生命的事奉(三): 供应生命

林后一9　 自己里面也断定是必死的，叫我们不信靠自己，只信靠那叫死人复活的
神。
约二十31 但记这些事，要叫你们信耶稣是基督，是神的儿子；并且叫你们信了，就
可以在他的名里得生命。

死的经历引我们进入复活的经历。复活就是那叫死人复活的神。十字架的工作了结
我们的己，使我们在复活里经历神。十字架的经历总是带进对复活之神的享受。这
样的经历产生并形成职事。这在四章七至十二节有进一步的描述。

保罗在哥林多前书快结束时说到复活；现今在哥林多后书开头，他把信徒再带回到
复活这件事上。…这与职事有关。职事不是我们作甚么的问题，乃是我们生活的问
题。本卷书信所启示的职事和生活，都是出於复活的生命。

约翰的职事是修补的职事。彼得蒙主呼召时，他正在打鱼；但是约翰蒙召时，他正
在补网（太四21）。彼得打了许多鱼，带进了许许多多的人。然而约翰却修补了属
灵的网，因为他的修补职事是一个生命的修补职事。

只有生命能修补、遮盖属灵网上的所有漏洞。今日何等需要这个！基督徒的网上有
这么多的漏洞，甚么能修补它们呢？除了生命，没有别的。这就是我们一再对生命
这件事有负担的原因。

有些人嘲笑我们说，『你们除了生命这辞，就不知道别的么？』不错，就一面的意
义说，我们只知道生命，别的一概不知。我们不知道别的，因为我们不需要别的。
生命是我们惟一所需。

弟兄姊妹，你们需要生命。别的东西可能会扩大破洞，生命却要缝合每一个缺口。
我们需要约翰的职事。约翰的职事是生命的修补职事，是圣经中最后的职事，圣经
也结束於这个职事（约翰福音生命读经，一五页）。

我们有永远生命的人，能将这生命传给人。这就是说，我们能成为永远的生命所藉
以供应给人的管道。我们能成为管道，让永远的生命从我们里面流出，并流到别人
里面（约翰一书生命读经，四○八页）。

我们在教会生活中必须学习供应生命，这是我们所需要的。不要尝试别的路，帮助
人最好的路就是供应生命。…你也许不赞成，认为你自己还缺少生命，怎么能把生
命供应给别人？也许你真的缺少生命。那么你该怎么办？

不要去劝戒人或责备人，甚至不要去找另一方。你自己必须转向主，说，『主，怜
悯我。我的弟兄犯了罪，他需要生命的供应，他缺少生命。但是，主，我也缺少生
命，我也没有多少生命。怜悯我们，但是先怜悯我，我需要更多的生命。我必须有
更多的生命。』

我们必须知道，不论甚么弟兄或是甚么姊妹犯了罪，就很强的指明这位弟兄或这位
姊妹缺少生命。我们若要帮助人，就必须先察看我们是不是有生命。我们有生命的
富余么？我们所有的比我们所需要的多么？若不然，我们就必须祷告、禁食等候主，
直到我们得著丰富的供应。

这样我们就能够用这个供应来服事人。在这个堕落基督教的时代里，这是在教会生
活中往前的路。

约翰强调说，我们需要供应给别人的这个生命，就是神自己，就是神的儿子。『这
是真神，也是永远的生命。』〔约壹五20下〕我们的需要是得著更大一分的主耶稣，
这样我们就有富余来供应人。这不是知识或道理的富余，而是神的富余。

参读：哥林多后书生命读经，第一至二篇；约翰的修补职事，第十一章。

English Version
2 Cor. 1:9 "Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, 
that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises 
the dead."

John 20:31 "But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus 
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in 
His name."

    The experience of death ushers us into the experience of resurrection. 
Resurrection is the very God who resurrects the dead. The working of the 
cross terminates the self that we may experience God in resurrection. The 
experience of the cross always issues in the enjoyment of the God of resurrection.
 Such experience produces and forms the ministry.

    Toward the end of 1 Corinthians Paul speaks of resurrection. Now at 
the beginning of 2 Corinthians, Paul brings the believers back to this matter 
of resurrection....This is related to ministry. Ministry is not a matter 
of our doing; it is a matter of our living. Both the ministry and the living 
revealed in this Epistle are of resurrection life. (Life-study of 2 Corinthians,
 p. 6)

    John’s ministry was a mending ministry. When Peter was called by the 
Lord, he was fishing, but when John was called, he was mending the net (Matt.
 4:21). Peter did a great deal of fishing, bringing in a multitude of people.
 However, John mended the spiritual net, for his ministry of mending was 
a mending ministry of life. Only life can mend, covering all the holes in 
the spiritual net. How much this is needed today! There are so many holes 
in the Christian net. What can mend them? Nothing but life. This is the 
reason that we have been burdened over and over again with this matter of 
life. Some people laugh at us, saying, “Don’t you know anything except the 
one word life?” Yes, in a sense, we only know life, nothing else. We do 
not know anything else because we do not need anything else. Life is our 
only need. Brothers and sisters, you need life. Other things may enlarge 
the holes; life will close every gap. We need John’s ministry. John’s ministry,
 the last ministry in the Bible and the ministry with which the Bible concludes,
 was a mending ministry of life. (Life-study of John, p. 12)

    We who have eternal life can pass this life on to others. This means 
that we can be a channel through which eternal life is supplied to others. 
We can be a channel for eternal life to flow out of us and into others. 
(Life-study of 1 John, p. 337)

    In the church life we must learn to minister life. This is what is needed.
 Do not try other ways. No way of helping is better than that of ministering 
life.

    You may raise the objection that you yourself are short of life; how 
can you minister it to others? You may indeed be short of life. Then what 
should you do? Do not go to admonish or rebuke. Do not even go to the other 
party. You yourself must turn to the Lord. “Lord, have mercy upon me. My 
brother is sinning; he needs the supply of life. He lacks life. But so do 
I, Lord. I don’t have much life either. Have mercy upon us, but first have 
mercy upon me. I need more life. I must have more life.”

    We need to learn that when any brother or sister sins, this is a strong 
indication that he or she is short of life. To be of help, we must first 
check whether we have life. Do we have a surplus of life? Do we have more 
than we need? If not, we must wait on the Lord with prayer and fasting until 
we get the rich supply. Then we can minister from this supply to others. 
This is the way to go on in the church life during this time of degraded 
Christianity.

    John stresses that this life which we need to minister to others is 
simply God Himself. It is the Son of God. “This is the true God and eternal 
life” [1 John 5:20]. Our need is to have a bigger portion of the Lord Jesus. 
Then we shall have a surplus to minister to others, a surplus not of knowledge 
or doctrine but of God. (The Mending Ministry of John, pp. 92-93)

Further Reading: Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msgs. 1-2; The Mending Ministry 
of John, ch. 11


- 未完待续

祈求生命给犯了不至於死的罪的弟兄

生命的事奉(二): 职事Vs执事