Book :
English : Pg. 187-214 / 中文 ： Pg. 308-349
(Audio PART 8)
到了第六单元（马太福音第六章），我们可以察觉到耶稣基督的教导和福音的内容是很反合性的 (paradox)。 反合性 因为我们不能用“律法主义”的角度去执行它，也同时不能用“反律法主义”的角度不去活出它来。 一边不能像”法利赛人和文士的义“，另一边我们又要活出胜过”法利赛和文士的义“，感觉要求苛刻严格，在没有比这更高的道德标准了。 耶稣基督的福音微妙和高明的地方就在这里，他讲的是的确可行的，他道成肉身在世上活过，也行过。 那是一种从心里、新的灵，链接与天国的生命。这种生命可以自然流露出这种的义和行为来。
Tim Keller 在《Central Church》里这样形容福音。 他说福音站在一边是“律法主义” (legalism) ，另一边是“反律法主义” (Antinomian) 两个极端的中间。 福音也站在一边是“宗教” (Religious),另一边是“反（无）宗教” （irreligious) 两个极端的中间。
还有，陶恕牧师 （AW Tozer) 在《顺服神》里有用飞鸟的一双翅膀的比喻，非常贴切和引人深思，与大家共勉之 ：－
“真理跟飞鸟一样，不能单靠一边翅膀飞行。但我们起飞的时候，却老是狂拍一边的翅膀，收起另一边不用。 有句话我相信是摩根（G Campbell Morgan) 说的：单单“经上记着说”这句话并不足以反映全部真理，惟有“经上记着说”再加上“经上又记着说”才足够。 也就是说，第二段经文必须摆在第一段旁边作对比。 惟有两段彼此对称和平衡，像飞鸟的一双翅膀那样互相配合，才能振翅高飞。
教会之所以存在着许多教义上的分歧，都是因为人盲目固执地坚持真理只有一支翅膀。争辩双方都各执一段经文，坚拒另一段经文的适切性。这错谬不但为祸教会，甚至茶毒了个别信徒的心灵，影响他们的灵命。这绝对是一椿悲剧。
基督徒的生活失去平衡，往往是因为过分强调某些自己偏爱的经文，而忽略了其他相关的经文所致。我们正身处困局：虽然在理论上接受一个真理，实际上却因疏于实践真理而令它失去果效。否定真理固然令真理在人身上失效，但长远来说，轻忽真理所造成的损害也不相上下。没有实行出来的真理，跟没使用过的肌肉一样，根本毫无用处。”
1. 第六单元，作者继续探讨马太福音第六章，延续第五章耶稣基督教导的内容思路发展。 耶稣基督在第六章的主题可以分两个；声望的陷阱 The Respectability Trap 和财富的枷锁 The Bondage of Wealth。作者将会在第七单元，深入探讨主祷文。
Jesus now, in Matthew 6, alerts us to the two main things that will block or hinder a life constantly interactive with God and healthy growth in the kingdom. These are the desire to have the approval of others, especially for being devout, and the desire to secure ourselves by means of material wealth. If we allow them to, these two desires will pull us out of the sway of the kingdom—“the range of God’s effective will,” as we have described it—and back into the barren “righteousness” of the scribe and the Pharisee.（Pg 188， Para 2-3）
2. 作者在这单元的开始简单总结前五单元的内容，并重提这两个问题的答案。
－ 什么是丰盛的生命 ？ What is the good life ?
－ 谁是⼀位好人（义人）？ Who is a good person ?
还有，讲解“神圣的密谋”的意义，和基督徒以善胜恶的远景。
“And genuinely good people are those who, from the deepest levels of their understanding and motivation, are committed to promoting the good of everyone they deal with—including, of course, God and themselves. In this they have, with God’s assistance, gone beyond rightness understood as merely “not doing anything wrong”—beyond the goodness of scribes and Pharisees—and are acting from their inward union of mind and heart with “the heavens.”’
