要爱教会胜过爱教会的健康
本文特别献给教义爱好者、那些教会论观点清晰明确者、那些认为圣经的确论述了教会实践与教会架构的牧师和长老们。
且慢，我这不是在说自己么，还有九标志事工的全体同工，或许你也列在其中。我为你感谢神，并且喜乐地视自己为与你们一同为基督的国奔忙的伙伴。
然而，我发现这里有一个你我都可能会遇到的试探：我们可能会爱自己期待和愿景中的教会，胜过爱那些组成教会的人。我们可能会像一个未婚男子，爱上了一个理想的妻子，而一旦与某位真实的女性结合，却发现爱她要比爱那个理想型困难得多。或者，又好像一位爱上梦想中的“完美女儿”胜于女儿本人的母亲。
这是一个潜在的危险，特别是对于所有像我们这样已经学习了很多有关“健康教会”概念的人。我们从圣经经文、研讨会和事工中学习了很多健康教会的理想状态，我们就会被试探去爱这些理想中的“健康教会”，胜过爱神将我们置于其中的那个特定的教会。
我见过一位教会长老，他喋喋不休地抱怨一对父母在圣餐盘传到他们手中时让自己尚未受洗的孩子领受主餐。让我印象深刻的是这位长老的语气，沮丧而又略带轻蔑，好像在说“他们怎么可以这样？！一群傻瓜！”可是，这些人就是未受充分教导的羊群，他们当然不知道那么多。而神把这位长老赐给他们，不是让他对他们抱怨，而是要爱他们、使他们有更深的认识。在这个时候，这位长老就是在爱自己心目中那个符合圣经的教会愿景，而不是真的在爱这些人。
要产生与这位长老类似的反应，是何等容易。
澄清一点
我不是说，我们要爱人，就把圣经所说的教会健康抛诸脑后，好像这是分开的两件事。不，这样就会使神的爱和神的话对立起来。爱一个人，就要求他的益处，并且单单是神所定义的“益处”。爱你的教会，部分就意味着，希望它向着一切神所界定为好的状态成长。也就是希望你的教会朝着圣经指示的方向成长。
说的再简单一些，如果你爱自己的孩子，当然希望他们健康。
那么，我说我们应当爱教会胜过爱它的健康，又是什么意思呢？
回到福音
基督为教会而死，使教会成为了他自己的教会。他使教会等同于他自己，他赋予教会自己的名。这就是为什么逼迫教会就是逼迫基督（徒9:5），对一位基督徒犯罪就是对基督犯罪（林前8:12；参6:15）。在个体和集体两个层面上，我们都代表了基督。
思想一下这意味着什么。这表示，基督把他的名赐给了那些还不成熟的基督徒、那些在成员大会上缠夹不清的基督徒、那些错误地让未受洗的孩子领圣餐的基督徒、还有那些喜欢浅薄赞美诗的基督徒。基督将他自己等同于那些神学观念不健全、不完美的基督徒。基督对那些错误地反对基于圣经的领导架构、反对施行教会惩戒的基督徒说：“他们代表了我。你对他们犯罪，就是对我犯罪！”
基督的爱是何等的长阔高深啊！他的爱遮盖许多的罪，他的爱拥抱罪人。实际上，不仅是拥抱罪人，还将他自己的身份和荣耀的全部分量赋予了罪人——“我的名赐予他们，我的荣耀属于他们。”
我们始终应当回到福音，不是么？
牧者啊，献上你自己，而非献上你拥有的
有一位神学家对“献上你自己拥有的”与“献上你自己”作了区别，这使我理解了福音之爱的一个重要方面。当我“献上我拥有的”给你，是给你某些我所有的东西，比如我的智慧、喜乐、财物、或者我的能力。显然，在此过程中我实际上并没有失去任何东西的风险，因为我会为这样的奉献行为得到赞美，我可以放弃自己的一切，甚至舍己身给人焚烧，却仍然没有爱。但是，一旦我“献上自己”，就意味着不仅仅是付出一些我拥有的东西，而是把自己整个献上。我将自己与你等同。我开始关注你的名和你的荣誉，因为我将它们视为与我的名和荣耀相联结。我所得到的一切荣耀都成为你的，你所获得的所有荣耀则为我带来最大的喜乐，那些也都是我的了！
这就是为什么我们要在一个教会中彼此相爱，因为基督就是这样爱了我们。我们不只是彼此拥抱；我们还将自己的身份建立在彼此身上。我们同享荣耀和哀伤。“若一个肢体受苦，所有的肢体就一同受苦；若一个肢体得荣耀，所有的肢体就一同快乐”（林前12:26）。我们为他人着想胜过自己，正如基督如此对待我们（腓2:1-11）。我们真的已经是一家人，是兄弟姐妹了（太12:50；弗2:19；等）。如果你侮辱我的兄弟，就是侮辱我；如果你欺骗我的姐妹，就是欺骗我。在教会里没有生意，凡事都与个人联结，因为福音就是个人性的。你是基督徒吗？基督为你而死，也为我而死。如此，我们才可以代表他、有他的形象。（没错，他仍然是我们彼此相爱的最终焦点，正如他爱我们，使我们可以爱父——那是他的爱最终的焦点。）如果这样的爱是全体基督徒的责任，那么，我们这些做牧师和长老的就更当如此。
