811 英翻中 (511) Lord, have a mercy on me. 主阿! 求祢憐憫我. 03/08/2024
CHAPTER TWO Galatians 1:11–24 BORN FREE! 第二課 加拉太書1：11–24 生來自由！
Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” So wrote Emerson, and many a thinker agrees with him. 愛默生如此寫道， "成為男人的人一定是不守規矩的人。" 許多思想家都同意他的觀點。
The English art critic John Ruskin said, “I fear uniformity. You cannot manufacture great men any more than you can manufacture gold.” 英國藝術評論家約翰·魯斯金（John Ruskin）說, “均勻性製造黃金比製造黃金更重要。”
The German philosopher Schopenhauer wrote, “We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.” 德國哲學家叔本華寫道：“為了跟別人一樣，我們放棄了自己的四分之三。”
Francis Asbury, first bishop of the Methodist Church in the United States, once prayed at a deacon ordination, “O Lord, grant that these brethren may never want to be like other people.” 美國衛理公會教堂的第一任主教弗朗西斯·阿斯伯里（Francis Asbury）曾經在執事會上祈禱：“主啊，請允許這些弟兄們永遠都不想像別人一樣。”
Of course, there is a wrong kind of individualism that destroys instead of fulfills; but in a society accustomed to interchanging parts, it is good to meet a man like Paul, who dared to be himself in the will of God. But his freedom in Christ was a threat to those who found safety in conformity. 誠然，存在一種錯誤的個人主義，它破壞而不是實現。但是在習慣於交換部分的社會中，遇見像保羅這樣敢於成為上帝旨意的人是一件好事。但是他在基督裡的自由對那些找到合一的人構成了威脅。
Paul’s enemies pointed to his nonconformity as proof that his message and ministry were not really of God. “He claims to be an apostle,” they argued, “but he does not stand in the apostolic tradition.” It is this misrepresentation that Paul answered in this section of Galatians. His nonconformity was divinely deliberate. God had chosen to reveal Himself in a different way to Paul. 保羅的敵人指出他的不合一之處，證明他的信息和所傳的道不是真正的上帝福音。他們爭辯說，“他聲稱自己是使徒，但他並不站在使徒傳統中。” 保羅在加拉太書的這一部分回答了這種錯誤的偏見。他的不合情理是故意的。上帝選擇以與保羅不同的方式來彰顯自己。
In Galatians 1:11–12, Paul stated his theme: His message and ministry are of divine origin. He did not invent the gospel, nor did he receive it from men; but he received the gospel from Jesus Christ. Both his message and his apostolic ministry were divinely given. Therefore, anybody who added anything to Paul’s gospel was in danger of divine judgment, because that gospel was given by Jesus Christ from heaven (1 Cor. 15:1–11). 保羅在加拉太書1章11節至12節中陳述了他的主題：他的信息和事工是神聖的。他沒有發明福音，也沒有從人那裡得到福音。但是他從耶穌基督那裡得到了福音。他的信息和使徒事奉都得到了神聖的傳達。因此，任何在保羅的福音中添加任何內容的人都有被神聖審判的危險，因為那福音是耶穌基督從天上賜予的（林前 15：1-11）。
The best way for Paul to prove his point was to reach into his past and remind the Galatian Christians of the way God had dealt with him. Paul stated that his past life was already known to his readers (Gal. 1:13), but it was obvious that they did not fully understand what those experiences meant. So, Paul flashed on the screen three pictures from his past as evidence that his apostleship and his gospel were truly of God. 保羅證明自己觀點的最好方法是伸手過去，並提醒加拉太信徒上帝對待他的方式。保羅說，他的從前所作已經為他的讀者所了解（加 1:13），但是很明顯，他們並不完全了解這些經歷的含義。因此，保羅在屏幕上閃現了他過去的三張照片，以證明他的使徒身份和福音確實是上帝的。
1. The Persecutor (1:13–14) 1. 迫害者（加 1：13–14）
Paul began with his past conduct as an unconverted Jewish rabbi. (For a vivid account of these years from Paul’s own lips, read Acts 22 and 26, as well as Acts 9.) In this historical flashback, Paul pointed out his relationship to the church (Gal. 1:13) and to the religion of the Jews (Gal. 1:14). He was persecuting the church and profiting and progressing in the Jewish religion. Everything was going his way, and he was rapidly being recognized as a spiritual leader in Israel. 保羅從他過去的所行的作為，顯示未悔改的猶太拉比開始。 （為生動描述這些年來保羅的口吻，請讀使徒行傳22和26兩章以及使徒行傳9章。）在這一歷史性的倒向述敘中，保羅指出了他與教會（加 1:13）和宗教的關係兩猶太人（加 1:14）。他在迫害教會，並在猶太宗教中獲利和進步。萬事如意，他迅速被公認為以色列的精神領袖。
