“Third John (219 words) (Third John)” | 3/21/2021
Third John | 3/21/21 | Will DuVal
We’re in week 4 of our 5-week series “Little Book, Big Message: a study through the single-chapter books of the Bible”. Last week we studied SECOND John, and its big message that “Love needs truth”
And this morning we arrive at THIRD John, and its INVERSION of 2 John’s theme, namely, that “Truth needs LOVE”. If 2 John explained for us why Love needs TRUTH, 3 John is going to show us why TRUTH needs LOVE.
Even the CONTEXTS for the two letters are inverted:
*Remember: 2 John was written primarily to warn the church against showing hospitality to the wrong people (“deceivers” and “antichrists”, as John called them last week).
*3 John, on the other hand, was written to encourage the church, positively, TO show hospitality to the RIGHT people, as we’ll see.
In BOTH cases, the circumstances in mind concern Christian hospitality. The Greek word for hospitality is “philoxenia”, from the words “philos” - “brotherly love” - and xenos - “foreigner, or stranger” - so hospitality literally means “to treat a stranger like a brother”. Biblical hospitality isn’t about who keeps the cleanest house; it’s not about bringing out the fine china and the silver (I don’t know about y’all, but that makes me feel like a stranger, like a guest in your house); No - biblical hospitality means you make the stranger feel like family. In all the best ways. ;)
So if in our hospitality we are to called NOT to be 50% loving and 50% truthful, but 100% loving and 100% truthful - remember, love and truth are NOT at odds; they are opposite sides of the same coin - then TRUTH means we first have to figure out who we’re DEALING with: is this person a “fellow worker for the truth” as in the case of 3 John, or are they a “deceiver” and an “antichrist” as in 2 John, because the TRUTH about their IDENTITY will determine in what WAY we LOVE them: as we said LAST week, the most loving thing you can do for a false teacher is to show them the DOOR. The “left foot of fellowship”. 2 John v10: don’t even GREET such a person!
But, if we are dealing with a fellow BROTHER or SISTER in CHRIST, then 3 John for this morning encourages us to “support” such people (v8), to “welcome” them (v10). Because truth needs LOVE.
So would you stand with me... ENTIRE BOOK of 3 JOHN:
“1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
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. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers[a] came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10 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.
11 Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
At just 219 words in the original Greek, 3 John is the shortest book of the Bible; but don’t count on this being the shortest sermon you’ve ever heard. :) There’s just too much good meat to dig into here.
3 John is widely considered one of the most PERSONAL of all the NT epistles. It’s one of only 2 letters - along with Paul’s letter to Philemon from 2 weeks ago - that was written from a single person (in this case, the apostle John), to a single person (3 John is addressed to “Gaius”). But beyond that, just listen to the intimately personal, genuinely loving LANGUAGE that John uses for Gaius here:
-He calls him “beloved” FOUR times!
-John RE-emphasizes and personalizes his love for Gaius in v1: “whom I love” (he uses the empathic, first person pronoun)
-John blesses every part of Gaius’ life - mind, body and spirit - in v2.
-He REJOICES over him in v3.
-He calls Gaius his “child” in v4.
-John applauds him in vv5-8.
-Exhorts him in love, in vv9-12.
-And he leaves Gaius in vv13-15 with a loving, virtual greeting, and the hopeful anticipation of a loving, in-person reunion.
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This letter is FULL of LOVE! And John’s big message is that truth needs love, for FIVE reasons...
#1 - Because Love encourages the truth. (vv1-4) Love encourages the truth.
Gaius wins the award in vv1-4 for “warmest greeting” of any NT letter recipient. John is just GUSHING in his encouragement: “the beloved Gaius”, “whom I loved”, “I pray that ALL may go well with you”, “I rejoiced GREATLY [over news of you]”, “I have no GREATER joy [than to hear good things about you]”.
Now, a few tangential but significant observations:
V1: As was the case in 2 John, rather than identify himself by name here, the apostle John addresses this letter from “the elder”, as I mentioned last week, to emphasize his role, as an elder, an authoritative overseer within this network of churches, but we ALSO note, that the word “elder” literally means OLD. John was old by the time he wrote this, likely in his 80s or even 90s. So let that be an encouragement to our octa- and nona-genarians here, and we are BLESSED to have so many of you at West Hills: but John’s example proves that you don’t ever get to retire from ministry! John was still authoring SCRIPTURE into his 90s; you may not be able to chase toddlers around the nursery anymore, but I promise we can find a job for you here!
So the elderly John is writing to the “beloved GAIUS.” We know of THREE other Gaiuses in the NT, NONE of which is identified as the Gaius of 3 John; it was one of the most common names in Roman society. So he could be anyone.
But he’s not just any old Guy(us) in John’s eyes; this Guy-us is SPECIAL. John LOVES him:
V2: “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.” Now, I mentioned last week, in discussing the false teachers of 2 John, that one of the most prevalent false teachings in today’s church world is the prosperity gospel. The idea that if you are a believer, God really really wants to make you healthy, wealthy, and happy in this life. It’s an absurd teaching, for anyone who has read... really ANY of the New Testament. But one of the favorite verses that prosperity deceivers love rip out of context is 3 John v2: “I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.” That was a common greeting in ancient Roman letters. It would be like me opening a message with, “I hope this email finds you well”. That’s not to say that John didn’t MEAN it. We should just be careful building a whole theology out of a verse like this. Moreover, notice that it is a PRAYER: “I PRAY that all may go well with you.” But prosperity deceivers turn this prayer into a PROMISE; folks like Kenneth Copeland consider 3 John v2 a ‘universal promise of perfect health for every believer.’
