不当与地上的好处有关，而是与天上的荣耀有关（16:9）。
神对基督徒活在世界上首先的要求，就是要他们和周遭的世人有别——肯遵守神绝对的道德律，力行爱人，逃避可耻的情欲，不可因着任何形式不负责的自我放弃，而失去具体神形象者的尊严（罗12:2；弗4:17-24；西3:5-11）。基督徒需与这世界的价值系统和其生活方式，作一彻底的了断。有了这样的根基，基督徒才能实行肖乎基督的正面命令（弗4:25-5:17）。
神指定给基督徒的工作有三方面：教会主要的使命是传福音（太28:19-20；路24:46-48），因此，每一个基督徒都应当用各种方法，致力于使未信者归正。在传福音时，基督徒自己那个改变了生命所能带来的冲击，是很有意义的（彼前2:12）。同时，对邻舍的爱应当一直引导着基督徒，进入各样的恩慈事工。此外，基督徒已蒙召要实行神在创世时，赐给人类的[文化使命]（创1:28-30；诗8:6-8）。人受造来管理神所造的世界，这管理之责是人在基督里所蒙呼召的一部分。这个呼召要求我们殷勤工作，以神的荣耀和别人的益处为人生目的。这就是真更正教的[工作伦理观]，实质上，它是一种宗教的操练，为要满足一神圣的[呼召]。
基督徒认知，神面对人的罪恶，却仍以祂天命的恩慈和忍耐，继续保守与供应这个走错了的世界（徒14:16-17）；因此他们自己也要参与各种形式的合法活动，并以基督徒的价值系统和生命异象，在社区里作盐（使食物味道变得更好的防腐剂）、作光（指出道路的照明器。太5:13-16）。当基督徒肯这样地实践他们的呼召时，基督教就变成一股能改变文化的力量。
THE WORLD
CHRISTIANS ARE IN SOCIETY TO SERVE
AND TRANSFORM IT
Since
you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you
still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste!
Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are
based on human commands and teachings. COLOSSIANS 2:20-22
World
in the New Testament sometimes means what it means in the Old Testament,
namely, this earth, the good natural order that God created. Usually, however,
it means mankind as a whole, now fallen into sin and moral disorder and become
radically anti-God and evil. Occasionally the two senses seem to blend, so that
statements about the world carry the complex nuance of perverse people
incurring guilt and shame by their misuse of created things.
Christians
are sent into the world by their Lord (John 17:18) to witness to it about God’s
Christ and his kingdom (Matt. 24:14; cf. Rom. 10:18; Col. 1:6, 23) and to serve
its needs. But they are to do so without falling victim to its materialism
(Matt. 6:19-24, 32), its unconcern about God and the next life (Luke 12:13-21),
and its prideful pursuit of pleasure, profit, and position to the exclusion of
everything else (1 John 2:15-17). The world is at present Satan’s kingdom (John
14:30; 2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19; cf. Luke 4:5-7), and the outlook and mind-set
of human societies reflect more of the pride seen in Satan than the humility
seen in Christ.
Christians,
like Christ, are to empathize with people’s anxieties and needs in order to
serve them and communicate with them effectively. They are to do so, however,
on a basis of motivational detachment from this world, through which they are
momentarily passing as they travel home to God and in which their single-minded
purpose must be to please God (Col. 1:9-12; 1 Pet. 2:11). Monastic withdrawal
from this world is not sanctioned (John 17:15), but neither is worldliness
(i.e., any internalizing of the earthbound self-absorption of the people of
this world: Titus 2:12). Jesus encourages his disciples to match worldly
persons’ ingenuity in using their resources to further their goals, but he
specifies that their proper goals have to do not with earthly security but with
heavenly glory (Luke 16:9).
God’s
first requirement, then, of Christians in this world is that they be different
from those around them, observing God’s moral absolutes, practicing love,
avoiding shameful license, and not losing their dignity as God’s image-bearers
through any form of irresponsible self-indulgence (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:17-24;
Col. 3:5-11). A clean break with the world’s value-systems and life-styles is
called for, as a basis for practicing Christlikeness in positive terms (Eph.
4:25-5:17).
The
Christian’s appointed task is threefold. The church’s main mandate is
evangelism (Matt. 28:19-20; Luke 24:46-48), and every Christian must seek by
all means to further the conversion of unbelievers. The impact of one’s own
changed life will be significant here (1 Pet. 2:12). Also, neighbor-love should
constantly lead the Christian into deeds of mercy of all sorts. But in
addition, Christians are called to fulfill the “cultural mandate” that God gave
to mankind at Creation (Gen. 1:28-30; Ps. 8:6-8). Man was made to manage God’s
world, and this stewardship is part of the human vocation in Christ. It calls
for hard work, with God’s honor and the good of others as its goal. This is the
real Protestant “work ethic.” It is essentially a religious discipline, the
fulfillment of a divine “calling.”
Knowing
that God in providential kindness and forbearance continues, in face of human
sin, to preserve and enrich his erring world (Acts 14:16-17), Christians are to
involve themselves in all forms of lawful human activity, and by doing that in
terms of the Christian value system and vision of life they will become salt (a
preservative that makes things taste better) and light (an illumination that
shows the way to go) in the human community (Matt. 5:13-16). As Christians thus
fulfill their vocation, Christianity becomes a transforming cultural force.