Friday 6 Oct 2017

October 6: 3 John 1:9-12

Key Verse: 3 John 1:11
Dear 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.

Devotion:
How often do pride and arrogance get you into trouble? Probably a bit more than you wish to admit to! If we are not careful to control either / both, then we will find we do step on other people’s toes without thinking about it and even get to the stage where we don't care about it. When we get that far, we should not be surprised to find ourselves loosing friends! Diotrephes (the one talked about in this letter) was someone who had a bit too much of an ego and who wanted to control others because of his self-imposed position of pre-eminence!

We are warned about looking up to people like this or to following in their footsteps – though easy it is to do. For when we stop doing good, we are going against God's wishes and causing ourselves to be caught up in evil. But if we should cause others to be caught up through what we are doing, then we are taking on God! We know we would never be able to even think about wining – but we don't think straight when we are full of pride, greed or our ego fills up our lives.

If we ever get to a position of power and start to exercise our personal desires over and above those of the position we have attained, we are working outside of our authority. When that starts to interfere with God, then we are working against Him. He is the one who wants us to be able to spread His word and show His will in our lives. By taking on our “alter-ego” selves, we are preventing others from reaching God and from seeing His ways. We need to reign in our personal desires to be in line with what God would have us do – that way we can be assured He will continue to be behind what we do and we can continue to know we are not challenging His authority!

Points to Ponder:
Would you take on the supreme court just because you thought you were right?

Why do we insist on thinking we are always right before God?