Imitating

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God. – 3 John 1v11

When I was young I loved American football. Being away almost 15 years now has dulled that a bit, but I, believe it or not, can still remember the mid-60s when my favourite team was the Baltimore Colts. (Yes, the Colts really did play in Baltimore at one time) My favourite player, of course, was Johnny Unitas. He wore number 19 and high top black football boots. I watched him like a hawk. I still think he is the greatest pure passer to ever play the game. He set some records that are only now being broken. I throw an American football just like he did, with only the last two finger of my right hand on the laces because I am sure that it makes the ball fly in a better spiral and lets you throw a more effective bomb.

I learned all this almost 40 years ago. When I wanted to throw a football I wanted to copy the best. There we plenty of quarterbacks I could have copied. Bart Starr quarterbacked the Green Bay Packers then, but I didn’t want to throw like him because they were the ‘bad guys’ (meaning they beat my Colts). I am sure that Johnny U, was a much better person than Bart Starr.

What does childish mimicry have to do with John’s third epistle? Squeezed into a verse between the description of Diotrephes and Demetrius are these few words, ‘Do not imitate that which is evil, but that which is good.’ These men were direct opposites. One was evil and one was good. Paul wrote earlier that believers should watch his life and follow his example.

Sometimes, in order to fit in, we find ourselves trying to follow the evil instead of following the good. We mimic the world instead of mimicking God’s ways. We can find great Christian examples that we can learn from and follow their lead and their example. In this case we can follow Diotrephes’ example or we can follow Demetrius’ example.

One is evil, one is good. Which one are we going to imitate?