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一条戒律……不可分割 | One Commandment…Inseparable – Pastor Andy Yee

我们生活在一个往往将事物看成非此即彼的世界中：

民主党或共和党

黑色或白色

正确或错误

好或坏

信徒或非信徒

忠诚或不忠

我们或他们

如果我们主要以二元的方式看待生活……我想知道这是否会使我们难以理解耶稣今天可能向我

们提供的新的视野和愿景。

一条戒律……一个人类……一个上帝。

愿主的恩典与平安与你们同在，我在基督里的兄弟姐妹——来自我们的主和救主耶稣基督！阿

门。

这并不容易。

即使耶稣的回答开头提到的是两条戒律：一个第一戒律……以及第二个戒律。

将它们视为两个独立戒律的问题在于，当我们无法同时实现这两者时，我们可能会被愚弄地以为

其中一个可以在没有另一个的情况下实现。

让我从两方面展示可能的情况，看看这是否曾经发生在我们身上……

我们是否曾发现自己很难对某人表现出足够的恩典或爱心……也许是因为他们持有的某种立场

与我们不同，或与我们认为上帝想要的不同……或者因为他们以某种方式背叛了我们……甚至违

反了十诫中的一条？

我们是如何反应的？

我们是否曾为了优先爱上帝而辩护自己不能爱邻居？

看看我们是否犯过另一方面的错误。

我们是否曾让一种社会正义的立场成为衡量某人是否信奉正确的上帝，或是否与我们是同一种基

督徒的试金石？

我们应该记住，尽管耶稣一开始提到了两条戒律，但他最后总结说，这其实只是一个戒律。

耶稣说：“……再没有比这些更大的诫命了”（马可福音12:31）。

不幸的是，我认为这种细微差别在中文中无法体现……但在希腊语中可以，在英语中也可以。

“戒律”这个词是一个单数名词……而不是复数。

这些情况哪一种让你感到熟悉吗？

我承认，对我来说，它们确实很熟悉！

我并不擅长把这两条戒律看成一个不可分割的戒律。

我承认，有时我为了上帝的律法，太轻易地放弃了真正去爱某个人。

我承认，我有时会根据一个人在社会正义问题上的立场来判断他们是“自己人”还是“外人”。

我在这里已经坦白了很多！

然而，我想知道，这是否正是我们需要开始的地方……从忏悔开始。

也许当我们从忏悔开始时，我们会最开放地去以不同的方式看待，并准备好接受挑战、惊喜，甚

至改变。

带着忏悔的心，我承认自己难以看清，如果我想要看到新的方向，我需要依靠上帝的帮助。

几天前，Nathan问我，当这个教会迎接一位新牧师时，我们会用怎样的一种仪式。

当那个时刻到来时，整个仪式中你会反复听到一句话：“在上帝的帮助下，我愿意”。

有些时候我们会邀请牧师这样回应。

有些时候我们也会要求会众以同样的方式回应。

也许忏悔正是我们应该开始的地方。

我想知道，忏悔之后我们还能做些什么？

也许我们应该花时间和精力去练习一种我们不习惯的看待和理解的方式。

没有练习，我们能指望学到新的东西吗？

我小时候，为了学会走路，必须反复练习。

我们不也是需要练习才能学会弹钢琴，或在数学上取得好成绩，或保持身体健康吗？

也许我们需要练习一种不同的爱的方法，如果我们希望像基督所期望的那样，通过这不可分割的

戒律去爱。

让我分享一种我们可以练习爱上帝和彼此的新方式，一个不可分割的戒律。

我要分享的是来自作家戴安娜·巴特勒·巴斯的一些内容，但这种爱的方式来自耶稣。

几个世纪以来，西方人普遍认为，宗教信仰的开始在于相信某些事情。

这种信念会引导人们去遵守正确的行为，比如学习新的祈祷词，服务穷人，戒烟戒酒，努力做一个

更好的人。

最后，你成为一名成员，加入教会。

顺序是信仰、行为和归属感。

我们可能会问：“当涉及到他的门徒时，耶稣也是这样做的吗？”

记住……这是一个试图挑战我们去看待这两条戒律为一个不可分割的戒律的耶稣。

让我们更仔细地看看耶稣对待他的门徒的方式。

在马可福音第一章中，马可说：“耶稣沿着加利利海边走，看见西门和他兄弟安得烈在海里撒网，

他们是渔夫。耶稣对他们说：‘来跟从我，我要叫你们得人如得鱼一样’。”

