作者: John Piper 譯者: Maria Marta
人類語言很珍貴。它把我們與動物區分開來。它使我們取得最先進的科學發現，和分享最深切的情感。最重要的是，上帝選擇通過人類語言，在聖經中向我們啟示祂自己。在時機成熟時，上帝藉著祂的兒子向我們說話，祂的兒子說人類的語言（來一1–2）。以同樣的方式，上帝差派祂的靈引導使徒進入所有的真理，好叫他們能用人類語言傳講祂兒子的故事。沒有人類語言所講述的兒子的故事，我們就不認識兒子。因此，人類語言無比寶貴。
但想要獲得上帝的豐盛，人類語言也是有缺點的工具。在哥林多前書第十三章，在今生與基督再來的來世這兩者之間有四個對比。
「愛是永存不息的。先知的講道終必過去，方言終必停止，知識終必消失。因為我們現在所知道的，只是一部分；所講的道也只是一部分；等那完全的來到，這部分的就要過去了。我作孩子的時候，說話像孩子，心思像孩子，想法像孩子，既然長大了，就把孩子的事都丟棄了。我們現在是對著鏡子觀看，模糊不清，到那時就要面對面了。我現在所知道的只是一部分，到那時就完全知道了，好像主完全知道我一樣。現在常存的有信、望、愛這三樣，其中最大的是愛。」（8 –
13節） 注意今生（現在）和來世（到那時）之間的比較：
現在：我們知道一部分。
到那時：那完全的來到，這部分的就要過去了。（9 – 10節）
現在：我說話像孩子，心思像孩子，想法像孩子。
到那時：既然長大了，就把孩子的事都丟棄了。（11節）
現在：我們對著鏡子觀看，模糊不清。
到那時：到那時就要面對面了（12節）。
現在：我所知道的只是一部分。
到那時：到那時就完全知道了，好像主完全知道我一樣（12節）。
在這脈胳下，我們能夠明白保羅寫這句話的意思:「我作孩子的時候，說話像孩子，心思像孩子，想法像孩子」， 他的意思是說，與我們來世的說話、心思、想法相比較，我們今生的說話、心思、想法像孩子一般。
當保羅被到樂園裡，他目睹天國的現實，他說他「聽見了難以言喻的話，那是人不可以說的。」（林後十二4）我們的語言不足以傳達上帝的所有偉大之處。
由此推斷我們可以輕視語言，或以藐視、草率的態度來對待它，這實在是一個大錯。如果我們開始將關於上帝的真實聲明貶為廉價的或無益的或錯誤的聲明，這是多麽無知的錯誤。如果我們鄙視命題、從句、短語、單詞，仿佛它們不是生活上無以言表的珍寶和必不可少的工具，我們是多麽的愚蠢。
將可能是愚蠢的主要原因是，上帝選擇差遣祂的兒子進入我們的世界這幼兒園，以嬰兒用語和我們交談。基督成為和我們一起的孩子。耶穌曾有過這樣的時候，並說過:「我作孩子的時候，說話像孩子，心思像孩子，想法像孩子。」這就是道成肉身的意思。上帝屈尊遷就，以嬰兒用語向我們說話。今生，在人類生活的幼兒園，祂與我們一起，期期艾艾地與我們說話。
耶穌以嬰兒用語說話。祂以嬰兒用語對我們講登山寶訓。在約翰福音第十七章，祂以嬰兒用語作大祭司的禱告。祂以嬰兒用語大聲呼號：「我的 神，我的 神，你為甚麼離棄我？」（可十五34）嬰兒用語無比珍貴、真實、榮耀。
還遠不止這些，上帝以嬰兒用語默示整本聖經-----真正的嬰兒用語。嬰兒用語具有絕對的權威和大能。嬰兒用語比蜜甘甜，比金子寶貴。加爾文曾說:「上帝和我們談話, 象奶媽褓姆慣於以嬰兒用語向小孩子說話一般」（《基督教要義》1.13.1）。上帝的嬰兒用語是多麽珍稀。它不像草必枯乾，花必雕謝，它永遠長存。（賽四十8）
來世將有另一種說話、心思、想法。我們將看到在我們今生的嬰兒用語中不能表達的事情。但當上帝差遣祂的兒子進入我們人類的幼兒園，以嬰兒用語說話，為蹣跚學步的幼兒而死時，祂堵住了一些人的嘴，這些人嘲笑孩子口中發出真實與美善之言語的可能性。
當上帝以嬰兒用語默示祂自己那無謬的解釋時，我們怎麽說那些不把「人類語言恩賜是認識上帝的媒介」當回事的孩子們？那些輕視、貶低、利用這恩賜或對孩子操縱這恩賜的人，有禍了。嬰兒用語不是幼兒園的玩具。嬰兒用語是生命的氣息:「我對你們所說的話是靈、是生命」（約六63）。
本譯文所引用的經文均出自聖經新譯本。
本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌。
The Precious Gift of Baby Talk
FROM
John Piper
Human
language is precious. It sets us off from the animals. It makes our most
sophisticated scientific discoveries and our deepest emotions sharable. Above
all, God chose to reveal Himself to us through human language in the Bible. In
the fullness of time, He spoke to us by His Son (Heb. 1:1–2), and that Son
spoke human language. In like manner, He sent His Spirit to lead His apostles
into all truth so that they could tell the story of the Son in human language.
