The Imitation Game

Where would the self-help and business media be without the secret habits of highly successful people? Almost every week there’s a new article outlining a high-flying individual’s behaviours – with the implied promise that using the same techniques could deliver us fame and fortune, too. 

Some of their advice is relatively common sense: you’ll often hear how top CEOs like Elon Musk begin work early, skip breakfast and divide their time into small, manageable tasks. Arianna Huffington, the CEO of Thrive Global, prioritises sleep in the name of productivity, including a bedtime ritual in which she turns off all mobile devices and “escorts them out of [her] bedroom”.   

Other inspirational figures are more idiosyncratic in their habits. Bill Gates, for example, would reportedly rock backwards and forwards in his chair while brainstorming – a bodily means of focusing the mind that apparently spread across the Microsoft boardroom. Gates was also very particular in his choice of notebook: it had to be a yellow legal pad. Further back in history, Charles Dickens carried around a compass so he could sleep facing north, something he believed would contribute to more productive writing, while Beethoven counted exactly 60 coffee beans for each cup, which he used to power his composing. 

-We should imitate the good examples of Godly people

I. Don’t Be a Diotrephes vv. 9-10

In our passage last week, John gave a word of commendation to Gaius, a generous brother who had shown his true character by welcoming in other Christian workers and providing for their needs

Now, the scene shifts to another man, Diotrephes and the contrast is sharp. His is an example that we must not emulate

Diotrephes likes to put himself first. He is self-centered

Diotrephes denies John’s authority. He is rebellious

Diotrephes speaks wicked nonsense. He is a slanderer

Diotrephes refuses to welcome the brothers. He is selfish

Diotrephes punishes those who do good. He is divisive

All in all the picture of Diotrephes is pretty bleak!

However, I think we need to be cautious here.

Diotrephes and his attitude are prevalent in churches today, especially in dying churches:

They are self-centered

They deny the right authority of godly leaders

They slander and revile others

They reject brothers in Christ from outside the fellowship

They shun those who connect with the body of Christ outside

This is a recipe for disaster, because it all comes wrapped in a cloak of righteousness!

The Turing test, originally called the imitation game by Alan Turing in 1949, is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to that of a human.

In the test, a human evaluator judges a text transcript of a natural-language conversation between a human and a machine. The evaluator tries to identify the machine, and the machine passes if the evaluator cannot reliably tell them apart. The results would not depend on the machine's ability to answer questions correctly, only on how closely its answers resembled those of a human. Since the Turing test is a test of indistinguishability in performance capacity, the verbal version generalizes naturally to all of human performance capacity, verbal as well as nonverbal (robotic).

If we can spot intelligence in this way, how can we spot goodness? Well, we compare it to godliness!

2 Corinthians 11:14–15

[14] And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. [15] So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (ESV)

II. Do Be a Demetrius vv. 11-12

What should we do with this? John gives us some instruction:

We must not imitate evil, but imitate good

When we imitate those who are good, we are imitating someone who is from God

When we imitate those who are evil, we are imitating someone who “has not seen” God. They are in complete ignorance

The ends do not justify the means; we must take a hard look at our actions and see what kind of impact that they have

Demetrius gives us a good example to follow, just as Gaius did

How do we know that Demetrius is a good person to imitate?

He has received a good testimony from everyone; He is well thought of by insiders and outsiders

He has a good testimony from “the truth itself”

This may seem a little odd to say, but it makes sense

You can hold Demetrius’s life against the testimony of Scripture and see that He walks in the truth

He has a good testimony from John, the Apostle and author of this little letter

That testimony carries weight

When we hear the testimony of trustworthy witnesses to the character of a man, we need to listen to what they have to say

We have to find the right kinds of people, those who walk in the truth and imitate them; their example is powerful!

1 Corinthians 11:1

[1] Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (ESV)

A man's life is always more forcible than his speech. When men take stock of him they reckon his deeds as dollars and his words as pennies. If his life and doctrine disagree the mass of onlookers accept his practice and reject his preaching. 

-C.H. Spurgeon.

A brief, simple, but expressive eulogy was pronounced by Martin Luther upon a pastor at Zwickau in 1522 named Nicholas Haussmann.

"What we preach, he lived," said the great reformer.

III. Don’t Forget Your Friends vv. 13-15

John closes his letter out with some tender words

This letter is brief and it cannot begin to cover everything that needs to be said

That’s ok though, because John doesn’t want to communicate in a letter anyway; He wants to talk face to face

He is not a man who is trying to avoid an awkward conversation by keeping his distance from people; He is a friend who is looking forward to sharing and instructing his friends and understanding that is critical

John closes with greetings, from the friends and to the friends

This is a different way of understanding our relationships in Christ

Typically, we use the language of being brothers and sisters in Christ to describe our relationships; this term friend is much more rare

You don’t get to choose your siblings, but you do get to choose your friends; this is the kind of bond we ought to have in Christ

We ought to love people like we want to love them, not like we have to love them

We ought to have serious warmth and affection in our Christian relationships

In the middle of contention and discord, we need each other

Do you have some friends?

Are you a good friend?

Will you be a friend?

Nothing in the world is friendlier than a wet dog.

Dan Bennett, Bits & Pieces, April 28, 1994, p. 5.

If we could all imitate that wet dog mindset, what a wonderful world it would be!