站立和成长
哥林多后书十三章9至11节
9即使我们软弱，你们刚强，我们也欢喜；并且我们所求的，就是你们作完全人。
10所以，我不在你们那里的时候，把这话写给你们，好叫我见你们的时候，不用照主所给我的权柄严厉的待你们；这权柄原是为造就人，并不是为败坏人。
11还有末了的话：愿弟兄们都喜乐。要作完全人；要受安慰；要同心合意；要彼此和睦。如此，仁爱和平的神必常与你们同在。
信息分享
第9节译成「完全」的一词，意思是成为完整。马太福音四章21节形容几个人在加利利海补网，用的就是这个字。
保罗祈求哥林多信徒能够回复原初的信仰，然后继续成长并追随基督。他在第11节再次敦促他们要「作完全人」。
对未得救的人来说，最迫切的需要是能够重生；对信徒来说，最迫切的需要是在基督里成长。
我们当中太多人仍然像属灵的婴儿。倘若我们属灵生命的成长，能够像肉身的成长那样一目了然的话，我们必定无比羞愧。
在动物世界，没有其他生物的成长期像人类那样长。也许，唯一需要更长时间成长的，就是那些迟迟不肯成长的基督徒。
我们在上天堂之前，是无法达致完全的；可是，在这个过程中，仍有很多成长的空间。我们如何才能成长？简单而言，我们需要适当的粮食──神的话语；适当的回应──愿意顺服圣灵；以及适当的环境──住在神的家中。
保罗在第14节的最后一句说话，可以理解为在基督里成长的结果──你将认识到神的祝福。
这正是我们最需要和最想要的，不是吗？我们要追求完全，追求成长。任何时间起步成长都不会嫌晚。求主帮助你从今天开始起步。
STANDING AND GROWING
2 Corinthians 13:9-11
9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete.
10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.
Greetings and Benediction
11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Message
The word 'perfection' in v.9 means to be made complete. It is used in Matthew 4:21 where the men were mending their fishing nets by the Sea of Galilee.
Paul's prayer was for the Corinthian Christians to be restored to the place where they had once been and even more to grow and go on in Christ. He said it again in v.11, 'Aim for perfection.'
The most urgent need for the unsaved is to be born again. The most urgent need for believers is to grow in Christ.
Too many of us are still like spiritual babies. If our spiritual life and growth could be seen as obviously as our physical condition, it might be humiliating.
In the natural world, no other creature has a childhood as long as the child of human parents. Perhaps the only one who takes longer is the believer who has never grown in Christ.
We will never reach perfection until we arrive in heaven but there is a lot of growing that can be done between now and then. How can we grow? Briefly we need the right diet of the Word of God, the right attitude to the indwelling Spirit of God, and the right environment among the family of God.
Paul's last words in v.14 could be seen as the result of growing in Christ - you will know the blessing of God.
That is what we want and need most of all, isn't that? 'Aim for perfection - Aim to grow.' It is never too late to start growing. Ask the Lord to help you start - or re-start today.