他没有要求他们的简历。他没有问他们信什么。他没有检查他们是民主党人还是共和党人，是信

徒还是非信徒，有学位与否，白人、黑人或亚洲人……也没有判断他们是否可接受或不可接受。

耶稣在建立一个群体，简单地说：“跟从我”……你们属于这里……是的，你，西门，你，安得烈，你，

雅各，你，约翰……你们属于这里！

当然，彼得，“磐石”，后来会承认耶稣是基督，并且耶稣说“我要在这磐石上建造我的教会”……但

那是很久以后了。

耶稣，以上帝的新人类的视野，和上帝对人类激进的爱中，首先说：“你属于这里！”

一条不可分割的戒律。

也许是因为他们在耶稣身上感受到的爱如此不同，他们才会这样回应：“耶稣立刻呼召他们；他们

就撇下父亲西庇太在船上，跟着耶稣去了”（马可福音1:20）。

跟随耶稣的早期群体是一个实践的群体。

耶稣的跟随者不是围坐在火旁听关于基督教神学的讲座。

他们听的是教他们如何彼此对待和在世界上如何行事的故事。

他们医治人，提供接待，彼此祈祷，挑战传统习俗和仪式，服侍病人，安慰悲伤者，禁食，并且宽

恕。这些行动开启了一个新的上帝的视野。

通过一起行动，他们开始以不同的方式看待。

耶稣没有说，“有信心，一切都会变好。”

耶稣的门徒们是贫穷的，他们被历史上最残酷的帝国之一压迫着。

有信心？信心在何处？信心在于一个姗姗来迟的弥赛亚？

相反，当耶稣走过时他说：“跟随我”……并给了他们要做的事情。

他先展示给他们如何做……然后是他们练习的机会。

如果他们希望世界能够神奇地改变……耶稣现在邀请他们改变世界……“愿你的旨意行在地上，

如同行在天上”。

我们需要怎样的激进之爱才能真正看到上帝梦想的新世界？一条不可分割的戒律。

彼得的信仰告白源于他与耶稣的友谊，以及他们一起做的事。

这个告白源于属于一个群体的经历，在这个群体中他有机会实践不同的生活和爱“爱人如己”的方

式。

它不是来自某种教条或神学书籍，而是来自圣灵。

它源于属于一个群体，有机会实践对所有人的深厚和激进的爱，这才让他能告白：“你是基督，永

生神的儿子。”

也许，如果这确实是一个不可分割的戒律，而我们希望理解这个上帝为新的人类创造的愿景，那

么耶稣执行其事工的顺序确实很重要。

当你们今天辨别一个新的牧师伙伴和事工的方向时，我鼓励你们在基督中保持坚定，辨别并欢迎

新的事工伙伴与你们一起事奉。

我们的一位上帝邀请我们生活在一个新的、由不可分割的一条戒律引导的合一人类中。愿上帝保

佑。

We live in a world where we often see things as one thing or another thing: 

• democrat or republican 

• black or white 

• right or wrong 

• good or bad 

• believer or unbeliever 

• faithful or unfaithful 

• us or them 

If we primarily see life in a binary way…I wonder if it makes it difficult for us to understand a new vision that Jesus might be offering us today.   

One commandment…one humanity…one God. 

Grace and peace to you, my siblings in Christ– from our Lord and Savior Jesus as our Christ!  Amen. 

It’s not easy.   

Even the first part of Jesus’ response refers to two commandments: a first one…and a second one.   

The problem with seeing them as two separate commandments is that when we can’t find a way for both to exist at the same time that we might be fooled into thinking that one can actually be accomplished without the other.   

Let me show you what it might look likes from both sides and see if this has ever happened to us before… 

Have we ever found it too hard to show enough grace or love to someone…maybe because a certain position that they held that was different than ours or different from what we thought God would want…or maybe because they betrayed us in some way…or even broke one of the 10-commandments?   

How did we react?   

Did we ever justify a non-loving attitude towards our neighbor in favor of our need to love God first? 

Let’s see if we’ve ever made a mistake the other way.   

Have we ever allowed a social justice position to be the litmus test for determining whether or not someone is following the right God or not…or whether they are the same kind of Christian that we are? 

It would be good for us to remember that although Jesus begins by talking about two commandments…Jesus ends by summarizing that these are actually only one commandment.   

Jesus says: “…there is no other commandment greater than these” (v 31).   

Unfortunately, I don’t think that this nuance comes through in Chinese…but it does in Greek and it can in English.   

The word “commandment” is a noun that is singular…not plural.   

Do any of these ways feel familiar?   

I’ll confess that that they feel familiar to me!   

I have not been an expert in seeing these two commandments as one commandment that really cannot be separated.   

I confess that I have sometimes too easily given up on really loving someone in favor of God’s laws.   

