Week 17
3 John 11 “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”
True Christianity has its simplicities. Of course there are theological, biblical, and ethical complexities and conundrums, but real Christianity centers on Christ and the simple marvelous truths concerning Christ and salvation.
John, the writer of this brief little epistle, makes a logical and common-sense assumption when he gives this statement – he assumes we know what good is.
Of course, we should know what good is. God put a sense of good in our human conscience, just like He put a sense of God’s existence and greatness in our souls (See Romans 1).
But what happens when people develop a perverted sense of what is good because of their sinfulness? What happens when people start calling that which is good a “bad” thing? And what happens when people start calling bad things “good” things? (See Isaiah 5:20) In other words, sometimes people mix up what is good and bad in their heads. Someone has rightly observed that the key in cultural morality comes down to who controls the dictionary, meaning who defines terms.
Many who have lived in previous generations would testify that good things previously known to be good are now considered bad, and evil that previous generations understood to be bad is now tolerated, or even worse – celebrated.
But two important points should be kept in mind: 1) God determines what is good and bad, not people; and 2) God explains clearly in the Scripture what is good and what is bad. This is why Satan constantly attacks the Bible, for without the Bible we cannot know who God is in His self-revelation, and we cannot determine what is true and good, false and bad. This is why the church must strongly defend the Scriptures, and this is why the church must preach and teach the Scriptures – we need the Scriptures like we need a compass, to point the way for us.
But there is another point to be considered in this: many times in life Christians find themselves in a quandary of what to do in a complicated context and situation. Sometimes we find ourselves in circumstances that do not lend themselves to a clear path forward. What should we do in such cases? Christians must do what is good in God’s sight and leave the rest to Him. We must ask ourselves: “How can I do what I know to be right in this present situation?” Often, we know what is right and good. We may not know how what we know relates to the questions and difficulties of our context of life, but we must do what is right as best we know it. God has a wonderful way of turning things out right when we are committed to doing what is right in His sight. So, our text helps us with us. If we do what is right, then this testifies to our belonging to the Lord. If we do not do what is right, this gives testimony that we don’t know the Lord.
Prayer: Dear Lord, please help me to do what is right, right now. Please guide me in doing what is right and bless my efforts to honor You. Amen.
