八福
恐外症
经文
约翰福音十五12-27
12你们要彼此相爱，像我爱你们一样；这就是我的命令。
13人为朋友舍命，人的爱心没有比这个大的。
14你们若遵行我所吩咐的，就是我的朋友了。
15以后我不再称你们为仆人，因仆人不知道主人所作的事。我乃称你们为朋友；因我从我父所听见的，已经都告诉你们了。
16不是你们拣选了我，是我拣选了你们，并且分派你们去结果子，叫你们的果子常存，使你们奉我的名，无论向父求甚么，他就赐给你们。
17我这样吩咐你们，是要叫你们彼此相爱。
18世人若恨你们，你们知道（或作：该知道），恨你们以先已经恨我了。
19你们若属世界，世界必爱属自己的；只因你们不属世界，乃是我从世界中拣选了你们，所以世界就恨你们。
20你们要记念我从前对你们所说的话：仆人不能大于主人。他们若逼迫了我，也要逼迫你们；若遵守了我的话，也要遵守你们的话。
21但他们因我的名要向你们行这一切的事，因为他们不认识那差我来的。
22我若没有来教训他们，他们就没有罪；但如今他们的罪无可推诿了。
23恨我的，也恨我的父。
24我若没有在他们中间行过别人未曾行的事，他们就没有罪；但如今连我与我的父，他们也看见也恨恶了。
25这要应验他们律法上所写的话，说：他们无故的恨我。
26但我要从父那里差保惠师来，就是从父出来真理的圣灵；他来了，就要为我作见证。
27你们也要作见证，因为你们从起头就与我同在。
信息分享
今天我们要继续默想第八福，也是八福中最后一福：「为义受逼迫的人有福了！因为天国是他们的」（太五10）。关于受苦和逼迫，有一个问题往往令人感到疑惑：为甚么基督徒做好事时总要受到逼迫，而非基督徒做同样的好事时却受人称赞？
有一位解经家指出，原因是当非基督徒做好事时，其他非基督徒觉得很容易接受他们，说：「这些人不过是与我做得最好的时候一样。」他们总会有这么的想法：「要是有机会，我很可能也同样做得到这样的事情。」这样，他们给予别人的称赞其实是称赞自己的一种方式。
可是，当一个基督徒做了好事时，是流露着另一个世界的气质，因此非基督徒不只是看到他们的好行为，也看到行为背后那不同的动机。他们感觉到这个人的不同，但是他们不能明白或解释那种不同，于是以恐惧来作为回应，而那恐惧也就变成了一种敌意。心理学家称这种恐惧为恐外症，这些人对不认识或不明白的人感到恐惧。这就是为甚么文士和法利赛人那么憎恨我们的主，不是因为祂良善，而是因为祂不同。这也就是耶稣基督对世界常常产生的影响。对基督徒来说，你越是能够反映基督的精神，也越会遭遇类似的经历。
「基督徒行善的原因是不同的」
进深研究
腓一1-14；西四3；提后一7-8
1.保罗怎样看逼迫？
2.他给提摩太的命令是甚么？
祈祷
天父，我知道如果我只是尝试做好事，世界会鼓掌；但如果我尝试活像基督，世界便会憎恨我。然而我渴望学像基督。亲爱的天父，求您帮助我，如果没有您的恩典，我甚么都做不到。奉主耶稣的名祈求，阿们。
The Beatitudes
"Xenophobia"
Bible reading:
John 15:12-27
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
17 This is my command: Love each other.
18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
20 Remember what I told you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.'[a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.
24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.
25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'[b]
26 "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Message
We continue meditating on the eighth and final Beatitude. One of the questions that has often puzzled people concerning this matter of suffering and persecution is this: Why is it that Christians, when they do good, are often persecuted, while non-Christians who do the same kind of good are adored?
One commentator suggests the reason for this is that when non- Christians do good, other non-Christians find it easy to identify with them and say to themselves: "These people are just like me when I am at my best." The thinking that goes on below the threshold of a non-Christian's mind when he sees other non-Christians doing good is along the line of: "I am probably capable of the same thing myself if the opportunity came my way." The admiration that is then given is a way of paying a compliment to oneself.
The Christian who does good has about him or her the atmosphere of another world, and because of this, the non-Christian observes, not just their act of good, but the different motivation that underlies the act. They sense that there is something different about this person, and because they cannot understand or explain the difference, they react with fear and the fear then turns to hostility. Psychologists have a name for this fear - xenophobia. It means fear of someone we do not know or understand. This is why the scribes and Pharisees hated our Lord so much. It wasn't because He was good; it was because He was different. This is the effect Jesus Christ always has upon the world. And to the extent that you reflect His spirit, to that extent you will experience the same reaction.
"A Christian's reason for doing good is different"
Prayer
O Father, I see that if I just try to do good, the world will applaud me, but if I try to become Christlike, it will hate me. Nevertheless I long to be Christlike. Help me, dear Father, for apart from Your grace, I know it is not possible. Amen.
Further study
Philippians 1:1-14
Colossians 4:3
2 Timothy 1:7-8
1. How did Paul view persecution?
2. What was his charge to Timothy?
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