Summary of 3 John
It's basically a letter from John warning Diotrephes and to commend Gaius about his treatment of the teachers and how he praises and supports. John seems unhappy with how Diotrephes denied to recognize John's authority as an apostle and how he refused to receive his letters and follow his directions and wishes to speak to him face to face instead of in pen and ink. John also emphasis the truth.
My favorite part of the scripture is
3 John 1:11
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
I would be greatly interested on what peoples' thoughts are on the "anyone who does what is evil has not SEEN God"
Does it mean that they do not believe and if they believe and no longer commit evil they have SEEN God or does do they simply have to believe there is a God and whether they continue to commit evil is irrelevant?
I believe with my whole heart that they must No LONGER commit evil in order to be truly SEE God. What constitutes as evil? Is evil contained to the ten commandments or does it does it go much deeper and sinister than that? Do you think there is a point that such evil can not be undone or forgiven, even if they chose to believe afterwards?
It seems a running theme in the teachings of John are: Hospitality, support and encouragement for our fellow Christians
Which are great characteristics to have!
~Shan
I think that faith means believing in something even if you cannot actually SEE it. I also believe that we gave been given free will, that's why there is evil in the world. With that said, though, God also extends his grace to us and no one is perfect. "Born again" is a term that I understand to mean accepting Jesus. We are not perfect, we are all sinners. But we pray and we thank God, and we ask for forgiveness, and it is granted to us.
ReplyDeletehave, not gave...😉
ReplyDeleteI think that if someone is living a life of sin, doing evil without caring or trying to change, they are focusing on the evil instead of God. Maybe not that they can't actually see God, but are too distracted with evil to pay attention to Him. I agree with Jill that asking for forgiveness is the first step, and when God grants it to us we are able to see him more clearly because we aren't blinded by evil/our sin.
ReplyDelete