I like this verse. It just tells us that we should be looking and trying to be like that which is good and Holy. And if we do that which is good and holy we are from God. And i like how dan put it. How it will be hard when we go back to school to try to act like some unholy people to fit in. But we must stand strong and follow the Godly and Holy examples that we have in our lives. So through this verse i have learned that i as i go back to school and for the rest of my life need to imitate those who are Good and Holy…

Wow! I love this verse. If we’re living in God, we’ll do good things and not be tempted to imitate evil. We’ll hopefully be able to stand up and do the right thing. To me, the people you hang with have an extremely huge influence on you. You’ll find it’s much easier to do ‘good, godly’ things when you’re around ‘good, godly’ people. We need to make sure our friends are acting in a way that glorifies God and set a good example for us. I could definitely work on this one.

i love this verse because it is saying to be faithfull to the brother even if they are straingers and i to agree with jeremy in saying that we need to evangalize and make the best of every operttunity that the lord provides us with.

As the leader of the christian club at my school I have found that whenever a fellow believer (who you have encouraged, kept accountable, and invested time in) is walking in the truth; it is the greatest feeling. That is why we have to have Timothys not just Pauls in our life.

Yes Bobby I agree! My aunt and uncle gave me a necklace with my name on it with this verse on the back, so I agree with you Bobby.

What a blessing it is to become a joy, there is a blessing both ways and as we as children know, that God specifically promises that He will bless us if we obey are parents, because it is better to obey them now and enjoy our life then disobey them now and hate it!

I agree with Dan on this one! The more that we surround ourselves with nonChristians, the more we will start to become like them. If we want to be imitators of Christ, we need to spend our time around those who have the same goals – preferable those who are further along in their spiritual maturity than us, so that we can follow their example

13I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink.

I think that in this verse, John is setting an example for us so that we know how to properly encourage one another. He knew that a letter, although encouraging, would not be as powerful or affective as a face to face conversation. In 2 John 12 he says that he does this “so that our joy may be made complete”, another bonus is that it pleases God becasue we are fellowshiping and showing love for one another. So lets not settle for just a text message or e-mail when we could talk on the phone or meet in person and have some deeper fellowship.

This reminds me of when God commands us to be imitators of Him in Ephesians 5:1 and in Leviticus 19:2 The Lord commands us to be holy as He is holy. So if we are obeying His commands we won’t have a problem with this, and we know this because we are from God and we don’t continue to sin, and if it is not burdensome then we know that we love God and the greatest command is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and stregnth. It seems to me at the last sentence, once we see God that we won’t sin, because of the fear we’ll have of Him.

As Christians we should seek to imitate and emmulate people who are obeying God’s Word. It may be tempting at times to want the attention or approval of the people around us and thus we may immitate them to fit in. However, the people around us may not be “walking in the truth” and thus are not good examples to follow. As you prepare to go back to school make the distinction between those who are good examples and bad examples to follow. Everyone should have at least one person they can look to as a good example of a Christian and seek to immitate their obedience. Remember, bad company corrupts good character (1Corin 15:33).

I agree with what that Jeremy guy said haha. We ought to be out evangelizing to people, EVEN STRANGERS! God calls us to speak his word to everyone,, not just our friends and family.

It seems that a main theme in this book is the love for others in the faith and others outside the faith! This verse popped out at me, just because I started thinking about how I represent Christ in the views of other people. Would people outside my own little bubble say that I was on fire for Christ?? I need to make sure that my life at home reflects my life outside of the nest!! I know I need to work a lot on thinking more before I speak, because at times not all of what I say glorifies the Lord. It just reminds me to be representing Christ 100% no matter where I am, not letting any unwholesome talk come out of my mouth (Ephesians 4:29)!! :D

In this verse the person John wrote the letter to is caring for other Christians that are complete strangers to him. We should also care for all who are in Christ no matter who they are or what they look like.

Diotrephes, like Beth said, was acting very sinfully against God and the members of the church, brothers in Christ. he kicked them out of the church and didnt welcome them with hospitality as they should. we should always be kind and compassionate to everyone, and we need to show love to our brothers and sisters in Christ. its so important to put others before ourselves like Christ, though he is God, put others before himself. the last part of this verse it says ” so that we may work together for the truth.” we should work together with our fellow memebrs in Christ so that we can grow in our walks with him, and learn about God through His word and and work together in the truth. if we are not showing compassion to our brothers and sisters in Christ, how can we grow together and even be compasssionate towards non-Christians? we should always humble ourselves and think of others before us, just as Christ did

Diotrephes was a leader in one of the churches in Asia Minor who was sinning blatantly and needed to be confronted. John gets to the root of Diotrephes’ problem…he loves to be first. His selfishness had caused him to lose sight of Christ and his fellow believers. Diotrephes’ list of sins are gossiping, not welcoming fellow Christians, and even going as far as kicking his brothers out of church when they welcomed other believers. How sad that Diotrepehes was a man who was a leader in the church and claimed to be a Christian and he was acting this way! We must each examine our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to remove any selfishness in our lives. Selfishness is a great sin that can lead to many other sins that hinder our walk with Christ.

This is a great joy! I have seen young people that I have led to the Lord grow and mature in Him even when I was no longer involved in their lives and this is a great reward. But I also think this applies to parents too. Imagine the joy your parents could have seeing you obey them and even more, your Lord Jesus Christ. This joy is something we should want to give to our parents knowing that our respect to them also pleases the Lord!

What a great verse, simple in what it says yet if we follow it we can move mountains!!
It reminds me a little of our sermon last night. Thank you pastor Bobby!!! the sermon was veryyy convicting and definatly something i need to work on.

this verse is cool because like it says they were probly like evangalizing to strangers off the streets that they didnt even know. We should be evangalizing to strangers too and every oppertunity we have to anyone:)!!

11Dear 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 also agree with brooke like if you do bad things and stuff you are obvisiously against god…..if you do things that bring glory to god and follow what he says and 100%ly live our lives for him then we will do what is good

This verse is plain and simple. You are either with God, or against him. Its obvious that anyone who does what is evil, is not a follower of Christ, and has not seen God! Since there are so many temptations in this world, and evilness that we can sometimes be tempted to make the wrong, and evil decisions. But if we are of God, and are motivated to do what he says, stand up for him, and live for him, etc…. than we will do what is good! We will not be snatched out of his hand :)