Beloved,
do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever
does evil has not seen God.
THE STUDY:
John calls out to his flock, Beloved, and urges them to not imitate evil but imitate good. The
word, imitate (mimeomai), is only
found 11 times in the NT and translated 4 of those times as imitate. John desires his flock to
imitate good not evil.
John is likely referring to what
Diotrephes was doing. He urged his readers, rather, to model themselves after what
is good. The language here is similar to Paul’s (see Eph 5:1; 1 Thess 1:6; 2
Thess 2:14). While the English word “mimic” derives from the Greek word here,
“model after another” is more applicable.
Doing what is good here echoes 1
John 2:29 If you know that he is
righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been
born of him. Doing “what is right”
gives evidence that one has been born of God. The idea surfaces in a negative
sense in 1 John 3:10—“
whoever does not practice
righteousness is not of God” For John, there was no such thing as a faith
that left one’s morals untouched. Children of God will give evidence of this in
their daily choices for the good and against evil.[1]
WHAT WE CAN WALK
AWAY WITH ….
- We walk away this morning with the understanding that a sanctified believer in Christ will turn and walk away from evil (Rebuke) while practicing righteousness. Our daily choices and the resistance of evil becomes ones confirmation of the Spirit of Christ dwelling within them.
CONCLUSION:
My first assignment in ministry was as a youth
pastor in Richmond Virginia. What a blast that was and the friends we made will
be forever a part of us. Our last service at the church, before moving to our
next ministry position, was on a Wednesday night with the youth. Earlier that
week there was a situation that developed and I was called in to council one of
the teens along with their parents.
During that evenings service I was confronted by one of the
teens father. He was upset with what had happened with his teen and wanted me to take action toward the other teen. I informed the father that it was not my place to take action nor was it necessary. It was two teens acting inappropriately and that should be dealt with by the parents. Not appreciating the answer to this situation the father politely (sarcasm) said to me, “And you call yourself a
pastor!” The old Rod would have reacted in a violent way but what happen next
was evidence that I was not the OLD ROD anymore. I politely (no sarcasm) ask the
gentleman to leave and I returned to say goodbye to my teens.
I call these moments in our lives “measuring stick
moments!” Just like our children standing in the doorway so we can measure
how much they have grown, these moments reveal how much we have grown in
Christ. Church, let us imitate Christ today!
Blessings my friends
Pastor Rod
[1]
Williamson, R. (2010). 1, 2, & 3
John: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. New Beacon Bible Commentary
(216). Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press.
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