"Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God."
(3 John 1:11)
This is a strange verse! While John refers to a person who does good, he says "is of God". But when he refers to a person who does evil, he does not say he is not from God. He changes the playing field and says - "has not seen God". He does not say they are fundamentally not of God, which would sound like a permanent, unchangeable caste. Instead, he diagnoses them as spiritually blind, implying a temporary state.
However, when we encounter destructive behavior—whether in someone else or deep within our own habits—our instinct is often to label it as permanent. We look at pride, hostility, or selfishness and assume, that person is just broken beyond repair.
Yet the Apostle John deliberately chooses his words with breathtaking grace. In the original Greek, when writing about the one who does evil, John notes that they "has not seen God" ($οὐχ\ ἑώρακεν$) using the perfect tense.
The Diagnosis of Blindness
Spiritual blindness explains destructive behavior without excusing it. Someone acting out of ambition or malice is walking in the dark; they simply cannot see the truth of who God is. But blindness is a condition that can be cured. By framing evil as a lack of vision rather than an irreversible state of being, John leaves the future open. Diagnosis is not a final sentence; it is an invitation to healing.
God Made Visible
How does a spiritually blind person receive sight? Because God is an invisible spirit, people frequently encounter and "see" God's character through the visible lives of believers who reflect Him.
John illustrates this in his letter by contrasting two men:
Diotrephes, who acts out of pride and division, offering a distorted mirror of faith.
Demetrius, who embodies goodness and carries a testimony rooted in truth.
When someone practicing evil encounters a person living a genuinely self-giving, godly life, the invisible character of God becomes tangible. As 1 John 4:12 reminds us, "No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us." Our moral witness serves as an eye-opener. Unmerited grace and quiet righteousness break through a blind person's categories, casting light into darkness and offering a compelling glimpse of the Father.
Who are such people? Here are some we can use as role models:
A. Dr Stanley Jones. E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973) was a master of breaking down ideological, religious, and political hostility without resorting to defensive arguments or aggressive confrontation. Rather than attempting to debate people out of spiritual darkness or moral opposition, he used relational and experiential approaches to make the light of God visible to them. In early 20th-century India, traditional missionary work often relied on public debates, lectures, or top-down monologues aimed at refuting other worldviews. Recognizing that intellectual debate usually hardens opposition and creates defensiveness, Jones pioneered Round Table Conferences.
The Rule of Engagement: He invited Christians, Hindus, Muslims, secular intellectuals, agnostics, and critics to sit together as equals. The single rule was that participants could not debate theology, criticize other doctrines, or trade theoretical arguments. Instead, everyone had to answer one question: What has your faith (or worldview) actually done for your personal life in practice?
The Result: By stripping away defensiveness, participants shared their real struggles, heartaches, and spiritual limits. In this humble atmosphere, Jones didn't force a doctrine; he simply shared the living presence and reality of Jesus in his own life. The sheer transparency broke open closed minds, allowing skeptics and opponents to "see" the reality of God through lived experience rather than argument.
E. Stanley Jones brought light to people in darkness not by attacking their darkness, but by exhibiting a superior alternative. Through respectful listening, disarming vulnerability, practical civil action, and disarming dialogue, he made the character of God visible to those who had never seen it before.
Angela King and the Founders of "Life After Hate"
Angela King was a prominent leader in the American white power skinhead movement during the 1990s, filled with rage and hostility toward minority groups. In 1998, she was arrested and sentenced to prison for an armed robbery of an adult video store.
While in federal prison, King expected the non-white inmates to attack her. Instead, a group of Black women disarmed her by treating her with warmth, sharing food, and extending genuine human compassion. They held her accountable for her hate, but refused to treat her as an enemy.
This experience shattered her worldview. Upon release, King co-founded Life After Hate in 2011 alongside other former extremists (including Arno Michaelis and Sammy Rangel). The organization uses non-judgmental empathy, peer support, and compassion to help individuals exit violent far-right and neo-Nazi hate groups.
In each of these modern cases, the pattern mirrors the principle of 3 John 1:11:
• Hostility and evil grow in environments of isolation, dehumanization, and blindness.
• Transformation occurs when someone steps into that darkness bearing light—refusing to reduce an enemy to their worst actions, offering unmerited grace, and giving them the space to "see" a better way to live.
These two are of many examples and stories.
Lets pause and reflect here:
Are there difficult people in your life whom you have written off as permanent "evildoers"? How might shifting your perspective from permanent condemnation to temporary spiritual blindness change the way you pray for them?
Arrow Prayer
Lord, heal our spiritual blindness and teach us to walk in Your light. Where we encounter darkness in others, help us to be steady mirrors of Your love, grace, and truth, that they might truly see You and be transformed. Amen.
