我小時候很喜歡閱讀海盜的故事，那些驚險刺激的冒險經歷激發了我的想像力！我現在住的地方曾經是歷史上臭名昭著的海盜「黑鬍子」（本名愛德華．蒂奇，Edward Teach）的藏身之地，而他的海盜船「安妮女王復仇號」就在這附近的海域沉沒。

我們很容易將歷史上的沉船事件，以及海上冒險故事看得過於浪漫。然而，使徒保羅講述另一種截然不同的「船難」，藉此警示和勸誡我們。在寫給提摩太的第一封書信中，保羅告誡他屬靈兒子要「持守信心和無虧的良心。有些人喪掉良心，結果他們的信仰就像船觸了礁」（提摩太前書1章19節，當代譯本修訂版）。這裡的「船觸了礁」是什麼意思呢？許米乃和亞歷山大徹底偏離真道，保羅把他們交給撒但，「使他們受管教不再褻瀆」（20節，新譯本）。保羅希望他們悔改，但他們的所作所為已招致嚴重的後果。

我們的信仰不能在原地踏步，也不能脫離現實。我們必須積極培養與上帝的關係，讓信心和良心得以堅固。願我們能與其他信徒一起順服上帝的靈，讓祂在我們裡面作工。那麼，我們的信仰就可以避免像船觸了礁。

As a boy, I loved reading stories about pirates. How those adventures spurred my imagination! Now I live in an area where one of the most infamous of those pirates—Blackbeard (real name, Edward Teach)—had his headquarters. Shipwrecked in the waters off the coast here is Blackbeard’s ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

We can easily romanticize the wrecks and the high-sea adventures of history. The apostle Paul, however, wrote about a very different kind of shipwreck that provides us with a caution and an exhortation. In his first letter to Timothy, Paul warned his son in the faith to “[hold] on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith” (1 Timothy 1:19). What is this “shipwreck”? Two men, Hymenaeus and Alexander, had in some devastating way departed from the true faith, and the apostle turned them over to Satan “to be taught not to blaspheme” (v. 20). Paul desired them to repent, but the consequences of their actions were dire.

Our faith isn’t static, nor can it exist in a vacuum. We must actively nurture and cultivate our relationship with God to grow strong and healthy in faith and good conscience. May we join with other believers, yield to God’s Spirit, and allow Him to work in us. We can avoid shipwreck.