第三週■週三

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晨興餧養

提前一5『這囑咐的目的乃是愛，這愛是出於清潔的心…。』

腓四7『神那超越人所能理解的平安，必在基督耶穌裏，保衞你們的心懷意念。』

第三，神是要我們的心愛。心愛就是心情愛神，要神，渴慕神，想望神，對神有愛情。在聖經中有一卷書是專一說到聖徒對主的愛情的，就是舊約的雅歌。那裏說我們一個聖徒，愛主該像一個女子戀慕她的良人一樣，是一往情深，比死更堅強的。〔八6〕因爲那卷書特別說到聖徒對主的愛情，所以也特別說出聖徒在主生命裏的長進。到了新約，在約翰二十一章裏，主曾三次問彼得說，『你愛我麼？』也就是要帶領他的心情能這樣的愛主，叫他向着主作一個心愛的人。主所以這樣作，乃是要彼得讓主的生命有機會在他裏面運行長大。…我們的心若這樣的向着主有愛情，主的生命在我們裏面纔能得到亨通，爲所欲爲。（李常受文集一九五三年第三册，一四九頁。）

信息選讀

心的功用就是愛主，因爲心是我們這個人愛的器官，這由馬可十二章三十節得到證明：『你要全心…愛主你的神。』心受造的目的是爲着愛主。…愛是心的事。…心是愛的惟一器官。…每一個人都有所愛，不是愛主自己，就是愛其他的東西。我們的心越轉向主，我們就越會運用我們的心來信主，我們的心也就越被基督的血灑過，脫開了邪惡的良心而得着更新。然後，我們的心就有更大的容量來愛主。這是更新的心所具有的功用。我們每天早晨必須更新我們的心，好叫我們越過越愛主。

所有屬靈的經歷都是從心裏的愛開始的。我們若不愛主，就不可能得着甚麼屬靈的經歷。事實上，基督徒生活中的第一項經歷—得救，便與我們的心愛主耶穌有關。沒有一個真正悔改的人，心裏對主是沒有愛的。他們可能沒有言語可以表達，但是他們裏面卻有愛的甜蜜感覺。他們沒有這等知識，但救恩的初步經歷乃是心裏對主有愛的回應或響應。

我們都必須學習如何不斷的回轉，並運用我們的心，使我們的心被基督的血灑過，脫開邪惡的良心，並使我們的心再次得着更新，好叫我們能彀愛主更深。召會的墮落與退後，原因就在於失去對主起初、新鮮的愛。（啓二4。）我們的心對主的愛若不新鮮，我們就已經墮落了。我們的心必須一次又一次的轉向主，使其不斷的更新，好叫我們對主有新穎並新鮮的愛。（李常受文集一九六四年第三册，二五九至二六○頁。）

第四，神是要我們的心安。心安就是良心無虧，沒有定罪指責，是妥貼安穩的。良心在我們裏面，乃是代表神來管理我們。我們的良心若責備我們，神比我們的良心大，一切事祂都知道，（約壹三20，）就更要責備我們了。因此我們必須把良心裏一切的虧欠、定罪和指責，都對付清楚，使『我們在祂面前可以安心』。（19。）我們這樣心安，神就能通過了，神生命的律在我們裏面纔能繼續運行。（李常受文集一九五三年第三册，一四九至一五○頁。）

〔在腓立比四章七節，保衞也指〕守衞。平安的神在基督裏，在我們的心懷意念前巡查，保守我們平靜安寧。（聖經恢復本，腓四7 註2。）

參讀： 帖撒羅尼迦前書生命讀經， 第二十至二十二篇。

WEEK 3 — DAY 3

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Morning Nourishment

1 Tim. 1:5 But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart…

Phil. 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses every man’s understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.

Third, God wants our heart to be loving. A loving heart means a heart in which the emotion loves God, wants God, thirsts after God, yearns for God, and has affection toward God. In the Bible there is a book that speaks specifically of the love of the saints toward the Lord—Song of Songs in the Old Testament. It says that as the Lord’s people, we should love the Lord as a woman loves her beloved. This love is so deep and unchanging and is as strong as death (8:6-7). Because this book speaks especially of our love toward the Lord, it also shows forth especially our growth in the life of the Lord. Then in the New Testament, in John 21, the Lord asked Peter three times, “Do you love Me?” This means that the Lord desired to lead the emotion of Peter to so love the Lord that he could be one who has a loving heart toward the Lord. The Lord did this because He wanted Peter to afford His life an opportunity to work and grow within him…If our heart has such love toward the Lord, the life of the Lord within us can move smoothly and do as it pleases. (CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Knowledge of Life,” pp. 111-112)

Today’s Reading

The function of the heart is to love the Lord, for it is the loving organ of our being. This is proved by Mark 12:30: “You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart.” The heart was created for the purpose of loving the Lord…Love is a matter of the heart…The heart is the only organ to exercise love…Everyone loves something—either the Lord Himself or something else. The more we turn our heart to the Lord, the more we will exercise our heart to believe the Lord, and the more our heart will be sprinkled from an evil conscience and renewed. Then it will have a greater capacity to love the Lord. This is the function of a renewed heart. Every morning we must renew our heart so that we may love the Lord more and more.

All spiritual experiences start with love in the heart. If we do not love the Lord, it is impossible to receive any kind of spiritual experience. In fact, the first experience of our Christian life, salvation, involves the heart loving the Lord Jesus. Not one person who really repents is without love in his heart toward the Lord. Perhaps he does not have the language to express it, but he has the sweet sense of love within. He does not have the knowledge, but his initial ex perience of salvation is a reaction or reflection of love in his heart to the Lord.

We all must learn how to continually turn and exercise our heart in order to have our heart purged from an evil conscience and renewed again so that we may love the Lord more and more. It was the loss of its first, fresh love to the Lord that was the cause of the church’s fall and degradation. When our heart is not fresh in loving the Lord, we have fallen. We must turn our heart back to the Lord again and again and have it continually renewed that we may have a new and fresh love toward the Lord. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 3, “The Economy of God,” p. 204)

Fourth, God wants our heart to be at peace. A heart at peace means a heart in which the conscience has no offense (Acts 24:16), no condemnation or reproach; it is safe and secure. The conscience within us represents God to govern us. If our conscience blames us, God is greater than our conscience and knows all things (1 John 3:20); He would even condemn us more. Thus, we must deal clearly with all the offenses, condemnation, and reproach; so we “will persuade our heart before Him” (v. 19). When our heart is thus at peace, God can pass through, and the law of the life of God can continue to work within us. (CWWL, 1953, vol. 3, “The Knowledge of Life,” p. 112) [Guard in Philippians 4:7 means] “mount guard over.” The God of peace patrols before our hearts and thoughts in Christ, keeping us calm and tranquil. (Phil. 4:7, footnote 2)

Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msgs. 20-22