我们今天继续思想诗篇七十三篇里的重要讯息。我们发现，阻止诗人双脚滑倒的不是他察觉到自己与神的关系，而是他察觉到自己与弟兄姊妹之间的关系。这真是有点令人难以置信。那也许不是他的最高属灵原则，但却拯救他脱离了灾难。

保罗在今天的信息谈及的就是这件事──我们彼此之间的关系。我肯定你很熟悉哥林多前书八和十章的经文，保罗在那里详细讨论这个问题，他说：「我说的良心，不是你的，乃是他的，我这自由为甚么被别人的良心论断呢？」（林前十29）。换句话说，你可能感到没有必要为了自己的缘故、而避免吃祭过偶像的肉，因为你的良心没有受到责备，但你那较为软弱的弟兄又怎么样呢？基督也同样为他而死的啊。

你知道吗？「我们没有一个人为自己活」，所以下次当魔鬼企图诱骗你相信你被孤立，并让你感到难过的时候，就对它引述这段经文吧。我们并非在孤立中行动；如果你跌倒，你不是独个儿跌倒，是整个教会都跌倒。如果没有别的事情能够阻止你犯错的话，要记得你所属的群体，记得你是天上家庭的一分子，当你跌倒的时候，其他人也同时跌倒。

It seems almost unbelievable that the thing which stopped the psalmist's feet from slipping and sliding was not the awareness of his relationship with God but the awareness of his relationship with his brothers and sisters. It might not have been the highest spiritual principle he could have held on to, but it saved him from disaster.

It is this matter - our relationship with one another - that Paul is speaking about in today's passage. You will be familiar, I am sure, with the passages in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 where Paul enlarges on this subject and where, in a remarkable statement, he says: "I mean for the sake of his conscience, not yours, do not eat it. For why should another man's scruples apply to me, and my liberty of action be determined by his conscience? (1 Cor. 10:29, Amplified Bible). He is saying, in other words, that you might see no need to refrain from eating meat offered to idols for your own sake, because your conscience is not offended, but what about your weaker brother for whom Christ also died?

You see, "none of us lives to himself alone", so when next the devil tries to convince you that you are an isolated case and that what he is suggesting concerns you and you alone, quote this verse to him. We do not act in isolation; if you fall, you do not fall alone, the whole Church falls also. If nothing else can stop you from doing wrong, remember the people to whom you belong, remember you are part of a heavenly family, and that when you fall, others fall with you.