<p>1:11 <em>Beloved, do not imitate such evil, but imitate that which is good. He that does good is of God. He that does evil has not seen God</em>- The &quot;evil&quot; in view was the guilt by association disfellowshipping of brethren and sincere missionary workers noted on :10. We may well ask why Gaius would need to be warned not to &quot;imitate such evil&quot;, when he had himself suffered from it. It is simply so, that the abused tend to abuse. This is a fact of observed human experience; and John urges Gaius not to practice the evil excommunication policy that he had suffered from. It is so easy to treat others as we have been. Instead of copying Diotrephes, who had &quot;not seen God&quot;, Gaius was to imitate the &quot;good&quot;, the One who &quot;does good&quot;, who is 'born of God', and who has &quot;seen God&quot;. For we are to imitate or mimic s.w. the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 11:1). That One to be followed / imitated is primarily the Lord Jesus. Instead of psychologically being dominated by our abusers, we are to look not to them as role models, but to the Lord Jesus. Many of us were taught implicitly and explicitly that the harder line taken on matters of disfellowship, the more likely we were to be close to God. But here such behaviour is called &quot;evil&quot;. And it is. Those who do these things have not seen God, Paul says.</p><p>If we see / know God in the experiential sense, we will do no evil (3 Jn. 11). To have the true knowledge of Jesus Christ means we will not be barren Gk. 'idle' nor unfruitful (2 Pet. 1:8). When Zacharias wanted to have grounds for faith, he was simply told: &quot;I am Gabriel...&quot;, the man like God (Lk. 1:19). The declaration of God's Name in Ex. 34:6,7 doesn't include statements like 'Trust in God He'll help you'. Instead we read of the grace, mercy, justice and inevitable judgment of God. Knowing and experiencing these more abstract things will lead us to a practical faith in God. Because David remembered God's Name, <em>therefore</em> He kept His law (Ps. 119:55 RSV). This is why the Bible uses the idea of 'knowing' God in the sense of knowing Him by experience, not just 'knowing' the right theory. Likewise John uses 'the truth' in the sense of not just correct knowledge but the way of life it brings forth.</p>