【双语灵修】学徒 Apprentices

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“我儿啊，你要在基督耶稣的恩典上刚强起来。” - 提后 2:1

一句关于师傅和学徒的老话这样说：“我做，你看；我做，你帮；你做，我帮；你做，我看。”

耶稣也是用这个方式来训练祂的门徒的，而他们也把从耶稣那里学到的传递给其他人。学徒承诺跟从师傅学习，取得经验后，他们便可以教导传授其他人了。

在今天的经文中，保罗劝勉提摩太，当谨记他曾受过的训练，并且传授给可靠的人，好叫他们也可以去教导其他人。因着祂的恩典，神希望在基督里与我们建立关系、以祂的圣灵充满我们、指教我们当怎样过丰盛的生命，好让我们能把这一切与别人分享。神希望我们做祂的学徒。

鲁益师的著作地狱来鸿中有一个具有冲击力的场景，最能阐明这个看法。这本不寻常的书，是从一个恶魔（或魔鬼）的视角来讲述的。恶魔尝试分析神对人类的伟大计划：“我们必须面对一个事实，就是所有关于神爱人和他们拥有完全的自由事奉神的说法，并不只是（尽管我们乐意如此相信）宣传手段而已，它乃是惊人的真理。神其实真的希望这个宇宙充满了无数惹人讨厌、像祂自己的小型复制品 - 这些活在微观世界中的生物，本质上和祂相似 … 因为他们的意志可以无条件地附从祂的旨意。”

祷告

亲爱的耶稣，感谢你为我们树立如何真实生活的榜样。求你叫我们成为你能使用的学徒，好叫我们能与人分享如何经历与你共享的丰盛生命。阿们。

提摩太后书 2:1-9

1我儿啊，你要在基督耶稣的恩典上刚强起来。
2你在许多见证人面前听见我所教训的，也要交托那忠心能教导别人的人。
3你要和我同受苦难，好像基督耶稣的精兵。
4凡在军中当兵的，不将世务缠身，好叫那招他当兵的人喜悦。
5人若在场上比武，非按规矩，就不能得冠冕。
6劳力的农夫理当先得粮食。
7我所说的话你要思想，因为凡事主必给你聪明。
8你要记念耶稣基督乃是大卫的后裔，他从死里复活，正合乎我所传的福音。
9我为这福音受苦难，甚至被捆绑，像犯人一样；然而，神的道却不被捆绑。

Apprentices

"You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." - 2 Timothy 2:1

An old saying about mentoring and apprenticeships goes something like this: "I do, you watch; I do, you help; You do, I help; You do, I watch."

Jesus trained his disciples in a way like this, and they passed along to others what they learned from him. An apprentice commits to learning from a master and then becomes experienced and able to teach others.

In our Scripture reading for today, Paul urges Timothy to remember his training and to pass it along to reliable people who can teach others. By his grace, God wants to be in relationship with us in Christ, to fill us with his Holy Spirit, and to show us how to live fully so that we share all this with others. God wants us to be his apprentices.

A powerful image in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis illustrates this well. This unusual book is written from the perspective of a demon (or devil) who is attempting to explain God's great plan for humankind: "One must face the fact that all the talk about [God's] love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. [God] really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own . . . because their wills freely conform to His."

Prayer

Dear Jesus, thank you for modeling what it means to truly live. Make us the apprentices you need, that we may share with others the way to full life with you. Amen.