说我们应当爱教会胜过爱它的健康，意思是：我们应当爱人，因为他们属于福音，而不是因为他们遵守了健康教会的律法，尽管这律法可能是好的、是符合圣经的。这也意味着，我们爱他们，应当是基于基督所成就的工作、所宣告的信息，而不是基于他们的行为。
如果你爱自己的孩子，当然希望他们健康。但是，如果你真的爱自己的孩子，那么无论他们健康与否，你会都照样爱他们。
弟兄姐妹在神学认识上有长进，你自然可以喜乐。你喜乐，是因为现在你们共同拥有在真理上更大的合一（参见约贰1章）。但是，你基于福音的爱——那种“基督在我们还做罪人的时候为我们死了”的爱——应当照样扩展到那些在神学上、教会观上、甚至道德上尚不成熟的弟兄，因为这样的爱乃是基于基督的完全和真理，而非基于这位弟兄的表现。
牧者啊，如果你的教会里充满了孱弱的信徒，你也应当与他们融为一体，就好像他们是那强壮的。可能你觉得自己与那位神学上相近的成熟弟兄更加“同心”（这是改革宗人士爱用的词）。这没问题。但是，如果这位满脑子神学的弟兄要你与他一同轻视某位神学较弱、较不成熟的弟兄，你就要对他说：“儿啊，你常和我同在，我一切所有的都是你的；只是你这个兄弟是死而复活、失而又得的，所以我们理当欢喜快乐”（路15:31-32）。
长老啊，你要爱你的群羊如同儿女。坐上他们生命的看台，无论他们是罚球得分还是在场上绊倒，你都支持他们。与他们一同欢笑、一同惊恐，好像他们就是你的孩子。容忍他们的愚蠢。在他们对你出言不逊的时候不要以为受威胁。被咒诅，报以祝福。你要记得，从人心里驱散罪是一个缓慢的过程，他们并不是每一次都能克制住自己。要对他们有耐心，正如基督对你有耐心一样。
或者，用另一个基于圣经的比喻，你对教会的爱应当是那种“无论顺利或逆境、富足或贫穷、健康或疾病”的爱，哪怕那不是“直到死亡将我们分开”的爱。不应该是这样吗？你不应该像对自己配偶那样对教会忠心吗？因为基督正是如此爱了我和你。
保罗的例子
保罗又是怎样爱教会的呢。他献上自己，不只是献上自己拥有的东西。他告诉腓立比会众，他们是他的“喜乐和冠冕”（腓4:1）。他对帖撒罗尼迦信徒所说的也是一样（帖前2:16）。
牧者啊，你有没有将自己教会中那些不顺服、神学上又幼稚的基督徒看作自己的喜乐和冠冕呢？你有没有与他们融为一体，到这样的地步？保罗说他以这些教会“夸口”（林后1:14；参帖后1:4）。你呢？
保罗告诉哥林多的信徒，说他们是他的“儿女”，他是他们“福音里的父”（林前4:14-15）。对于加拉太信徒，还有提摩太和提多，他也是这样说（加4:19；提前1:2；多1:4）。
长老啊，你可曾像父亲对儿子那样，将自己的名和声誉与自己的教会联结在一起？
保罗是如何常常发出爱和渴望的言语啊！他敞开胸怀，恳切盼望众教会也如此行（林后6:12-13）。他渴望见到他们、与他们在一起（罗1:11；腓4:1；帖前3:6；提后1:4）。他“体会基督耶稣的心肠，切切地想念众人”（腓1:8）。他也知道，自己受患难是为叫众教会得安慰、得拯救，而他得安慰，也是为他们得安慰（林后1:6）。保罗不是把自己拥有的交给教会，然后为自己留下一点，好像亚拿尼亚和撒非喇那样。他是把自己完全献上了。
而且，保罗不是只这样去爱那些成熟的基督徒。读一读他的书信，你会发现其中许多教会有多么不健康！
Love the Church More than its Health
This one goes out to the doctrine guys. The guys with ecclesiological opinions. The pastors and elders who think the Bible addresses the practices and structures of the church.
