He Who Does Good is of God?
“I wrote to the assembly, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, doesn’t accept what we say. Therefore if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words. Not content with this, neither does he himself receive the brothers, and those who would, he forbids and throws out of the assembly. Beloved, don’t imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil hasn’t seen God. Demetrius has the testimony of all, and of the truth itself; yes, we also testify, and you know that our testimony is true.” (3 John 1:9-12 WEB)
In the apostle John’s letter to Gaius and the church, he told them that a person who does good is of God, while one who does evil has not seen God.
Is this teaching good works as a proof of salvation?
Well, if we read in the context of the passage, John was referring to Diotrephes who was hindering Christians in particular. Diotrephes rejected the apostles’ authority, slandered them, and he cast out from the church whoever showed support or hospitality to the missionaries that were sent by the apostles. Diotrephes enjoyed the glory of being “first among them” as a leader but he was not interested in the truth of the Gospel.
John was calling the authenticity of Diotrephes’ faith into question, doubting that the man was saved.
It is apparent that Diotrephes “has not seen God”—he did not have a personal revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and did not love Christians because he was likely not a true one. He just wanted to be a leader over a group of people, to enjoy the thrill of calling the shots and feeling a vain sense of importance.
When John talked about “he who does good is of God”, we see the context clearly that John meant doing good to Christians, acting according to God’s will and ways.
When an unbeliever does something good like giving to charity through his pagan temple or speaking encouraging words to cheer up a depressed friend, that is not the kind of “good” that John is referring to. If that were so, then every unbeliever who regularly does something good could be called “of God”.
No, the one who does good by believing and proclaiming the Spirit-inspired words of the apostles (the New Testament is mostly written by the apostles), who welcomes and loves fellow Christian brethren, demonstrates that he is a true believer. Not just any general acts of good, but love towards God (Yahweh) and fellow Christians who the apostle Paul calls “the household of the faith”.
“So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith.” (Galatians 6:10 WEB)
In a subsequent chapter in the same letter, John wrote something that clearly shows that he meant doing good in the sense of doing good (showing love) to fellow Christians:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love...If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.” (1 John 4:7-8, 20-21 WEB)
Firstly, John addressed the audience as “beloved”, showing us that he was speaking to Christians, not just all people in general. God’s will is for Christians to have brotherly love for one another, to treat each other as family, even though we may not be biologically related by blood, but we are of the same family in the Holy Spirit.
John then proceeded to explain how to recognize a false believer: a person who uses the mouth to claim that he loves God, but with his actions shows that he hates Christians and even persecutes them. Such a person is obviously just lying and is not really born-again.
In contrast to Diotrephes, John commends Demetrius for being a true Christian who walks in the truth of the Gospel. He has this testimony from the apostles and from the church. May we be like Demetrius, whose faith can be clearly seen, such that the way we live brings glory to God!
Thanks for reading this devotional! I’m accepting love gifts for this ministry at my Ko-Fi page. Supporters receive an eBook (Messiah’s Miracles: The Power of Having Faith in Jesus Christ) as a thank-you gift as well as exclusive access to supporter-only devotionals. Supporters who give on a monthly basis of $20 or more will be added to a Bible Study chat group to receive daily teachings and also daily devotionals by email.
Thanks for your support that enables this ministry to reach more than 200,000 people every month online! I post twice-daily freshly written Gospel messages that lift up the name of Jesus: http://ko-fi.com/miltongohblog
同時也有1部Youtube影片,追蹤數超過2萬的網紅功夫班傑 Kungfu Benji,也在其Youtube影片中提到,2012是我第一次去印度朝聖。我借了朋友的5D2單眼相機,拍了一堆不能用的畫面。但恰好經過現在的剪接技術能呈現當時朝聖的3個重點。我平常閱讀瑜珈哲學書籍。這隻影片主要是介紹影響我修行最深的瑜珈師,作者,和修女。可惜當時我拍攝技術太差,沒辦法好好介紹每個地方其它特色,各還有很多看頭沒介紹。還好主要的目...
