不管天然生命或是在恩典中的生命，都不可能没有争战。物质、精神、道德以及属灵生命的基础，在于敌对。这是生命中显而易见的事实。
健康就是物质生命与外在自然界之间的平衡。人必须内在有足够的活力，对抗外界的东西，才能维持健康。
外在的东西，可以危害肉体的生命，置我于死地。在我生时养活我的东西，在我死后把我分化。我若有足够的战斗力，就有健康的平衡。
精神生活也是如此，若要保持强健的智力，必须斗争，然后心智的平衡——思想——才能产生。
在道德方面，都是我里面德行的敌人。我能否得胜，生发善行，就视乎我道德的力量如何了。
只要我一争战，在那一事上，我就有了道德。没有人的德行是自然而然的；德行是要经后天的奋斗而取得的。
灵性方面，亦是如此。
耶稣说：[在世上你们有苦难。]任何不属灵的东西，都是于我有害。但[你们可以放心，我已经胜了世界。]我要学习胜过那些敌对我的，这样就可以产生圣洁的平衡；而面对敌挡，也成了兴奋的事。
圣洁就是我的性情与神藉耶稣基督所表现的律，二者之间的平衡。
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祈祷
主耶稣啊，祢在两千年前曾[道成肉身]，来到这世上。愿祢今天再次临到这里，藉着我的肉身彰显祢自己——[基督在祢里面，成为荣耀的盼望]。
THE LAW OF ANTAGONISM
"To him that overcometh. . . ." Revelation 2:7
Life without war is impossible either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.
Health is the balance between physical life and external nature, and it is maintained only by sufficient vitality on the inside against things on the outside.
Everything outside my physical life is designed to put me to death. Things which keep me going when I am alive, disintegrate me when I am dead. If I have enough fighting power, I produce the balance of health. The same is true of the mental life. If I want to maintain a vigorous mental life, I have to fight, and in that way the mental balance called thought is produced.
Morally it is the same. Everything that does not partake of the nature of virtue is the enemy of virtue in me, and it depends on what moral calibre I have whether I overcome and produce virtue. Immediately I fight, I am moral in that particular. No man is virtuous because he cannot help it; virtue is acquired.
And spiritually it is the same. Jesus said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation,"
i.e., every thing that is not spiritual makes for my undoing, but - "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." I have to learn to score off the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness; then it becomes a delight to meet opposition.
Holiness is the balance between my disposition and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ.