Wait a second, I’m talking about myself, and all of us at 9Marks, and maybe you. I thank God for you, and I rejoice to consider myself a co-participant with you in working for Christ’s kingdom.
Yet there’s a temptation I have noticed that you and I are susceptible to: we can love our vision of what a church should be more than we love the people who comprise it. We can be like the unmarried man who loves the idea of a wife, but who marries a real woman and finds it harder to love her than the idea of her. Or like the mother who loves her dream of the perfect daughter more than the daughter herself.
This is an implicit danger for all of us who have learned much from God-given books and conferences and ministries about “healthy churches.” We start loving the idea of a healthy church more than the church God has placed us in.
I remember overhearing a church elder complain about a family who let their unbaptized children receive the Lord’s Supper when the plate of communion crackers was passed down their pew. What struck me was the elder’s tone. It was frustrated and slightly contemptuous, as in, “How could they?! The fools!” But these people were untaught sheep. Of course they don’t know better. And God had given them this elder not to complain about them, but to love them toward a better understanding. At that moment, it felt like this elder loved his vision of the biblical church more than he loved those individuals.
How easy it is to respond like this elder.
WHAT I AM NOT SAYING
I am not saying that we should love people and forget all about biblical health, as if the two things are separable. No, that would be to pit God’s love and God’s Word against one another. To love someone is to desire his or her good, and only God defines “the good.” To love your church means, in part,to want it to grow toward everything that God defines as good. It’s to want your church to grow in a biblical direction.
More simply, if you love your children, you want them to be healthy.
So what do I mean by saying we should love the church more than its health?
BACK TO THE GOSPEL
When Christ died for the church, he made it his own. He identified it with himself. He put his name on it. That’s why persecuting the church is persecuting Christ (Acts 9:5), and why sinning against an individual Christian is sinning against Christ (1 Cor. 8:12; cf. 6:15). Individually and corporately, we represent him.
Think about what that means. It means that Christ has put his name on immature Christians, and Christians who speak too much at members’ meetings, and Christians who wrongly give their unbaptized children communion, and Christians who love shallow praise songs. Christ has identified himself with Christians whose theology is underdeveloped and imperfect. Christ points to the Christians who wrongly oppose biblical leadership structures and the practice of church discipline and says, “They represent me. Sin against them and you sin against me!”
How wide, long, high, and deep Christ’s love is! It covers a multitude of sins and embraces the sinner. Actually, it doesn’t just embrace the sinner. It places the whole weight of Christ’s own identity and glory on the sinner—“my name will rest on them, and my glory will be theirs.”
We should always come back to the gospel, shouldn’t we?
GIVE YOURSELF, PASTOR, NOT OF YOURSELF
One theologian helped me understand an important aspect of gospel love by distinguishing between giving of yourself and giving yourself. When I give of myself to you, I give you something that I possess like my wisdom, my joy, my goods, or my strengths generally. Of course, I don’t really risk losing anything in the process, because I gain praise for such giving. Indeed, I can give all that I have, even my body to the flames, and have not love. When I give myself, however, I don’t just give something that I have, I give my whole self. I identify my self with your self. I start giving attention to your very name and reputation because I view them as united to my own. Any glory that I might have becomes yours, and all the glory that you have is the glory that I most enjoy. It’s mine, too!
