THE CHRISTIAN WAY (基督教底蕴:十之十)


By DR W. R. MATTHEWS

Thus the problem of conduct is always a matter for delicate, and sometimes agonizing, reflection. On the one hand we have to keep steadily in view the absolute good, which is displayed for us in the Sermon on the Mount, while, on the other hand, we must recognize the need for suiting our actions to the conditions prevailing at the time. Always our actions must be open to the charge of compromise, and we must feel that what we do is short of what would be ideally right; all practical activity is an adjustment of the ideal to the possible. Of course we can, and do deceive ourselves and too often allow expediency to have so much influence on our motives that the ideal is forgotten and we adopt the standards of "the world". But this need not happen. We can grow in the "wisdom of the serpent" of which Jesus spoke and become good strategists in the cause of the Kingdom of God, seizing every opportunity to help forward the realization of the absolute ideal. In all Christian action there is the tension between the absolute good and the relative good which is practicable.

  这么说,行为的问题永远是一种需要细加考虑、而且有时会令人苦恼的事。一方面,我们需要坚定地注视绝对的善,那就是在山上宝训明白地告诉我们的,而在另一方面,让我们的行为能适合现时的情况,也是我们必得认识清楚的。我们的行为永远要面对“妥协”的冲击,我们一定会感到我们所做的,不能达到理想的适当程度;所有实际的活动都是把理想调节到可能做到的地步。当然,我们会(也的确会)欺骗自己,我们往往允许“权宜”影响到我们的动机,竟至把理想忘掉,从而采取“一般”的标准。不过,事情大可不必如此。 我们能够在耶稣谈到的“蛇的智慧”中成长,成为上主王国运动中的优秀战略家,把握每一个机会,以帮助推行绝对理想底实现。在所有基督徒的行为中,绝对的善跟相对的可推行的善之间,会有某种紧张的存在。

The Sermon on the Mount, when we look carefully at it, appears to be an account of the motives and conduct which would be natural in a perfectly harmonious and affectionate family; and that doubtless was how Jesus thought of the Kingdom. It was the family of the Heavenly Father. In such a family, the claims and counter claims of individuals would be easily adjusted. The need of one would be spontaneously supplied by the others, and the use of force and law to restrain aggressors would fade away. So it would be in the fully realized Kingdom of God. We do not read much about progress in the New Testament, but, strangely enough, it gives us the only intelligible meaning of that vague word. It is futile to talk about progress unless we have some clear idea of a goal towards which we want to move, for without such an idea we have no means of distinguishing between progress, regress and mere change.

  当我们仔细地考虑时,山上的宝训显示的是有关动机和行为的叙述,很自然地适用于一个极度和谐而亲密的家庭;那也无疑是耶稣想到的王国的情景。那是天父的家。在那样的家庭中,每个人的要求和对方的相应要求不难加以调节。个别人的需要有他人自动地供给,使用武力和法律以强制冒犯者会逐渐消失。在一个充分实现的上主王国中将是那样的。我们在新约中读到有关进步的报道不多,但是,非常奇怪的是,对于“进步”那一意义含混的词,却是新约给了我们仅有的明智的含义。除非我们对于想要前往的目标有一个清晰的概念,谈论进步是无用的;没有那样的概念,我们没有办法分辨进步、退步或者只是变化。

Would it necessarily be "Progress", in any real sense, if we succeeded in landing on the Moon or on Mars? We have no reason to suppose that human beings would be nobler, happier or more peaceful on Mars than they are on the earth. The accumulation of knowledge and power in itself, as we have learned by bitter experience, may augment the resources of tyranny and enlarge the area of oppression, terror and anxiety. We have our criterion of progress in the Kingdom of God as Jesus presents it to our imaginations. Every movement towards it is progress and every movement away is regress. Probably, in its perfection, it cannot be established in the present world, but human society could be indefinitely transformed by nearer approximations to the pattern than we have yet envisaged, and it is the duty of a Christian to be vigilant that his actions and words are for the Kingdom and not against it. Brotherhood and peace are created in the thoughts and wills and imaginations of men by the Spirit of God, and only new men can make a new world.

  如果我们成功地登陆月球或是火星,按任何实际意义而言,那就必定是“进步”吗?我们没有理由猜测,人类在火星上会比在地球上更为高尚、更为快乐、更为和平。我们从痛苦的经验中学习到,积聚知识和权力的本身倒可能会增加专制统治的资源,并扩大压迫、恐怖和忧虑的范围。在耶稣对我们的想象所提出的上主王国中,我们拥有着测量进步的准绳。每一个走向上主王国的步子就是进步,每一个偏离上主王国的步子就是退步。就其完美境地而言,也许这王国在目前的世界无法完成,但是人类的社会可以无限度地转变,一步步地接近完美的模式,而做到超出我们敢于设想的成就;基督徒的责任是提高警觉,他的一言一行都有助于王国,而不是对王国不利。同胞关系与和平是人们藉上帝的精神在他们的思想和意志以及想象中创造出来的,只有新人类能创造一个新世界。

So my account of my Christian philosophy of life comes to an end - but not to a conclusion. For there is very much more that should be said. Christianity can be a guide and inspiration to the simple and a subject of endless reflection to the enquiring mind. There is always more to be learned and fresh problems to engage the intellect. It is the way of peace, but it is not free from tension. The faith attitude is not to be preserved without the constant direction of the will and, as we have observed, tension between the ideal and the possible is inseparable from the Christian life, while worst of all is the tension between the goal that is set before us and our actual selves as they function day by day. Any Christian who sets out in words, however imperfectly, what he understands his religion to mean as a philosophy of life must end with the cry, "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner".

  如此这般,我所叙述我的基督教人生哲学就要结束——但是并未获得一个结论。因为该说的话还有很多。基督教义可以当作淳朴之人的指针和灵感,对于有研究兴趣的人是一个可以不断思索的题目。可学习的题材总是那么多,可供知识界探讨的新问题也是那么多。这就是走向和平的道路,但也不是没有紧张情势。没有意志的经常指导,我们对信仰的坚定态度不可能维持,而且,正如同我们所觉察到的,理想与可行之间的紧张情势跟基督徒的生活不可分割,最坏的紧张情势是界乎我们设定的目标,和我们自己每天的作为之间。任何基督徒把他所了解的自己的宗教对自己的人生哲学有什么意义,用文字表达出来,不管他写成什么模样,到最后必然会大声地喊叫,“主啊,请对我这个孽徒宽恕吧”。 [全文完]