3 John 1:11
Dearly beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doth good, is of God: he that doth evil, hath not seen God.
Open 3 John 1:11 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Carissime, noli imitari malum, sed quod bonum est. Qui benefacit, ex Deo est : qui malefacit, non vidit Deum.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- Ἀγαπητέ, μὴ μιμοῦ τὸ κακὸν ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀγαθόν. ὁ ἀγαθοποιῶν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν· ὁ κακοποιῶν οὐχ ἑώρακεν τὸν θεόν.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian On Monogamy, Chapter VI
These accordingly, I suppose, are they in whom my origin is counted. All others I ignore. And if I glance around at their examples, (examples) of some David heaping up marriages for himself even through sanguinary means, of some Solomon rich in wives as well as in other riches, you are bidden to “follow the better things;” and you have withal Joseph but once wedded, and on this score I venture to say better than his father; you have Moses, the intimate eye-witness of God; you have Aaron the chief priest. The second Moses, also, of the second People, who led our representatives into the (possession of) the promise of God, in whom the Name (of Jesus) was first inaugurated, was no digamist.