Jesus Enabled Faithful Following By Supplying a Glimpse of the Fullness of God's Glory and Grace

What Did Jesus Do?

Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.
3 John 11


In a cynical world “no good deed goes unpunished.” But, in the kingdom of God, it is evil doing that is punished, while good deeds are the evidence of a saving relationship with the Father in and through the Son. No, I’m not in the least suggesting or talking about works-righteousness. But those whom God the Father has favored with the revelation of his glory and grace in the Son, he enables to follow the Savior by faith in Jesus Christ, doing good in his name and by his Spirit. It’s a mouthful, for sure, but it communicates the monumental truth of God’s love for us in the Son—Jesus enabled faithful following by supplying a glimpse of the fullness of God’s glory and grace.

We are, you know, great mimics. We all practice the art of imitation more than we realize, or care to admit as we try to assert our “individualism.” God knows this about us, that we will copy what we see, and demonstrate, by way of how we dress, how we speak, how we act, what we choose to mimic, what examples we follow. Diotrephes, whom John had singled out in his letter as worthy of condemnation, was a doer of evil, who talked a lot of junk, or, as John put it, had been “talking wicked nonsense against us” (“us” being John and others who preached the Gospel). Poor Diotrephes, he had never caught a glimpse of God, either by actually seeing Jesus in the flesh, or by receiving the fullness of the glory and grace of God in and through the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ which had in fact permitted many to “see” the Father in and through the truth and love enfleshed in the Son. So Diotrephes sought to throw his weight, and his words, around. And, being the imitators that we are, there was no little danger that people might have quickly started doing and saying the things Diotrepehes did and said.

So John exhorted “the beloved Gaius” and all whom Gaius would share John’s letter with, “do not imitate evil (by doing and saying what Diotrephes did and said) but imitate good.” And then John offered Gaius, and us, an example of one whose good deeds were worthy of imitation—Demetrius (verse 12). For Demetrius had earned a good reputation among believers by way of a three-fold testimony. First of all, John had heard nothing but good things about Demetrius--“everyone” witnessed to his faithful following of Jesus. Second, there was a strong and certain agreement between how Demetrius lived his life and the life of a disciple as prescribed by the Word of God, both in Scripture and even more in the life of Jesus—“the truth itself” testified to the goodness of Demetrius. Third, John was willing to stake his own authority and reputation to the faithfulness of Demetrius—“We also add our testimony.”

As John and the other apostles, had been enabled to faithfully follow Jesus because, in and through him they had glimpsed the fullness of God’s glory and grace, so Demetrius, and others were, and are, similarly enabled to faithfully follow by the glimpses of God’s glory and grace revealed in the Bible, in the proclamation of the Gospel, and in the person of Jesus Christ. As God grants us by faith to “see” his glory and grace, his truth and love, in his Son, so he enables us to walk by faith, imitating the example of others who walk faithfully before and beside us. And, all along the way, those who follow Jesus faithfully do good, for in and through Christ we have seen God.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenminstries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4