婚姻中的福音 (趙武夷長老)
在以弗所書的第一章裡面,使徒保羅論述了福音就是經由耶穌基督的救贖,我們的過犯得以赦免,有了神兒女的名份。在人與人關係當中,夫妻關係可說是最為重要但也是最具挑戰的一種。在Gary Thomas的「神聖的婚姻」一書中他說到:「如果你想自由地服事耶穌,毫無疑問,保持單身是最好的選擇,婚姻會消耗你很多時間。但是,如果你想變得更像耶穌,我想不出有甚麼比結婚更好的方法了,在婚姻裡,你不得不面對一些你永遠不必面對的品格問題。」婚姻的確是操練我們屬靈品格最好的學校。今天我們要談的就是婚姻中的福音。
保羅從聖靈的啟示中得到了一個奧秘,丈夫與妻子聯合成為一體,就是預表了教會與基督的關係。夫妻的不完全、衝突與矛盾,唯有在耶穌基督的福音裡才能尋得答案,就是效法主耶穌的謙卑與順福,捨己的愛、福音是婚姻的好消息!
以弗所書 5:21-33 (和合本)
- 又當存敬畏基督的心,彼此順服。
- 你們做妻子的,當順服自己的丈夫,如同順服主;
- 因為丈夫是妻子的頭,如同基督是教會的頭,他又是教會全體的救主。
- 教會怎樣順服基督,妻子也要怎樣凡事順服丈夫。
- 你們做丈夫的,要愛你們的妻子,正如基督愛教會,為教會捨己,
- 要用水藉著道把教會洗淨,成為聖潔,
- 可以獻給自己,做個榮耀的教會,毫無玷汙、皺紋等類的病,乃是聖潔沒有瑕疵的。
- 丈夫也當照樣愛妻子,如同愛自己的身子,愛妻子便是愛自己了。
- 從來沒有人恨惡自己的身子,總是保養顧惜,正像基督待教會一樣,
- 因我們是他身上的肢體。
- 為這個緣故,人要離開父母,與妻子聯合,二人成為一體。
- 這是極大的奧祕,但我是指著基督和教會說的。
- 然而你們各人都當愛妻子,如同愛自己一樣;妻子也當敬重她的丈夫。
Ephesians 5:21-33 (NIV)
- Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
- Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.
- For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
- Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
- Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
- to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word,
- and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
- In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
- After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—
- for we are members of his body.
- “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
- This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
- However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.