Whoever Does Good Is from God
The brief letter of 3 John, our book of the Bible for this week, touches on the theme of doing good. The key verse Pastor Doug will focus on is verse 11, “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.” Whoever does good is from God.
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Whoever Does Good Is from God
Have you ever heard the phrase, “do gooders?” Do you think of it as a positive, complementary phrase or as a negative or derogatory way of referring to someone?
It’s hard to imagine doing good being considered a bad thing.
Doing good is basic to being a follower of Christ.
Good in the Bible, as we’ve seen for more than a year, involves caring for the poor, the widow, the orphan, the alien, or stranger; it’s sharing food with the hungry, clothes and shelter with those who need them, visiting the sick, the dying, the imprisoned. It’s sharing the good news of God’s love in Christ for all people. It’s doing justice and mercy, and faith as Jesus says in Matthew 23:23.
In Acts 10, the Apostle Peter is in the home of a Roman soldier named Cornelius. The Holy Spirit prompted Peter and Cornelius to connect with each other. Cornelius gathered his relatives and close friends to hear Peter speak. Peter began by saying to them (Acts 10:28),
“You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean.”
This is a hugely important verse then and now.
Peter was referring to his faith tradition’s rules about Jews and Gentiles, but the Holy Spirit was showing him something new and he had to be open to it, but it was a stretch for him.
Peter’s statement in Acts 10:34-43 is one of the great summaries of the message about Jesus in the New Testament.
Part of what Peter says in describing Jesus is (Acts 10:38), “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
How he went about doing good. If that’s how Peter described Jesus’ life, shouldn’t that be the way Jesus’ followers are described? Is that the way people would describe you? If the answer is, yes, praise God and keep it up. If the answer is no, then you know what you need to do.
The brief letter of 3 John, our book of the Bible for this week, touches on the theme of doing good.
While 1 and 2 John were addressed to a church, 3 John is written to a church leader named Gaius. At that time, churches were bound together by letters from those in authority and by personal visits of their representatives and traveling missionaries, just as we’re hosting Sandra and Joyce this morning.
The problem that occasioned this letter was there a person in the church named Diotrephes who “liked to put himself first” (verse 9) who had challenged the spiritual authority of God’s chosen leader, the elder writing the letter.
Much like King David’s son Absalom who undermined the leadership of his father and sought to turn people against him, Diotrephes refused to welcome messengers from the elder and sought to expel from the church anyone who showed them hospitality.
Unfortunately, there have always been people in the church like Diotrephes who seek to elevate themselves and to undermine or discredit leaders. Fortunately, there have always been faithful people in the church like Gaius who embody love, walk in the truth, support the mission of the church, generously share hospitality, and who seek to do good. Listen to 3 John:
1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. 2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. 3 I was overjoyed when some of the friends arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends, even though they are strangers to you; 6 they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; 7 for they began their journey for the sake of Christ, accepting no support from non-believers. 8 Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may become co-workers with the truth.
9 I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends, and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.
11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself. We also testify for him, and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; 14 instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face. 15 Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.
The key verse I want to focus on is verse 11, “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”
Whoever does good is from God. Do you believe that?
Whoever does good is from God regardless of their belief or unbelief.
Whoever does evil hasn’t seen God and isn’t from God, regardless of what they claim about their belief or faith.
This relates back to several teachings of Jesus including that a tree is known by its fruit. (Matthew 12:33-37) and the judgment of the nations in Matthew 25:31-46. 3 John is not teaching something new but reminding us of what the scriptures had taught.
For example, the book of Proverbs which instructs us in wise living, says (Proverbs 3:27-32), “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.
Do not plan harm against your neighbor who lives trustingly beside you.
Do not quarrel with anyone without cause, when no harm has been done to you.
Do not envy the violent and do not choose any of their ways; for the perverse are an abomination to the LORD, but the upright are in his confidence.”
The Bible has a great deal to say about being good and doing good.
God is good and God wants you to be good. That sounds simple, but many foundational truths in life are simple and the fact that they’re ignored or not followed doesn’t make them any less true.
When you look around the world there is so much violence, anger, hate, pain, poverty, hunger and grief, the opportunities to do good are overwhelming to contemplate.
There are many nations facing crises and upheaval. Our nation has a host of issues that we haven’t been able to resolve.
There are issues each of us has personally or in our family or circle of friendship.
Sometimes all these concerns seem too much to face, and we can feel powerless, helpless, and hopeless.
While there are larger and more institutional, national, or global issues that need to be addressed, what is in your power is to seek to do good every day of your life. Jana Stanfield was right when she said, “I cannot do all the good that the world needs. But the world needs all the good that I can do.”
When Proverbs 3:27 says, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” The first place this begins is with those closest to you.
Mother Teresa put it this way,
“Spread love everywhere you go: First of all in your own house… let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.”
We won’t be radiating kindness all the time without some help. Praying to be filled with God’s Spirit, to see each person as Christ sees them, to see each person as Christ, all these help us to be “the living expression of God’s kindness.”
What can happen is we think about ourselves so much that our focus turns inward instead of outward. Making a mental commitment to “let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier” is a great goal and motivation. It’s a way of doing good whenever it’s in your power to do it. I also suspect it makes for better relations with our family and neighbors when we do good for them whenever we’re able to do so. Often we’ll find we end up benefiting and being blessed as well.
While there may be a part of us that would like to be remembered, to go down in history, the truth is that most of us won’t.
Leo Buscaglia observed,
“The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. it’s overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt.”
Every day we have the opportunity to do good to impact someone’s life, to make our love felt, potentially to turn a person’s life around.
Og Mandino wrote about the urgency that can shape how we treat the people around us as we go through each day.
“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”
While we shouldn’t live in constant fear and anxiety that every time we say goodbye to someone that we’ll never see them again, the truth is that impending death has a way of clarifying what is really important in life. Treating everyone with care, kindness, and understanding helps us to live without regret because we will have done what was in our power to do for someone when we were with him or her. Do good without any thought of reward, simply because it’s the right thing to do.
In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says that love “keeps no record of wrongs,” we might add that love keeps no record of “rights” either, so you don’t get involved in relational scorekeeping where you find yourself constantly keeping track of the good you did for someone and then growing resentful or bitter because they never reciprocated and did anything for you.
The poet William Wordsworth expressed it well when he wrote, “The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.”
Perhaps one of the coolest experiences we can have is to have someone recall how we did something for them that meant a great deal and we at first have trouble even recalling it because we’re not keeping score, we simply did an “unremembered act of kindness and of love.”
Whoever does good is from God, that’s why Psalm 34:14 encourages us, “Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.” Finally, with Psalm 125:4 we ask God’s blessing, “Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,”
Blessing: “Trust in the LORD, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security. Depart from evil, and do good; so you shall abide forever. For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his faithful ones.” Psalm 37:3, 27-28.
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
- The Bible has a great deal to say about being good and doing good. Why is this concept is so important for us as followers of Christ?
- Proverbs encourages us to do good to our neighbors whenever it is in our power to do so. What results from your doing so?
- Proverbs 3:27-35 lists several behaviors that are not good, how do you avoid them in your daily living?
- Is there a benefit to not keeping a record of the good that you do, what might that benefit be?
- 3 John states that “whoever does good is from God,” how does that impact how you view people who don’t share our faith?
- What will you do today and in the coming week to (Psalm 37:3) “trust in the Lord and do good” in God’s name?