Imitate What Is Good

FOUNDATIONAL READING · ESV

3 John 1:11

Read the complete passage slowly before entering the reflection. Let the biblical text govern every application that follows.

BIBLICAL WORD INSIGHT · GREEK

μιμέομαιmimeomai

to imitate or follow as an example. Christian formation chooses models whose character and fruit are worthy of repetition.

THE WORD

Imitation is the most honest confession of your values. What you spend your time watching, following, consuming, and absorbing tells the truth about who you are in a way that your stated beliefs often do not. John, in his shortest letter, addresses a community dealing with two very different models of Christian leadership — Gaius, who is commended for his faithful hospitality and support of the traveling missionaries, and Diotrephes, who loves to be first, refuses to welcome the brothers, and expels from the church those who do. John does not resolve this conflict by calling a committee meeting or publishing a nuanced theological paper. He gives the simplest, most direct instruction in his entire body of writing: do not imitate evil but imitate good. The Greek word for imitate is mimomai — to copy, to pattern oneself after, to model. The entire direction of your character formation is being shaped by whoever and whatever you are most regularly imitating. This is not a peripheral concern.

It is the engine of spiritual development — for good or for ill. Then John attaches a theological diagnostic that is both gracious and confronting in equal measure: "Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God." This is not a works-righteousness statement — it is a fruit-evidence statement. The person who habitually, consistently, characteristically does good — who patterns their behavior after what is righteous, generous, honest, servant-hearted, and others-oriented — gives evidence that they have truly encountered the God who is good. The person who habitually, consistently, characteristically does evil — who patterns their behavior after what is selfish, destructive, dishonest, and power-seeking — gives evidence that they have not truly seen God. Not that they have not heard about God. Not that they lack theological knowledge. That they have not seen Him. Because when a person truly sees the holiness and love of God — when the reality of who He is penetrates to the level of genuine encounter — it leaves a mark. And that mark shows itself in behavior, in patterns, in what you choose to do and choose to imitate.

CONFRONTATION QUESTION

When you look at the dominant patterns of your behavior — your characteristic responses to people, your recurring choices, your habitual actions — what do they reveal about who or what you have been most consistently imitating, and does the pattern give evidence that you have truly seen God?

FAITH RESPONSE

I receive the truth that I imitate good — because I am from God and I have seen God. My master pattern is Jesus Christ, and every other influence in my life is evaluated against Him and submitted to Him. I refuse to pattern my life after anything that does not reflect the character of the God I serve. I do good — habitually, consistently, and at cost — not because it is easy but because I have seen God and what I have seen has changed what I do. I am from God, and it shows in everything I imitate.

🙏🏿 LET US GO INTO THE THRONE ROOM OF GRACE AND MERCY.™

Prayer

Father, I confess that I have allowed things and people into my life as formative influences that are shaping me away from Your image rather than toward it, and I repent of the carelessness with which I have permitted those influences to operate in me. Reveal to me today who and what I have been imitating most — and where the imitation has been producing evil patterns rather than good ones. Be my master pattern. Let Jesus be the One I imitate above all others. Make me someone whose behavior gives evidence that I have truly seen You.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

TODAY’S ASSIGNMENT

Truth must become practice.

Audit your top three sources of daily content and influence: the social media accounts you follow most, the people whose behavior you most often emulate, and the entertainment you consume most regularly. Ask of each: "Is imitating what this produces making me more like the God I claim to serve or less?" Make one specific adjustment based on your honest answer.