missionaries of charity 在 民報 Facebook 的最讚貼文
【#醫病平台】考量病患當下最需要什麼 不分宗教,用行動把愛傳出去
文/林信男(具有神學學位的資深精神科醫師)
#德雷莎修女(Mother Teresa,天主教官方中文譯名為「德蘭修女」)奉獻她的一生為赤貧的人服務。她在1950年創立仁愛傳教修女會(Missionaries of Charity),2年後設立「垂死之家」(Nirmal Hriday)照顧在印度加爾各答街頭貧病者與瀕死無依者。
另一位傳奇人物 #史懷哲醫師、牧師,擁有醫學、神學、哲學及音樂四個博士學位。他的大半生都奉獻給非洲,在加彭的蘭巴倫行醫。
還有一位日本牧師 #井上伊之助,他的父親來台灣參與製造樟腦工作,而在花蓮山上部落遇害。於是他決心來台灣向原住民部落傳教。
#主愛之家 #鮑得勝牧師夫婦 #把愛傳出去
📌快加入民報FB社團,每日新聞精華不漏接📌
👉https://cutt.ly/Tr8r0Is
missionaries of charity 在 Lara的多語繪本世界-英俄日德 Facebook 的最佳貼文
#用聽的認識她 #2min2KnowHer
加入Lara在Telegram的推播頻道, 就可以聽到更詳細的人物介紹哦! https://t.me/laraglobal
---------
貧民窟的聖人:德蕾莎修女(Mother Teresa)
.
德蕾莎修女出生於1910年,12歲就立志要到國外為窮人服務的德蕾莎,隨後於1931年開始在印度加爾各答服務,她創立了仁愛傳教修女會(Missionaries of Charity)和「垂死之家」(Nirmal Hriday)照顧瀕死無依者,慈善事蹟傳遍全球。德蕾莎修女奉獻一生,全心全意為最貧苦的人服務,於1979年獲頒諾貝爾和平獎,被稱為「加爾各答的天使」。德蕾莎修女於1997年離開人世,在她離世19年後,天主教教宗方濟各在2016年將這位加爾各答天使封為聖人。
.
德雷莎修女說:「不是所有的人都能做偉大的事,但我們都能用偉大的的愛來做小事。」
.
好奇德雷莎修女的故事嗎?歡迎加入我們的Telegram,讓Lara老師說給你聽!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
#ShePersisted #週三女孩日 #MotherTeresa #SaintoftheGutters #NirmalHriday #SaintTeresaofCalcutta
missionaries of charity 在 功夫班傑 Kungfu Benji Youtube 的最佳貼文
2012是我第一次去印度朝聖。我借了朋友的5D2單眼相機,拍了一堆不能用的畫面。但恰好經過現在的剪接技術能呈現當時朝聖的3個重點。我平常閱讀瑜珈哲學書籍。這隻影片主要是介紹影響我修行最深的瑜珈師,作者,和修女。可惜當時我拍攝技術太差,沒辦法好好介紹每個地方其它特色,各還有很多看頭沒介紹。還好主要的目的地畫面還算足夠,再補充一些配音也算完整。我想其它沒介紹留給自己去探索的人發現好了。印度是世界修行的聖地不是沒有原因的。
第一個地方是RIshikesh。適合拍照,學瑜伽,學梵文,看古蹟,找山洞靜坐,和體驗恆河的源頭。
第二個地方是Pondicherry。他是法國殖民過的小村,少年PI就是這裡長大。這裡是整合哲學的起源,不分宗教,只談道理,透過各個角度探索人的意識,甚至可以拜訪一個實際運作的共產社區Auroville。
第三個地方是Kolkata。接到滿滿被英國殖民的古老味道。是最不適合修行的城市,宗族屠殺,宗教互嗆,政權鬥爭,喇叭按不停。但這個地方產出活在黑暗中卻還照亮別人的兩個心靈大使。有時候震撼我們的心不是一個人講的多好,而是一個人突破了多大的困難。
我5分鐘短片只能介紹表面,也就是一些修行的線索。有感觸,有感覺,就得自己研究,不夠如果還想問我什麼可以留言,我試圖給你補充。
I love yoga philosophy. So my first trip to India was about checking out the holy places I read about in books and the places where many of my favorite authors grew up and spent there time. The influence they have had over my inner workings are quite significant. So I planned out visits to all of them, borrowed my friends nice camera and filmed what I could. There is much more to see, but I at the time I only captured the major points that I was focused on. This trip actually happened in 2012, and now only 6 years later, through editing the process do I know how to make this footage into something interesting for others to watch. I only scratch the surface of each place, so if anything especially interests you you can leave a message below and I will reply to the best of my abilities.
Special thanks to:
Mr Pink by Topher Mohr & Alex Elena
Let the Show Begin by HookSounds http://www.hooksounds.com/
Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/CEUvKL8ZLWg
Easier to Fade (feat. Madi Larson) by A Himitsu https://soundcloud.com/a-himitsu
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/d432TRZEeYw
Let's Go Surfing by Joakim Karud https://soundcloud.com/joakimkarud
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/1pt4pRSHk14