It is interesting to note the words that are used to describe Paul’s activities when he was “Saul of Tarsus” persecuting the church. He “consented” to the murder of Stephen (see Acts 8:1), and then proceeded to “make havoc of the church” (see Acts 8:3) by breaking up families and putting believers in prison. The very atmosphere that he breathed was “threatening and slaughter” (Acts 9:1). So bent on destroying the church was Paul that he voted to kill the believers (Acts 22:4–5; 26:9–11). He mentioned these facts in his letters (1 Cor. 15:9; Phil. 3:6; 1 Tim. 1:13), marveling that God could save such a sinner as he. 有趣的是，這些詞語用來形容保羅在“塔蘇爾的掃羅”中逼迫教會時的活動。他“同意”司提反(Stephen)被謀殺（見 使 8：1），然後通過破壞家庭和將信徒關進監獄來“破壞教會”（見 使 8：3）。他呼吸的氣氛是“威脅和宰殺”（使 9：1）。保羅如此專心於毀滅教會，以至於他投票殺死了信徒（使 22：4-5； 26：9-11）。他在信中提到了這些事實（林前15：9；腓 3：6；提前 1：13），驚嘆上帝可以拯救像他這樣的罪人。
Paul actually thought that Jesus was an impostor and His message of salvation a lie. He was sure that God had spoken through Moses, but how could he besure that God had spoken through Jesus of Nazareth? Steeped in Jewish tradition, young Saul of Tarsus championed his faith. His reputation as a zealous persecutor of “the sect of the Nazarenes” became known far and wide (see Acts 9:13–14). Everybody knew that this brilliant student of Rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) was well on his way to becoming an influential leader of the Jewish faith. His personal religious life, his scholarship (Acts 26:24), and his zeal in opposing alien religious faiths all combined to make him the most respected young rabbi of his day. 保羅實際上以為耶穌是個冒名頂替者，而祂的救恩信息則是謊言。他確定上帝是通過摩西講過的，但是他如何確定上帝是通過拿撒勒人耶穌講過的呢？年輕的大數掃羅（Tarsus）信仰猶太傳統，擁護他的信仰。他作為“拿撒勒教派”的熱心迫害者的聲譽已廣為人知（見 使 9：13-14）。每個人都知道，這位拉比·加瑪列（Rabbi Gamaliel）的才華橫溢的學生（使 22：3）在成為有影響力的猶太信仰領袖的道路上步入正軌。他的個人宗教生活，學術成就（使 26:24）以及他對反對外來宗教信仰的熱忱使他成為當時最受尊敬的年輕拉比。
Then something happened: Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the church, became Paul the apostle, the preacher of the gospel. This change was not gradual; it happened suddenly and without warning (Acts 9:1–9). Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians; a few days later he was in Damascus preaching to the Jews that the Christians are right. How could the Judaizers explain this sudden transformation? 然後發生了一些事情：教會的迫害者大數的掃羅（Saul of Tarsus）成為使徒保羅，福音的傳道人。這種變化不是漸進的。它突然發生，沒有任何警告（使 9：1-9）。掃羅在去大馬士革的路上逼迫基督徒。幾天后，他在大馬士革向猶太人宣講基督徒是對的。猶太人如何解釋這種突然的轉變？
Was Saul’s remarkable “about-face” caused by his own people, the Jews? Unthinkable! The Jews were encouraging Saul in his program of persecution, and his conversion was an embarrassment to them. 掃羅的非凡的“面子”是由他自己的人民猶太人引起的嗎？不可思議！猶太人在掃羅的逼迫中鼓勵了掃羅，他的改變對他們來說是尷尬。
Was Saul’s change caused by the Christians he was persecuting? Certainly the believers prayed for him, and no doubt the death of Stephen—and especially the glorious testimony he had given—affected Paul deeply (Acts 22:19–20). But the Christians ran from Paul (Acts 8:1, 4; 9:10–16), and, as far as we know, they had no idea that the young rabbi would ever become a Christian. 掃羅的改變是由他所迫害的基督徒引起的嗎？當然，信徒們為他祈禱，毫無疑問，史司提反的去世 — 尤其是他所提供的榮耀見證 — 深深地影響了保羅（徒 22：19-20）。但是基督徒是從保羅那裡演進來的（徒 8：1、4； 9：10-16），據我們所知，他們不知道年輕的拉比會成為基督徒。
But if the amazing change in Paul was not caused by the Jews or the church, then who caused it? It had to have come from God! 但是，如果保羅的驚人變化不是猶太人或教堂造成的，那是誰造成的呢？它必須來自上帝！
No matter how you look at it, the conversion of Paul was a spiritual miracle. It was humanly impossible for Rabbi Saul to become the apostle Paul apart from the miracle of God’s grace. And the same God who saved Paul also called him to be an apostle, and gave him the message of the gospel. For the Judaizers to deny Paul’s apostleship and gospel was the same as denying his conversion! Certainly Paul was preaching the same message that he himself had believed—the truth that had changed him. But no mere human message could effect such a change. Paul’s argument was conclusive: His past conduct as a persecutor of the church plus the dramatic change that he experienced proved that his message and ministry were from God. 無論您怎麼看，保羅的皈依是屬靈上的奇蹟。除了上帝的恩典的奇蹟以外，拉比掃羅成為人類的使徒保羅是不可能的。救了保羅的那位上帝也叫他成為使徒，並把福音的信息傳給了他。要讓猶太人否認保羅的使徒身份和福音就等於否認他的皈依！當然，保羅在傳講他自己曾經相信過的同樣的信息 — 改變了他的真理。但是，沒有任何人類信息可以實現這種改變。保羅的論斷是結論性的：他過去作為教會的迫害者的舉止，加上他經歷的戲劇性變化，證明了他的信息和傳道是來自上帝的。
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