八月三十一日[mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/08/0831.mp3″]
经文: 我们若在光明中行，如同上帝在光明中。（约翰一书一：7）
我们是否真能清楚地在光明中，如同我们称为“我们的父”的上帝一般？圣经上说：“上帝就是光，在祂毫无黑暗。”（约壹一：5）这是置于我们面前的典范，因为救主亲自说：“所以你们要完全，像你们的天父完全一样。”（太五：48）虽然我们感到自己永远不可能像上帝一样完全，但是要努力追求，在达到这个目标以前，永不满足。年轻的艺术家不敢奢求能和拉斐尔或米开兰基罗媲美。但是若他心目中没有一个杰出的模范，他只能制造出一些粗糙平凡的东西。基督徒要行在光明中，如同上帝在光明中一样，这里指的是在相似性上而非在程度上。我们要真实、热枕、恳切、并诚实地在光明中，但是我们不可能有像耶稣一般的程度。我不能住在太阳上，因为太明亮了，但是我可以行走在太阳光中。虽然我不能达到属于万军之耶和华的，在纯洁和真理上的完全，但是我能定睛在耶稣身上。因此，我能竭力，靠着内住圣灵的帮助，改变成祂的形像。约翰．特拉普写过一本新的诠释，说：“在质上，我们在光明中好像上帝在光明中一般，但并非在量上。”我们能和上帝有相同的光明并且行在其中。唯有等待，直至我们度过约但，进入至高者的完全之中，我们才可能与上帝的圣洁和沌净相等。神圣相交的福气和完全的洗净是与行在光明中相连结的。
Evening, August 31
Scripture: “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light.”(1 John 1:7)
As he is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as he is whom we call “Our Father,” of whom it is written, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all?” Certainly, this is the model which it set before us, for the Saviour himself said, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;” and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist, as he grasps his early pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but still, if he did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to his image. That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, “We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality.” We are to have the same light, and are as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though, as for equality with God in his holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.
