Beloved, do not
imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who
does evil has not seen God.
3 John 1:11
Dear Heavenly
Father, please be with me as I study tonight.
Help me grow in wisdom and be humble in all things. Please with my daughter on her vacation. Protect her and bring her back to campus
safely. Please be with my son as he
prepares for college. Continue to
encourage and direct my wife. In Jesus's
name I pray, Amen.
We are beginning the
conclusion of the letter. After his
rebuke of Diotrephes, John gives instructions to Gaius and summarizes his
admonishment. To bring deeper understanding
to today's text, let's examine some key words and their companion or similar
verses.
"Beloved"
in the Greek is agapetos which means
divinely loved, personally experiencing God’s agape love, esteemed, dear,
favorite, bound together by mutual affection, fellow Christian. Gaius, the recipient of this letter, is one
who John highly esteems and is loved by God.
"Imitate"
in the Greek is mimeomai which means
follow, emulating a mentor or example. Psalm 34:14 states "Depart from
evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it." Psalm 37:27 states
"Depart from evil, and do good; And dwell forevermore." Isaiah
1:16-17 states "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil
of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek
justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the
widow." John instructs Gaius to
emulate good not evil and to model his life and behavior on the good
example. But what is good and what is
evil?
"Evil" in
the Greek is kakos which means bad, evil
in the widest sense, inner malice, inwardly foul, morally rotten, contrary to
the law (divine or human), wrong,
wicked, commit sin. In the previous
verses in Psalms and Isaiah, "Evil" in the Hebrew is ra or rao
which means adversity, disagreeable, unethical, wrong, badness, rottenness,
sadness, ugliness, wickedness. 1 John
3:6 states "Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither
seen Him nor known Him." John
instructs Gaius to not live breaking God's law.
John instructs him not to sin.
Sin is evil.
"Good" in
the Greek is agathos which means
intrinsically good, good in nature, inherently good, describes what originated
from God and is empowered by Him in their life through faith, exhibiting Godly
character/moral character/integrity, upright, honorable, acceptable to God. In the previous verses in Psalms and Isaiah,
"Good" in the Hebrew is towb
or yatab which means beautiful,
pleasant, agreeable to the senses, well, pleasing, do well, right, ethically,
absolute toward men. 1 John 2:29 states
"If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices
righteousness is born of Him." John
instructs Gaius to do what is acceptable to God, upright, and honorable. "Good" is the direct opposite to
"evil." Therefore, if what we
do is not acceptable to God, the action is acceptable to Satan. It is a question of morality.
In the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy,
"Morality" is defined "descriptively to refer to certain codes
of conduct put forward by a society or a group (such as a religion), or
accepted by an individual for her own behavior, or normatively to refer to a
code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put forward by all
rational persons." God defines
"morality" for us in the Bible.
If we venture from that "morality," in reality, our morals
become of our own choosing subject to the whims of society at even given point in
history. Without God, there are no
morals that are universally accepted by rational persons. Put simply, being accepted or rational again
depends on the whims of society at any given point in history, geographic
location, and/or culture. This is proven
by the fact that the world has no universal government. Every time the world strives for one
government, it fails. People are too
full of their own wants, desires, and beliefs in what is right. People sin.
That is also why the world cannot make peace.
"Seen" in
the Greek is horao which means look
upon, experience, perceive, discern, beware, to seek with mind, observe, give
attention to, has no personal experience with Him, doesn’t know Him. "God" in the Greek is theos which means God the creator and maker of
all things, God the Father, the only true God.
A person who is upright and honorable shines God the Father. A person who breaks God's law doesn't know
God.
Jesus said in
Matthew 7:15-20, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so,
every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a
bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree
that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore
by their fruits you will know them."
In September 25,
2015, Scientific America published an article, "Morals, Not memories
define who we are." The scientists
stated "Although Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases may
powerfully impact the mental functioning of individuals, sufferers can find
some solace in the fact that substantial memory deficits—when unaccompanied by
changes in moral characteristics—seem to have no effect on how others perceive
'who you are.'" They further stated
"Analysis of the data revealed that participants perceived the greatest
disruptions in patients’ identity when they observed changes in moral traits.
Other cognitive deficits—like those seen with amnesia—had no measurable effect
on the perception of identity. Consequently, those with frontotemporal dementia
showed the greatest changes in perceived identity, since it specifically
affects the frontal lobe functions underlying moral reasoning and
behavior."
Who we are is
defined by our moral character.
Beloved, do not
imitate what is evil, but [imitate] what is good. The one who practices good
[exhibiting godly character, moral courage and personal integrity] is of God;
the one who practices [or permits or tolerates] evil has not seen God [he has
no personal experience with Him and does not know Him at all].
Amplified Bible
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