3 John: Pt. 5 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning.

I love God.

I hope you do too.

I hope you’ve come to know God enough to recognize how much He loves you. He loves you so much. He was willing to come into our world, experience life as a man, a man who would be mistreated and rejected so many times and ultimately crucified. He did all that out of love for you and for me.

But it’s not only historical love when you begin to put God in the front of your life, and you say, God, I want to live your way, and you begin to think about God like you would about a relationship, and you say, God, I want a good relationship with you, and you start to ask His forgiveness for the things you know are offending him in your life and you start inviting him to get involved and to change your life, and you put God right there in the place he ought to be in your life.

You find that God becomes so meaningful to you. You see Him loving on you every day of your life, not making everything easy, but being there with you, even in the really hard times in your life, changing your life like any other beautiful relationship would.

I love God and I hope you love him too, and if you do, you need to grow your relationship with Him. You need to spend time with him just like you would with any other relationship. And that’s why we start each weekday morning this way, taking time with God. And this week we’re looking at this beautiful little letter that was written by the apostle John to one of his dear friends that forms part of the Bible, the book of 3rd John in the Bible.

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And we come to the last little paragraph of that letter today where John says, beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good.

Whoever does good is from God, and whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.

I had so much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace be to you. The friends greet you, greet the friends, each by name.

Such a normal letter that would be written from someone to his dear friend, encouraging them in spiritual things and expressing his desire to see him again soon, but I just want to zero in today on this one little line that we just read.

Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good.

There’s plenty of both around you to imitate, isn’t there?

And you know, evil cloaks itself with humor and comedy and social acceptance and political correctness, but there’s things that God just says he hates, right?

Things that offend him, things that are not the way he designed them to be, things that have to do with sexuality, things that have to do with what you entertain yourself with that in God’s eyes, they’re evil. And he says, don’t imitate those things. Don’t keep putting them into your mind and letting them shape the way you think so that that’s how you live too and that’s what you enjoy too.

Rather, imitate what’s good.

Fill your mind with what God says in His word. Read books and things that are going to encourage you spiritually. Surround yourselves with Christians who are not just surface Christians, but truly love God and put Him first in their lives. Let them be the influences in your life. Yes, then also spend time with people who truly need God, whose lives are falling apart and are desperate.

That’s what Jesus would do too, and spend time with Christians who want to spend time with those people as well. Just fill your life with people who are doing what is good, what is right. Imitate them. Imitate what God has shown us in the Bible. Put God first in your life. Well, how is that going to happen?

You’ve got to keep the things you want to imitate in front of you and around you.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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