The Intruders (Part One) 谁在入侵 （上）

My image is really important to me. I like my image of being strong and vibrant, the image of a rugged individualist, who does what is necessary, who gets the job done, who gives help, but doesn’t need help, who cares deeply about people, but doesn’t need people to take care of him.

对我而言，我的形象真的很重要。我欣赏自己强壮而有活力的形象，粗狂的个人主义者，总是要做必要的事情；总是独立完成一切；总是帮助他人，而不是被帮助；总是很关心他人，但不需要别人的照顾。

Trust me, I hate being weak and needy. Now, I don’t know what your hang-ups are, but these are mine; and yes, I do know mine are pretty bad. But this I also know: all of us have an image of ourselves that we like and value. And when that image is attacked, it feels like death.

请相信我的话，我很不喜欢自己显得软弱和穷困。我不知道你的顾忌是什么，但这是我的担忧。我知道，我这很不好。我还知道，我们每个人的形象就是自己喜好和价值。当自己的形象受到攻击，那感觉就像面临死亡一样。

Everyone likes to appear strong and in control, and everyone likes to feel loved and valued; and when that sense is taken from us, we feel broken to our core.  But that’s the problem.  To have a real faith, you have to be weak; and that is a hard thing to swallow.  But the best faith is weak faith.

人人都喜欢显得刚强，有控制力；人人都喜欢得到爱，被看重。一旦这个感觉被夺了去，我们就感到被击垮，垮到骨子里。这就是问题所在。要想拥有真实的信心，就必须要软弱下来；这让人很难吞咽。但是，最佳的信心是软弱的信心。

Image is everything. Ask Saul before he became the apostle Paul, and he would tell you.  He would line up his pedigree, his education, his principles, and his accomplishments; and he would tell you all the things he was absolutely committed to in his life. He would tell you who he studied under, who he surpassed, and who he saw as friends and who his enemies were. And he could talk for hours about his convictions, his zeal, his unrelenting passions. There was not a weak bone in his body. 

形象即是一切。问问后来成为使徒保罗的扫罗，他会告诉你，向你罗列他的血统、他的教育、他的教义、他的成就；他还会告诉你他毕生委身的一切，他在什么人的门下修学，他在学识上超过了谁，把什么人看成朋友，什么人看成仇敌。他能谈上几个小时，讲述自己的信念、热忱、不屈不挠的激情。在他的身体里，找不到任何一块儿软弱的骨头。

Flash forward 24 years. Intruders had come into the Corinthian church and had almost completely undermined Paul’s ministry and had moved the church subtly away from Christ. Only a few faithful stalwarts were holding the church together. And remember, this was a church that Paul founded. He had given his all to this church, but now they were on the verge of forsaking him and Christ. 

镜头向前推进24年。有一些入侵者走进了哥林多教会。他们几乎挖空了保罗的事工，悄悄地把教会转离了基督。只剩下几个忠心的人支撑着教会。别忘了，这是保罗亲自建立的教会。他把自己全部的心血都给了这个教会，可现如今他们开始背叛他、背叛基督。

You may ask how such a thing could have happened. It was simple, actually. All it took was four steps. First, these intruders had questioned Paul’s spirituality while magnifying their own.

大家可能会问，怎么会发生这样的事情呢？其实很简单，总共才用了四个步骤。一，这些入侵者质疑保罗的灵性，夸大自己的灵性。

Second, they disregarded the defining marks of discipleship and replaced them with their own brand of devotion, a devotion that was much easier to swallow and much more in tune with the prevailing culture. 

二，他们丢弃门徒职分的关键性特征，用他们自制的忠诚品牌替代，就是更较为人们接受，更与当时流行文化合拍的忠诚。

Three, they seized upon every hint in the gospels that spoke of power, of exaltation, of freedom, of glory, of triumph, and of victorious Christian living and relegated to insignificance all traces of humility, of brokenness, of weakness, of suffering and of waiting. 

三，他们扑捉福音书中每一个提及大能、高举、自由、荣耀、得胜、基督徒的得胜生活的线索，但把谦卑、破碎、软弱、承受苦难和耐心守候都贬为无足轻重。

And four, they devalued the way of the cross while they escalated the importance of positive spiritual experiences, of emotional highs, and of personal blessings.  In short, they made following Jesus attractive and exciting to the masses. And as a result, Paul looked weak and ineffective and old and out of touch, while these intruders looked strong and vibrant and wonderful.

四，他们拉低十字架道路的价值，而高抬正面的灵里体验，情绪高潮，和个人祝福。简言之，他们把跟随耶稣变成了迷人的、激动人心的大众行为。结果是，保罗就显得软弱、无效、古旧、不合时宜了，而这些入侵者就显得强壮、有活力、出色。

One day, Paul was “the man,” the one who brought most of them to Christ and who had, humanly-speaking, given them their faith, their hope, and their love for God and for others. And then these intruders came into the church; and in a flash, Paul was seen as shallow, superficial and incredibly, even embarrassingly, weak and ineffective. 

曾经的某一天，保罗还是一个“行家”，把他们大都带到基督面前。从人的角度说，是他给了他们信心、盼望和对上帝与他人的爱心。接着，这些入侵者走进教会。转瞬间，保罗被看成浅显、浮表、甚至是让人尴尬地出奇的软弱，没有任何果效。

But for those in the church in Corinth, it seemed beyond reproach.  Paul and his demanding rules had to go! And Paul’s out-of-date philosophy of following Jesus had to go. And Paul’s claims of leadership on the church had to go! After all, his brand of fundamentalism was killing the church and blocking all forms of growth—spiritual, experiential, and numerical.  It was clear.  Paul was THE problem, and Paul had to go. If ever there was an image problem, Paul had it. To be continued.

但是，对哥林多教会的人们而言，入侵者们似乎是无可指责的。保罗还有他那些苛求的条条框框必须放弃！保罗跟随耶稣的哲学，不合时宜，必须放弃！保罗对教会的带领权必须放弃！总之，他这个品牌的原教旨主义在毁掉教会，阻碍了各种形式的成长：灵里的、体验的、很多其它的。很清楚，保罗本身才是问题的所在，保罗必须得走。看明白我的意思了吗？要说谁有形象问题，那就是保罗。待续。