3 John 1:11
“Beloved, don’t imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil hasn’t seen God.”
What does 3 John 1:11 mean?
The writer of this short letter is giving straightforward advice to someone he cares about: pay attention to what you're modeling your life after. Instead of copying the harmful behavior you might see around you, choose to mirror what is genuinely good and life-giving. The underlying promise here is that when you pursue goodness, you're actually aligning yourself with God's own character and nature. On the flip side, when someone consistently chooses what's destructive or cruel, they've drifted so far from understanding who God is that they've essentially lost sight of him altogether. This isn't about being perfect, but about the direction your heart is honestly moving toward.