11a

do not imitate what is evil: (Meaning) Although John is probably thinking of Diotrephes’ evil deeds, he is giving this as a general instruction to Gaius, telling him not to copy any evil people or anything they do.

11b

but what is good: (Ellipsis) This is a short way of making the positive command, “Imitate what is good.”

11c

The one who does good is of God: (Meaning) John does not mean that if a person does good he becomes a child of God. He is talking about what our deeds show, not what they make us become. He is saying here the same thing as in 1 John 3:10, that our good or bad deeds show whether we belong to God or Satan.

11d

seen: (Metaphor) This is the same metaphor as in 1 John 3:6. It refers to recognizing or knowing God.

© 2000 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.