Reading:
3 John
What
reports would you want to be given about you? Maybe there are
some old friends you knew years ago from another city, and a mutual
friend is traveling to see them. What might they report about you?
John writes to a dear friend, Gaius, in his third epistle (letter);
someone who, it seems, was converted years prior under his ministry.
He has heard reports about this man—reports that tell him that
Gaius' soul is doing well (3 John 2). What did he hear? What kind
of report would tell John that Gaius' soul was doing well? What
kind of report might John hear that would tell him your soul is doing
well?
3It
gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell
about your faithfulness to the truth
and how you continue to walk in
the truth. 4I
have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking
in the truth.
(3 John 3-4)
Gaius
was faithful to the truth—faithfulness demonstrated by his walking
in the truth, and continuing to do so—even in the face of pressure
to do otherwise (3 John 10). What does
it mean that he was walking in
the truth and faithful
to the truth?
Does it mean all his doctrine was perfect? Does it mean he could
debate doctrine with the best of them? While doctrine is important,
that isn't the point here.
If
one were to speculate how John knew Gaius was walking in the truth,
or what it looks like to be faithful to the truth of the Gospel, one
might easily surmise that John knew Gaius was walking in the truth
because he was loving the brothers.
(For instance by thinking about 1 John 2:3-6 you could conclude
this.) However, we don't have to speculate, since John immediately
tells us how he knew.
5Dear
friend, you are faithful in what
you are doing for the brothers,
even though they are strangers to you. 6They
have told the church about your
love. You will do well to send
them on their way in a manner worthy of God. 7It
was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help
from the pagans. 8We
ought therefore to show
hospitality to such men so
that we may work together for the truth.
(3 John 5-8)
They
were faithful to the brothers which they then described as love in
their report to the church. John
then describes it as showing hospitality
(more literally, bearing up,
or receiving into his heart)
to these brothers that we may work together for the truth. What
Gaius did in supporting these men who went to the churches teaching
the truth was working together with them
for the truth. They were loving the
truth by supporting these men who taught it and they were loving the
recipients of the truth through them. You
might say they were loving the truth by living it.
Diotrephes,
on the other hand, loved himself (3 John 9-10). He apparently felt
threatened by other men who taught the truth. He did not want them
supported, slandered them and retaliated against those who supported
them by kicking them out of the church. What a contrast to Gaius and
the love of truth he showed. Diotrephes
has a very small world—small enough that he could be at the center
of it. Gaius had a very big world—big enough that truth existed
outside himself and was something he served, not something that
served him.
What
kind of report do you want to be given about you?
Are you living for the truth? Do you live for the advance of the
Gospel—something bigger than you and which you serve? Or, is the
Gospel you have a very small gospel that exists to serve you? May
the Gospel compel us to walk as Jesus walked—laying down our lives
for the brothers.
Love
the Gospel, Live the Gospel, Advance the Gospel,
Jerry
