Missing the Basics 缺少了基础
Dexu Xia
You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. Matthew 22:29
For decades, McDonald’s ruled fast food with their Quarter Pounder burger. In the 1980s, a rival chain cooked up an idea to dethrone the company with the golden arches. A&W offered the Third Pound Burger—larger than McDonald’s—and sold it for the same price. Even more, A&W’s burger won numerous blind taste tests. But the burger bombed. Nobody bought it. Eventually, they dropped it from the menu. Research revealed that consumers misunderstood the math and thought the Third Pound Burger was smaller than the Quarter Pounder. A grand idea failed because people missed the basics.
Jesus warned of how easy it is to miss the basics. Religious leaders, scheming to trap and discredit Him during the week He was crucified, posed a strange, hypothetical scenario about a woman who was widowed seven times (Matthew 22:23–28). Jesus responded, insisting that this knotty dilemma wasn’t a problem at all. Rather, their problem was how they didn’t “know the Scriptures or the power of God” (v. 29). The Scriptures, Jesus insisted, aren’t first intended to answer logical or philosophical puzzles. Rather, their primary aim is to lead us to know and love Jesus and to “have eternal life” in Him (John 5:39). These are the basics the leaders missed.
We often miss the basics too. The Bible’s main aim is an encounter with the living Jesus. It would be heartbreaking to miss it.
By: Winn Collier
How do you miss Scripture’s basics? How can you return to the basics . . . to Jesus?
Dear God, sometimes I get lost even amid good things. Please help me.
你们错了，因为不明白圣经，也不晓得上帝的大能。—马太福音22章29节
数十年来，麦当劳以“四分之一磅汉堡”称霸速食市场。在1980年代，一家名为艾恩堡（A&W）的快餐连锁店，为击垮竞争对手而出奇招，以同样的价格，推出比麦当劳份量更大的“三分之一磅汉堡”。不仅如此，这款新推出的汉堡还在许多盲吃测试中胜出。但没想到汉堡竟卖不出去，最终停止销售。后来研究发现，原来消费者误解了计算方式，以为“三分之一磅”比“四分之一磅”还要小。一个了不起的行销策略之所以失败，就是因为人们缺少基础的知识。
耶稣警告说，人们很容易会错失信仰的基础。在耶稣将要受难的那一周，宗教领袖们想方设法地陷害与诋毁耶稣。他们假设了一个奇怪的情境，用一名女子死了七个丈夫的问题来刁难耶稣（马太福音22章23-28节）。耶稣回答说，这看似复杂的难题根本就不是问题，真正的问题在于，这些宗教领袖“不明白圣经，也不晓得上帝的大能”（29节）。耶稣坚称，圣经的主要目的并不是要解决逻辑或哲学难题，而是要引导我们认识和爱耶稣，并且在祂里面得到“永生”（约翰福音5章39节）。这些正是宗教领袖们所缺少的基础。
我们也经常会错失信仰的基础。圣经的主要目的是让人与这位永活的耶稣相遇，忽略了这一点，将令人心碎！作者： 郭惟恩
你曾如何忽略了圣经的基础？
你如何回到信仰的基础，回到耶稣面前？
亲爱的上帝，有时我会迷失在美好的事物当中，求祢帮助我，
不会错失信仰的基础。