The Intruders (Part One) 誰在入侵 （上）

My image is really important to me. I like my image of being strong and vibrant, the image of a rugged individualist, who does what is necessary, who gets the job done, who gives help, but doesn』t need help, who cares deeply about people, but doesn』t need people to take care of him.

對我而言，我的形象真的很重要。我欣賞自己強壯而有活力的形象，粗狂的個人主義者，總是要做必要的事情；總是獨立完成一切；總是幫助他人，而不是被幫助；總是很關心他人，但不需要別人的照顧。

Trust me, I hate being weak and needy. Now, I don』t know what your hang-ups are, but these are mine; and yes, I do know mine are pretty bad. But this I also know: all of us have an image of ourselves that we like and value. And when that image is attacked, it feels like death.

請相信我的話，我很不喜歡自己顯得軟弱和窮困。我不知道你的顧忌是什麼，但這是我的擔憂。我知道，我這很不好。我還知道，我們每個人的形象就是自己喜好和價值。當自己的形象受到攻擊，那感覺就像面臨死亡一樣。

Everyone likes to appear strong and in control, and everyone likes to feel loved and valued; and when that sense is taken from us, we feel broken to our core.  But that』s the problem.  To have a real faith, you have to be weak; and that is a hard thing to swallow.  But the best faith is weak faith.

人人都喜歡顯得剛強，有控制力；人人都喜歡得到愛，被看重。一旦這個感覺被奪了去，我們就感到被擊垮，垮到骨子裡。這就是問題所在。要想擁有真實的信心，就必須要軟弱下來；這讓人很難吞咽。但是，最佳的信心是軟弱的信心。

Image is everything. Ask Saul before he became the apostle Paul, and he would tell you.  He would line up his pedigree, his education, his principles, and his accomplishments; and he would tell you all the things he was absolutely committed to in his life. He would tell you who he studied under, who he surpassed, and who he saw as friends and who his enemies were. And he could talk for hours about his convictions, his zeal, his unrelenting passions. There was not a weak bone in his body. 

形象即是一切。問問後來成為使徒保羅的掃羅，他會告訴你，向你羅列他的血統、他的教育、他的教義、他的成就；他還會告訴你他畢生委身的一切，他在什麼人的門下修學，他在學識上超過了誰，把什麼人看成朋友，什麼人看成仇敵。他能談上幾個小時，講述自己的信念、熱忱、不屈不撓的激情。在他的身體里，找不到任何一塊兒軟弱的骨頭。

Flash forward 24 years. Intruders had come into the Corinthian church and had almost completely undermined Paul』s ministry and had moved the church subtly away from Christ. Only a few faithful stalwarts were holding the church together. And remember, this was a church that Paul founded. He had given his all to this church, but now they were on the verge of forsaking him and Christ. 

鏡頭向前推進24年。有一些入侵者走進了哥林多教會。他們幾乎挖空了保羅的事工，悄悄地把教會轉離了基督。只剩下幾個忠心的人支撐著教會。別忘了，這是保羅親自建立的教會。他把自己全部的心血都給了這個教會，可現如今他們開始背叛他、背叛基督。

You may ask how such a thing could have happened. It was simple, actually. All it took was four steps. First, these intruders had questioned Paul』s spirituality while magnifying their own.

大家可能會問，怎麼會發生這樣的事情呢？其實很簡單，總共才用了四個步驟。一，這些入侵者質疑保羅的靈性，誇大自己的靈性。

Second, they disregarded the defining marks of discipleship and replaced them with their own brand of devotion, a devotion that was much easier to swallow and much more in tune with the prevailing culture. 

二，他們丟棄門徒職分的關鍵性特徵，用他們自製的忠誠品牌替代，就是更較為人們接受，更與當時流行文化合拍的忠誠。

Three, they seized upon every hint in the gospels that spoke of power, of exaltation, of freedom, of glory, of triumph, and of victorious Christian living and relegated to insignificance all traces of humility, of brokenness, of weakness, of suffering and of waiting. 

三，他們撲捉福音書中每一個提及大能、高舉、自由、榮耀、得勝、基督徒的得勝生活的線索，但把謙卑、破碎、軟弱、承受苦難和耐心守候都貶為無足輕重。

And four, they devalued the way of the cross while they escalated the importance of positive spiritual experiences, of emotional highs, and of personal blessings.  In short, they made following Jesus attractive and exciting to the masses. And as a result, Paul looked weak and ineffective and old and out of touch, while these intruders looked strong and vibrant and wonderful.

四，他們拉低十字架道路的價值，而高抬正面的靈里體驗，情緒高潮，和個人祝福。簡言之，他們把跟隨耶穌變成了迷人的、激動人心的大眾行為。結果是，保羅就顯得軟弱、無效、古舊、不合時宜了，而這些入侵者就顯得強壯、有活力、出色。

One day, Paul was 「the man,」 the one who brought most of them to Christ and who had, humanly-speaking, given them their faith, their hope, and their love for God and for others. And then these intruders came into the church; and in a flash, Paul was seen as shallow, superficial and incredibly, even embarrassingly, weak and ineffective. 

曾經的某一天，保羅還是一個「行家」，把他們大都帶到基督面前。從人的角度說，是他給了他們信心、盼望和對上帝與他人的愛心。接著，這些入侵者走進教會。轉瞬間，保羅被看成淺顯、浮表、甚至是讓人尷尬地出奇的軟弱，沒有任何果效。

But for those in the church in Corinth, it seemed beyond reproach.  Paul and his demanding rules had to go! And Paul』s out-of-date philosophy of following Jesus had to go. And Paul』s claims of leadership on the church had to go! After all, his brand of fundamentalism was killing the church and blocking all forms of growth—spiritual, experiential, and numerical.  It was clear.  Paul was THE problem, and Paul had to go. If ever there was an image problem, Paul had it. To be continued.

但是，對哥林多教會的人們而言，入侵者們似乎是無可指責的。保羅還有他那些苛求的條條框框必須放棄！保羅跟隨耶穌的哲學，不合時宜，必須放棄！保羅對教會的帶領權必須放棄！總之，他這個品牌的原教旨主義在毀掉教會，阻礙了各種形式的成長：靈里的、體驗的、很多其它的。很清楚，保羅本身才是問題的所在，保羅必須得走。看明白我的意思了嗎？要說誰有形象問題，那就是保羅。待續。

• [04/30] The Intruders (Part One) 誰在入侵 （上）
• [04/30]The Intruders (Part Two) 誰在入侵 （下）

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