It is their confidence in Jesus that has placed them into a living union with The Kingdom Among Us. Their union with Jesus allows them now to be a part of his conspiracy to undermine the structures of evil, which continue to dominate human history, with the forces of truth, freedom, and love. We can quietly and relentlessly align ourselves with these forces, wherever they are, because we know what is cosmically afoot. To “overcome evil with good,” in the apostle Paul’s words, is not just something for an individual effort here and there, is actually what will come to pass on this earth. The power of Jesus’ resurrection and his continuing life in human beings assures of this.” (Pg 187, Para 2 - Pg 188, Para 1)
3. 声望的陷阱 The Respectability Trap （pg 188-202,页311-332）
Desire for religious respect or reputation will immediately drag us into the rightness of scribes and Pharisees because that desire always focuses entirely upon the visible action, not on the source of action in the heart （Pg 188，Para 4）
i。外表形式的表达并不是关键，我们的心才是关键，。
Of course by now we surely know that we are not to be in bondage to external forms, or to their absence. The form could be wrong and the heart be right, or the form right and the heart wrong. （Pg 189， Para 4）
ii。我们与神的关系和认识祂的性情，是逃避声望陷阱的重点。
“This goes along with the personal nature of God and of our relationship to him. As we saw earlier, God does not like to be present where he is not wanted. And he knows when he is wanted and when he is not. Similarly, where people are really seeking a response from someone else, he does not intrude—generally speaking. So when our aim is to impress human beings with how devout we are, he lets us do that and stands aside. Of course, he will eventually have his day. There will be a “day of the Lord,” his turn at bat, as it were. On the other hand, if we live unto God alone, he responds to our expectations— which are of him alone.” （Pg. 190, Para 3-4）
iii。 很有趣的能知道，“假冒为善”是耶稣基督所独创的伦理词汇，因为他对我们的内心和与神的关系的重视。
A special word about “the hypocrites” is required here. It is a term used by Jesus alone in the New Testament, and he uses it seventeen times. The term hypocrite in classical Greek primarily refers to an actor, such as one sees on the stage, but it came to refer also to anyone who practices deceit. It is clear from the literary records that it was Jesus
alone who brought this term and the corresponding character into the moral vocabulary of the Western world. He did so because of his unique emphasis upon the moral significance of the inmost heart before God. As we are creative beings, our heart is who we really are. （Pg 191 , Para 3）
iv。耶稣指引我们从看超越行动本身，到行动的源头。
But we must never forget that Jesus points beyond action to the source of action in character. This is a general principle that governs all he says. The kind of people who have been so transformed by their daily walk with God that good deeds naturally flow from their character are precisely the kind of people whose left hand would not notice what their right hand is doing （Pg 192, Para 4）
v. 谈到禁食 － 属灵的粮食
But Jesus himself knew that when we have learned how to fast “in secret,” our bodies and our souls will be directly sustained by the invisible kingdom. We will not be miserable. But we certainly will be different. And our abundant strength and our joy will come in ways a purely physical human existence in “the flesh” does not know. It will come from those sources that “are in secret.” （Pg 196, Para 3）
He told us that he was to be “eaten”: “He who eats me shall live by me,…and shall live forever” (John 6:51). He, not the manna, is “the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die” (vv. 48–50). The practice of fasting goes together with this teaching about nourishing ourselves on the person of Jesus. It emphasizes the direct availability of God to nourish, sustain, and renew the soul. It is a testimony to the reality of another world from which Jesus and his Father perpetually intermingle their lives with ours (John 14:23). And the effects of our turning strongly to this true “food” will be obvious. （Pg 199, Para 3）
vi。作者给操练（Dicipline) （包括属灵的操练）微妙的定义 - A discipline is an activity in our power that we do to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort. 操练是以你的能力去做的一些活动，以致促使你能去做不是你直接努力就可以做到的事。
The discipline of secrecy will help us break the grip of human opinion over our souls and our actions. “A discipline is an activity in our power that we do to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.” Jesus is here leading us into the discipline of secrecy. （Pg 200, Para 5）
vii。 在教会里的声望陷阱，我们怕人怎么看我们，还是怕神怎么看我们。
A few years ago Clyde Reid wrote a painfully incisive discussion of how our church activities seem to be structured around evading God. His “law of religious evasion” states, “We structure our churches and maintain them so as to shield us from God and to protect us from genuine religious experience. (Pg 201 Para 4)
There is very little time and occasion for openness in most of our gatherings because we fear it. We think it may lead to confrontation, anger, and divisiveness. We are not open because we fear what others will think of us and do to us. If we honestly compared the amount of time in church spent thinking about what others think or might think with the amount of time spent thinking about what God is thinking, we would probably be shocked. Those of us in congregational leadership need to think deeply about this. (Pg 202, Para 1)
4. 财富的枷锁 The Bondage of Wealth (pg 203-213，页332-347）
Jesus continues his warning about seeking security outside of the kingdom by teaching us about our treasures. Treasures are things we try to keep because of a value we place upon them. They may be of no value whatsoever in themselves; nevertheless, we take great pains to protect such things. Thus we are said to treasure them. (Pg 203 Para 1)
i。在服侍财富和神之间，我们只可以选一位。 这决定你的心是归谁的。
Of course we may also treasure things other than material goods: for example, our reputation, or our relationship to another person, another person, or the security or reputation of our school or our business or our country. The most important commandment of the Judeo-Christian tradition is to treasure God and his realm more than anything else. That is what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Pg 203 Para 2)
ii。我们的心，也可以等同于我们的意志和灵。它是我们生命的指挥中心。 心里的光是光明的，全身就光明；里头的光若黑暗，那黑暗是何等大呢 （马太6:22-23）
Not only can we have complete protection and security of our treasures in this way, but our life as a whole, our living, also now comes into proper alignment with reality. Our souls are now suited to deal with things because we see clearly. Our treasure focuses our heart. “Your heart will be where what you treasure is,” Jesus tells us (Matt. 6:21).
Remember that our heart is our will, or our spirit: the center of our being from which our life flows. It is what gives orientation to everything we do. A heart rightly directed therefore brings health and wholeness to the entire personality. To bring this truth home to us, Jesus compares our “heartsight” to our eyesight (Pg 2016 , Para 3)
5. 虽然我们从声望的陷阱和财富的枷锁里得自由，我们还是会面对生活的波浪、苦难和困境。 但是，神的应许是够我们用的。 我们不用惧怕，因为我们是沐浴在上帝的世界里（还记得第三单元的主题吗？）。
The one who takes on the character of the Prince of Life will not be exempted from the usual problems of life, and in addition will have the problems that come from “not fitting in” and being incapable of conforming to the world order, new or old. This will not infrequently mean death or imprisonment or exclusion from the economy or education, and so on. All of these things have happened repeatedly in our history. (Pg 214, Para 1)
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