I confess that I have been guilty of determining if someone is an insider or outsider based on where they land on social justice issues.   

I’ve confessed a lot here!   

I wonder, though, if this is exactly where we need to start…with confession.   

Maybe when we begin with confession we might be the most open to seeing differently and be ready to be challenged, surprised, and even changed.   

With a confessing heart, I admit that I have a hard time seeing and that if I am going to be able to see a new way at all I will need to do it with God’s help.   

Nathan was asking me a few days ago about what kind of service we might be when this congregation welcomes in a new pastor.   

A phrase that you will hear repeated throughout that service, when it comes, will be: “I will with the help of God.”   

There will be times when we will invite the pastor to respond this way.   

There will also be times when we will ask you as the congregation to respond in the same way.   

Maybe confession is the exact place where we should start. 

I wonder if there is something else that we might do after confessing.   

Maybe we should spend time and energy practicing a way of seeing and understanding in ways that we are not used to seeing and understanding.   

Without practicing, can we ever expect to learn something new?   

When I was little, I had to practice a lot to be able to learn how to walk.   

Don’t we also need to practice to learn how to play the piano, or to be good at math, or to be physically fit?   

Maybe we need to practice a different way of loving if we ever hope to love as Christ hopes that we can love through this one commandment that cannot be separated. 

Let me share one way that we might practice loving God and each other differently with one commandment that cannot be separated.   

I’m going to share something from an author named Diana Butler Bass but the model of loving comes from Jesus.  

For several centuries, Western people have generally assumed that religious commitment begins when one believes certain things.   

That belief then leads to proper behavior like learning new prayers, serving the poor, giving up smoking or drinking, and trying to be a better person.   

Finally, you become a member and join the church.   

The order is believing, behaving, and belonging.   

The question that we might ask is: “When it came to his own disciples, did Jesus do it this way?”   

Remember…this is a Jesus that is trying to challenge us to see two commandments now as one commandment that is inseparable.   

Let’s take a closer look at what Jesus did with his disciples.   

Back in the first chapter of Mark, Mark 1:16, Mark says: “As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fisherman. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.””   

He didn’t ask for their resume.  He didn’t ask what they believed.  He didn’t check to see if they were democrats or republicans, believers or unbelievers, if they had a degree or not, white or black or Asian…or anything that made the acceptable or unacceptable.   

Jesus was forming a community and simply said “follow me”…you belong…yes, you Simon, you Andrew, you James, you John…you belong!   

Sure, Peter, “the rock,” would make a confession that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus said that upon “this rock” I will build my church…but that was much later.   

Jesus, in God’s vision for a new humanity and in the radical love of God, first says: “You belong!”   

One commandment that cannot be separated.   

Maybe because the love that they were experiencing with Jesus was so radically different that they responded the way that they did: “Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with hired men, and followed him” (v 20). 

The early community that followed Jesus was a community of practice.  

Jesus’ followers did not sit around a fire and listen to lectures on Christian theology.  

They listened to stories that taught them how to act toward one another and what to do in the world.  

They healed people, offered hospitality, prayed together, challenged traditional practices and rituals, ministered to the sick, comforted the grieving, fasted, and forgave. These actions opened up a new vision of God.  

By doing things together, they began to see differently.   

Jesus didn’t come along and say, “Have faith and everything will get better.”   

Jesus’ disciples were poor.  They were oppressed by one of history’s most vicious empires.   

Have faith?  Have faith in what?  Have faith in a Messiah that is late in arriving?   

Instead, when Jesus walked by he said, “Follow me”…and he gave them something to do.   

First he showed them how to do it…and then it was their turn to practice it.   

If they were hoping that the world would somehow magically change…Jesus was now inviting them to change the world…“on earth as it is in heaven.”   

What kind of radical love do we need to practice so that we can really see the new world that God is dreaming about?  One commandment that cannot be separated. 

Peter’s confession of faith grew out of his friendship with Jesus and the things that they had done together.   

The confession came out of the experience of being a part of community where he belonged and was invited to practice a different way of living and loving “your neighbor as yourself.”   

It did not come from a doctrine or a theology book.  It came from the Spirit.   

It came from belonging to a community, having the change to practice deep and radical love for all, and that then allowed him to confess: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”   

Maybe if it is really just one commandment that cannot be separated, and we hope to understand this new vision of God for a new humanity made in God’s image, maybe the order in which Jesus did his ministry really matters. 

As you discern a new partner and pastor for ministry today, I encourage you to continue to be grounded in Christ in your discernment and how you welcome a new partner to minister with and among you.   

Our one God invites us to live into one new humanity guided one commandment that really cannot be separated.  God bless.