41盼望我们每个人都能认真地将这话记在心中,勿只将之视为人的话。因为对我们而言,这是关乎永福、喜乐与救恩,又或者永怒、痛苦与灾难的问题。上帝如此慈爱地应许我们,祂带着一切祝福要作我们的上帝,并要在一切苦难中保护与帮助我们,有了这些,我们还会另有所求吗?
42但是,很不幸,因为世人一点都不信,也不认为这是上帝的话。因为世人所看见的是那些信靠上帝而不倚赖玛门的人的忧虑与缺乏之苦,且魔鬼又处处抵制和攻击他们。他们既穷,无人喜爱,亦无名声,而且几乎无法维生;另一方面,那些服事玛门的人,却享权势,受爱戴,享荣华富贵与世人眼中一切的安逸。因此,我们理当明白,上帝所说的这些话恰恰是为了对付这些事情的表象。我们必须知道,上帝的这些话既不撒谎也不欺骗,它们必定会实现。
43请各位好好省思、查究并告诉我,那些毕生处心积虑地累积庞大财富的人,他们最终都得到了什么?你们将会发现,他们浪费了毕生的辛劳与努力,即便他们积聚了巨大的财富,这些终究必要消失散尽〔路加福音12:16-21〕。所以,他们终其一生都不会在财富中找到喜乐,而且在他们身后,也富不过三代。
44从所有历史过往中,以及年长者与历练丰富之人的记忆中,你们可找到极多这样的例子,当留意并深思啊!
45例如:扫罗曾是上帝所拣选的君王,也曾是一位虔敬之人。但是当他建立其王位之后,他的心就远离了上帝,而只信靠自己的王位与权力〔撒母耳记上9-13〕。之后,他与其所拥有的一切都毁灭殆尽,甚至他的儿女一个也没能存活〔撒母耳记上31〕。
46另一方面,大卫曾是卑微又被人所鄙视的,扫罗又到处追捕迫害他,让他觉得自己的生命危在旦夕〔撒母耳记上19-29〕。但是,不论扫罗如何地逼迫他,他终究存活下来,并作了王〔撒母耳记下2〕。所以这些应许必坚定也必实现,因为上帝不说谎,也不欺骗〔提多书1:2〕。千万别让撒但和这世界用其诡计蒙骗我们。纵使这诡计会存留一段时间,但终必化为乌有。
47因此,让我们好好地学习第一条诫命,明白上帝绝不容忍傲慢自负,亦不能忍受我们信靠任何其他的事物。此外,也使我们了解,祂对我们没有更大的要求,所吩咐的就是我们能从心里信靠祂赐的一切良善。如此,我们就能过合宜与正直的生活,并使用上帝赐予的一切祝福,就好比鞋匠使用针、尖锥和线等工具工作,用不着了就将这些工具搁在一旁那样。又或者,我们可以像旅客使用酒店、食物与床,只是为满足当下的旅行所需一样。惟愿每个人在其生活中的各样角色与职分里面都能依照上帝的指示如此行,而不允许这些事物当中的任何一项成为他的主或是偶像。48关于第一条诫命,这样的解释已经足够了。我们这么详尽地解释此条诫命,实在是因为它太重要了。正如我之前说过的,倘若我们的心正确地信靠上帝〔申命记32:46〕,且遵守这条诫命,就必能遵守其他的诫命了。
41 Therefore let every one seriously take this to heart, lest it be regarded as though a man had spoken it. For to you it is a question either of eternal blessing, happiness, and salvation, or of eternal wrath, misery, and woe. What more would you have or desire than that He so kindly promises to be yours with every blessing, and to protect and help you in all need?
42 But, alas! here is the failure, that the world believes nothing of this, nor regards it as God’s Word because it sees that those who trust in God and not in Mammon suffer care and want, and the devil opposes and resists them, that they have neither money, favor, nor honor, and, besides, can scarcely support life; while, on the other hand, those who serve Mammon have power, favor, honor, possessions, and every comfort in the eyes of the world. For this reason, these words must be grasped as being directed against such appearances; and we must consider that they do not lie or deceive, but must come true.
43 Reflect for yourself or make inquiry and tell me: Those who have employed all their care and diligence to accumulate great possessions and wealth, what have they finally attained? You will find that they have wasted their toil and labor, or even though they have amassed great treasures, they have been dispersed and scattered, so that they themselves have never found happiness in their wealth, and afterwards it never reached the third generation.
44 Instances of this you will find a plenty in all histories, also in the memory of aged and experienced people. Only observe and ponder them.
45 Saul was a great king, chosen of God, and a godly man; but when he was established on his throne, and let his heart decline from God, and put his trust in his crown and power, he had to perish with all that he had, so that none even of his children remained.
46 David, on the other hand, was a poor, despised man, hunted down and chased, so that he nowhere felt secure of his life; yet he had to remain in spite of Saul, and become king. For these words had to abide and come true, since God cannot lie or deceive. Only let not the devil and the world deceive you with their show, which indeed remains for a time, but finally is nothing.
47 Let us, then, learn well the First Commandment, that we may see how God will tolerate no presumption nor any trust in any other object, and how He requires nothing higher of us than confidence from the heart for everything good, so that we may proceed right and straightforward and use all the blessings which God gives no farther than as a shoemaker uses his needle, awl, and thread for work, and then lays them aside, or as a traveler uses an inn, and food, and his bed only for temporal necessity, each one in his station, according to God’s order, and without allowing any of these things to be our lord or idol. 48 Let this suffice with respect to the First Commandment, which we have had to explain at length, since it is of chief importance, because, as before said, where the heart is rightly disposed toward God and this commandment is observed, all the others follow. (Source: https://bookofconcord.org/large-catechism/ten-commandments/ )