3rd John 3-4
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How is the church to conduct itself? How are Christians to live their lives. The Bible in many places addresses these matters. We are to love one another. We are to care for one another. We are to be truthful to one another. We have to bear the burdens of one another. These and more are expected to be the natural life of Christians and the church. Unfortunately, as humans and sinners, we do not always live to the expectation of what is required of us. 3rd John is written to correct a situation, where a Christian, a leader in the church is not living in accordance of the faith (vv.9-10):Â
I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authorithy. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing,talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church”.
What does John do to address this? He wrote a letter, a personal letter to another church leader, Gaius, who clearly is an opposite of all what Diotrphes was. Now 3rd John is commonly assigned to the Apostle John and it is believed he wrote it in AD 90 while in exile on Patmos. He describes himself as an elder, just like in 2 John 1. This meant he had oversight over churches. So 3rd John addresses the problems of Diotrephes: self-exaltation, pride, self conceit, division, rebellious against authority, slanderous, and hostile. And I hope and pray that as Christians and as a church, we will guard ourselves against these. Indeed as sinners, we may often run into conflicts as a church. But when this happens, we hopefully will be guided by the Scriptures. And what does John propose to deal with the matter? John proposes Walking In Truth. And we see this clearly in the verses we read “For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth”(vv.3-4)
There is in these words a great concern for truth. John says he gains great joy over the people he has responsibility for that they are walking in the truth. I believe that every Pastor’s great joy will truly be to see his congregation walking and growing in truth. And as a young church, I believe together we will walk and grow in truth. I believe we will be a people who love the truth of God. You will notice a strong emphasis on truth in this short letter (v.1,v.3 (truth two times, v.4, v.8, v.12(truth two times). That’s about 7 times, telling how important truth is.  What does it mean to Walk in Truth? I believe to walk in truth is to simply live our lives in accordance with the teachings of Scriptures, the Bible. The word of God. Jesus in John 17:17 prayed for his disciples saying “Sanctify them in the truth;your word is truth”Â
Now in this letter, we can identify certain things that points us to walking in truth.
LoveÂ
Love is one of the first signs that we are walking in truth. Remember that Jesus commanded that loving one another is evidence that we are his disciples “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). This is so self-explanatory. Love is proof that we are disciples—followers of Jesus. And where we are not loving one another, then either we don’t understand the teachings of Scripture or we may not be truly disciples of Christ. Now one of the important things to note about Christian love is that it is built on truth and not sentiments. We don’t love in error. But we love in truth. We live in a time when love gets so confused that when you are speaking the truth, some may even judge you as unloving. Christian love also involves affectionate care for one another. We desire the wellbeing of one another. Look at verse 2: Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul” John here expresses a concern for the wellbeing of Gaius. Unfortuately, this verse has been taken and twisted by our Charismatic/Pentecostal friends to to teach health and wealth; that God will bless you materially and you will be in good health. That is a bad interpretaion of SCripture. What we read here is a well wish the apostle has for Gaius. And indeed this is what all of us believers must have. We must seek the wellbeing of one another. By praying for one another. By seeking to help one another. And you will see this brotherly affection displayed by John throughout the letter. Three times in the letter, he addresses Gaius and perharps the church as “Beloved” ( vv. 2, 5, 11).
When you read the epistles, you get a sense of the affection and love they shared as believers. The verse 13 strongly tells us the heart of John: “I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.” This is a strong desire for fellowship. And one of the ways by which we indeed prove our love for one another is the desire for fellowship together. Our gathering together yes, is primarily for worship. But it is also for fellowship and edification. It is in fellowship that we prove our love for one another (Hebrews 10:25). Another way by which we walk in truth is
Hospitality
Gaius is praised for receiving and caring for Christian workers who he doesn’t even know. They are strangers, John says, verse 5: “Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are” And these people have indeed testified of Gaius’ hospitality. They have spoken about it in the churches. Christians are indeed commanded to be hospitable. Hebrews 13 commands that we should not forget to entertain strangers, because in doing so, we will entertain Angels unawares. I don’t if this is real angels. But it alludes to Abraham and Lot (Genesis Chapter 18-19). These words are important because clearly every believer is family and as believers we must be hospitable towards other believers. In a practical sense, it will involve even allowing travelling ministers of the gospel into our homes for a while. Nowadays we can easily put them in hotels. But it wasn’t so in the 1st century church. The 1st century church accomodated travelling ministers. It is interesting to note that, what Gaius is praised for, is the oppossite of what Diotrephes does: “he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church”….
Support Christian Work
The verses 7-8 is linked to Hospitality (read)… but I want to point out the other side of it, in that Gaius was Supporting Christian ministry. See the last part of verse 8: “Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth” It is true that many are abusing the faith and extorting money from people in the name of Christianity, but Brethren, it doesn’t excuse us from not supporting genuine Christian ministries.Â
Christ Exalting.
These missionaries John speaks about are also the opposite of Diotrphese. Their ministry is Christ Exalting: turn with me to v.7 “For they have gone out for the sake of the name…” What name? Christ of course. So I will say that Walking in Truth is also Christ Exalting. Does your life exalt Christ? We don’t live for ourselves. We are not in competition trying to outdo one another. Diotrphes is selfish. He thinks about himself alone. He is the man who brings all attention to hims. On the contrary, the people John speaks of here, are selfless and Christ exalting. Now before we crucify Diotrphes, let’s turn the attention on ourselves. What is your life in relation to other believer. What do you think of yourself as a believer among fellow believers? Do you look down on others? Do you think yourself better than others? Do you perharps look at others, despise them and think you can do better than they are doing? Be careful, be careful, you have become a diotrephes who wants to put himself first. Talking about Diotrephes, and John’s response to his error, we can also draw another lesson and say Walking in Truth
Confronts Sin
We don’t hide behind love and allow sin unchecked. Christians are called to stir up one another to good works. This means helping one another grow in godliness. And when there is unrepentant sin, we must deal with it. We must confront it. And John points out clearly that he will do that: verse 10: “So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing.” John is not going to ignore what Diotrephes is doing, but he will talk about it. I know confronting sin doesn’t come easily. Telling another person they are wrong, may not come easily to some of us. By people’s personality, sometimes we want to avoid conflict. But we cannot do that if we will be faithfully walking in the Truth. The Bible clearly speaks about confronting sin And John is doing just that. Jesus saysÂ
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, lett him be to you a Gentile and a tax collector (Matthew 18:15-20).
This is church discipline. And you will notice that in the case of Diotrephes, John is going to bring it up to the church. Brethren, let’s try to practise this. Let us not carry offense among ourselves. When someone wrongs you, tell them. If you are not satisfied how they handled it, bring others in. But do this lovingly. Another understanding of Walking in Truth isÂ
Be A Good Example For Others
After he has rebuked Diotrphes in the letter, John now tells Gaius and the church “not to imitate evil but imitate good”. (v.11). In other words, they should learn from good examples. And John points Gaius and the church to Demetrius (read v.12). John tells us he has received a good testimony. This means that Demitrius was a good example for others to emulate. Be like Demetrius and not deotrphes…. Let your light so shine….
In conclusion, let me ask, are you a disciple of Christ? Have you believed in Christ? Have you been counted as one of God’s children through faith in Christ that he died for your sins? If yes, then I can ask you based on what you have heard, are you Walking In Truth?Â
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