It's So Frustratingly Simple

John’s right. It’s frustratingly simple.

It’s such a simple command. It’s too simple. Frustratingly simple.

“Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good,” (3 John v11a).

See what I mean?

John was pushing back against Diotrephes, a local leader who refused to engage or even allow goodness to win. What did John do? He went for the spiritual jugular. To those disciples who would listen to him, John encouraged them to not imitate Diotrephes, but instead, imitate someone like Demetrius, a man whose good reputation spread far and wide.

You and me, let’s choose to be disciplemakers who model good. God’s good. Gospel good. Kingdom good. In our minds and hearts. Then our actions. With our families. Within our local churches. Throughout our communities. And to the ends of the earth.

Pointing toward the root of good—Christ—is foundational to pointing our disciples toward imitating goodness. After all, if we can’t qualify righteousness from unrighteousness, how can we snatch anyone from the fire? Or build them up in the most Holy Faith? If we can’t discern the light from the dark spiritually, socially, emotionally, physically, mentally, and relationally…no doubt we’ll produce more rotten fruit than a diseased and dying apple tree.

So, when we find evil on display in our lives—let’s repent, disrobe, then put on a fresh pair of new self for another day.

Why? Because “[w]hoever does good is from God; [yet] whoever does evil has not seen God,” (v11b) We’ve seen Him. We’ve met His Son. We’ve been filled with His Spirit. We’ve been sent on His disciplemaking mission. Why spend another minute imitating anything or anyone other than the Son?

Take a hot minute and do a heart check. Talk around the dinner table tonight and do the same with your Huddle, your small group, and the men or women you’re accountable with. Ask the Spirit to reveal one area of life in which your attitude, actions, values, or beliefs might be imitating the world over and above Christ. Then pick one simple transformative action step and put it into practice ASAP.

As disciplemakers, let’s do the dirty work of discerning good from evil in order to present ourselves blameless first to our Creator but also to those who are entrusted into our care.