This is how we should love one another within a church, because this is how Christ has loved us. We don’t just embrace one another; we rest the weight of our identities upon one another. We share one another’s glories and sorrows. “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26). We consider one another better than ourselves, in the same manner that Christ has done with us (Phil. 2:1-11). Indeed, we have taken on the same family name, and so we are now brothers and sisters (Matt. 12:50; Eph. 2:19; etc.). If you insult my brother, you insult me. If you defraud my sister, you defraud me. Nothing’s business in the church. It’s all personal, because the gospel is personal. He died for you, Christian. He died for me. So that we might represent and look like him. (Yes, he remains the final focus of our love for one another, just as his love for us was given so that we might love the Father—the final focus of his love.) If all Christians should love like this, we who are pastors and elders most certainly should.
To say that we should love the church more than its health means this: we should love people because they belong to the gospel, not because they have kept the law of a healthy church, even though that law may be good and biblical. It means we should love them because of what Christ has done and declared, not because of what they do.
If you love your children, you want them to be healthy. But if you love your children, you love them whether they are healthy or not.
Certainly you can rejoice when a brother or sister grows in theological understanding. You rejoice in the greater unity of truth you now share (see 2 John 1). But your gospel love—your “Christ died for us while we were yet sinners” love—should extend no less to the brother who is theologically, ecclesiologically, even morally immature, because such love is based on Christ’s perfection and truth, not the brother’s.
Pastor, if your church is filled with weak believers, you should still identify yourself with them as if they were strong. Maybe you feel more “like-minded” (a popular phrase among the Reformed) with the mature brother who shares your theology. Fine. But if that theologically-minded brother asks you to share his contempt for a less theological or mature brother, say to him, “My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (Luke 15:31-32).
Elder, love your flock like sons and daughters. Get into the bleachers of their lives and root for them on the days they make their free throws and on the days they trip running down the court. Own their laughter and their fears as if they belonged to you. Abide with their folly. Don’t feel threatened when they speak disdainfully toward you. Return the curse with a blessing. Remember that extricating sin from the heart is a slow process, and they can’t always help themselves. Be patient like the One who has been patient with you.
Or to use a different biblical metaphor, your love for your church should be a “for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health” sort of love, even if it’s not a “till death do us part” sort of love. Shouldn’t it? Shouldn’t you be committed to your church like you’re committed to your own body, because that’s how Christ loved you and me?
THIS IS HOW PAUL LOVED
This is how Paul loved the churches. He gave himself, not just of himself. He told the Philippians that they were his “joy and crown” (Phil. 4:1). He told the Thessalonians the same thing (1 Thess. 2:19-20).
Pastor, do you regard the recalcitrant and theologically naïve Christians in your church as your joy and crown? Do you identify yourself with them that much? Paul refers to the churches as his “boast” (2 Cor. 1:14; cf. 2 Thess. 1:4). Do you?
Paul told the Corinthians that they were his “children” and that he was their “father through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4:14-15). He felt the same way about the Galatians and Timothy and Titus (Gal. 4:19; 1 Tim. 1:2; Titus 1:4).
Elder, have you united your name and reputation to your church like a father does with his son?
How often do we hear words of love and longing from Paul! He opens wide his heart, and yearns for the churches to do the same (2 Cor. 6:12-13). He longs to see them and be with them (Rom. 1:11; Phil. 4:1; 1 Thess. 3:6; 2 Tim. 1:4). He “longs for them with the affection of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:8). And he knows that his own distress is for the churches’ comfort and salvation, and his comfort is for their comfort (2 Cor. 1:6). Paul didn’t give of himself to the churches, holding just a little back for himself, like Ananias and Sapphira did. He gave himself.
And Paul didn’t love just the mature Christians this way. Read his letters, and you’ll quickly remember how unhealthy many of these churches were!
May God’s Spirit increase our love so that we can imitate Paul, as Paul imitates Christ.
作者：Jonathan Leeman
Jonathan Leeman 毕业于美南浸信会神学院（道学硕士），现在是国会山浸信会的长老，同时也是九标志事工的总编辑。李曼是威尔士大学的神学博士，著有多本著作，例如《教会成员制》、《教会纪律》等。
用圣经视野和实用资源装备教会领袖
进而通过健康的教会向世界彰显神的荣耀
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