Without this story in human language, we would not know the Son. Therefore,
human language is immeasurably precious.
But
it is also imperfect for capturing the fullness of God. In 1 Corinthians 13,
there are four comparisons between this present time and the age to come after
Christ returns.
Love never
ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in
part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a
child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly,
but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I
have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the
greatest of these is love (vv. 8–13). Note the comparisons with this age (now)
and the age to come (then):
Now:
We know in part.
Then:
When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away (vv. 9–10).
Now:
I spoke and thought and reasoned like a child.
Then:
When I became a man, I gave up childish ways (v. 11).
Now:
We see in a mirror dimly.
Then:
We will see face to face (v. 12).
Now:
I know in part.
Then:
I will know fully, even as I am fully known (v. 12).
In
this context, we can see what Paul means when he writes, “When I was a child, I
spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.” He is
saying that in this age, our human language and thought and reasoning are like
baby talk compared to how we will speak, think, and reason in the age to come.
When
Paul was caught up into heaven and given glimpses of heavenly realities, he
said that he “heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter” (2
Cor. 12:4). Our language is insufficient to carry the greatness of all that God
is.
But
what a blunder it would be to infer from this that we may despise language or
treat it with contempt or carelessness. What a blunder, if we began to belittle
true statements about God as cheap or unhelpful or false. What folly it would
be if we scorned propositions, clauses, phrases, and words, as though they were
not inexpressibly precious and essential to life.
The
main reason this would be folly is that God chose to send His Son into our
nursery and speak baby talk with us. Jesus Christ became a child with us. There
was a time when Jesus Himself would have said, “When I was a child, I spoke
like a child and thought like a child and reasoned like a child.” That is what
the incarnation means. He accommodated Himself to our baby talk. He stammered
with us in the nursery of human life in this age.
Jesus
spoke baby talk. The Sermon on the Mount is our baby talk. His High Priestly
Prayer in John 17 is baby talk. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
(Mark 15:34) is baby talk—infinitely precious, true, glorious baby talk.
More
than that, God inspired an entire Bible of baby talk. True baby talk. Baby talk
with absolute authority and power. Baby talk that is sweeter than honey and
more to be desired than gold. John Calvin said that “God, in so speaking, lisps
with us as nurses are wont to do with little children” (Institutes of the
Christian Religion, 1.13.1). How precious is the baby talk of God. It is not
like grass that withers or flowers that fade; it abides forever (Isa. 40:8).
There
will be another language and thought and reasoning in the age to come. And we
will see things that could not have been expressed in our present baby talk.
But when God sent His Son into our human nursery, talking baby talk and dying
for the toddlers, He shut the mouths of those who ridicule the possibilities of
truth and beauty in the mouth of babes.
And
when God inspired a book with baby talk as the infallible interpretation of
Himself, what shall we say of the children who make light of the gift of human
language as the medium of knowing God? Woe to those who despise, belittle,
exploit, or manipulate this gift to the children of man. It is not a toy in the
nursery. It is the breath of life. “The words that I have spoken to you are
spirit and life” (John 6:63).
This
post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.