We orthodox believers can only pray that Kenneth Copeland catches COVID - we shouldn’t pray that he DIES - but if he at least caught it, that might convince his misled followers that by his OWN logic, his faith was clearly lacking, if his perfect health faltered, and perhaps they’d begin to question his ridiculous, pernicious ideas.
V3: John writes “I rejoiced greatly when the brothers[a] came and testified to your truth” → Typically in the NT, “brothers” can refer to any group of Christian believers, but John makes it clear in vv5-8 that he is referring more specifically to a group of itinerant Christian teachers who John had presumably mentored and discipled for the sake of ministering to his network of churches throughout Asia Minor. And they’ve brought good news of Gaius’ spiritual state back to John.
So he rejoices in v4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” → It’s likely that John himself personally led Gaius to faith in Christ. At the very least, John, the elder, served as a kind of spiritual father to him. Speaking of ways our elderly saints can serve our church: one of the MOST important ways you can serve us younger generations is by investing in, mentoring, discliping us. Serving as spiritual fathers and mothers. I was so encouraged this past week reading over the survey results from those of you participating in our “Discipleship groups” ministry this year. Survey after survey of folks saying, “I am SO glad we started these Discipleship groups; I had been praying for a Christian female mentor…” or “I have been feeling called to disciple younger men in the faith…”, I turned to Polly and said, “I don’t know why we didn’t start these years ago!?” Better late than never. :)
John is like a spiritual father to Gaius, and AS a father, his GREATEST joy is to hear that his children are walking in the truth. The same is true of every Christian parent here today. Speaking of “truth and love”: if you are TRULY a Christian, then you know the truth about Heaven and Hell, and the eternal consequences of rejecting Jesus, of NOT walking in the truth. And if you’re a LOVING parent, then nothing’s gonna cause you more sleepless nights than the thought of your own kids, who you love more than anything in the WORLD, rejecting Jesus and spending eternity separated from Him.
Man, I know this is so personal for some of you. You came to faith later in life, after you had already raised your kids, NOT in the faith. Some of you had them here every Wednesday and Sunday, you did EVERYTHING right, and they STILL strayed from the faith. There is no greater SORROW than to hear that your children are walking in darkness. In the lies of the world.
I see your prayer requests, and I pray for you, I pray WITH you, for your kids.
I ask you to PRAY for Ellery and Elijah too. Being a pastor’s kid doesn’t guarantee you a spot in Heaven. If anything, it probably increases the likelihood of a rebellious phase somewhere down the road! Please pray for my kids. You can pray for ME if you like; but I am ASKING you to pray with me for my kids.
But here’s the crux of point #1: Would Gaius BE “walking in the truth”, if not for John’s obvious and profound LOVE for him? See, love encourages the truth; do you think that Gaius would be the man of truth that he is, without John’s fatherly love and shepherding in his life? Would I be “walking in the truth” today if not for the loving encouragement I received all those years, from MY own father and mother, from my youth pastor and next-door neighbor/mentor, from my pastoral disciple-makers over the years? Sure, if God wants to grab you with the truth, He can use any means necessary; he’s using dreams and visions of Jesus over in the Middle East. But what’s the most common, but effective and life-changing way that God typically brings someone to a knowledge of the truth? It’s through the LOVE of another believer!
So let me ask you this morning, by way of application: who could you lovingly encourage in the TRUTH this week? This morning! Don’t wait! I’ll give you an example right now, and I don’t even have to embarrass him because he’s out of town this week: Cole Deming. Cole called me last week to ask if I had any advice for him, for sharing the gospel with his coworker who is one of these hyper-analytical, engineering-minded types. And to pray together over their conversation. Man - I truly have the greatest job in the world! I have no greater joy than to hear that my children, my BROTHERS, like Cole, aren’t just walking in the truth, but are walking others toward the truth. And that’s a great segue way to...
Point #2 - Truth needs love, because Love empowers the truth. (vv5-8)
Gaius, too, is not only walking in the truth, personally, but his own “love” (v6) compels him to “support” (v8) the truth-bearing brothers John sends the church.
Again, consider the context: Christianity was BRAND NEW on the scene. The reason there were so many issues in these churches, so much false teaching the apostles warned them about, was because EVERYBODY was a new believer! Think about how much teaching you have to do with new believers; I’ve had the honor of leading a few people, mainly students in youth groups in the past, to Christ. There is no greater joy! But like physical babies, spiritual newborns require a lot of WORK! You gotta feed them, teach them, train them up in the way they should go. But what about when you’ve got a whole CHURCH full of spiritual infants! Because they just heard about Jesus for the first time in their lives when you rolled into town 6 months ago, but now it’s time for you to move on to the next town because the gospel’s gotta be preached to ALL nations! When Paul tells Timothy that an elder “must not be a recent convert” in 1 Timothy 3:6, today we take that to mean like, “He’s gotta be a Christian for 10 or 12 years, minimum”; for PAUL, it was probably more like 10-12 MONTHS. That would be a rare, exceptional elder, that Paul got to disciple for an entire year, between all of his traveling. So what did they do? The apostles took guys like TIMOTHY, and Barnabas, and Silas and Luke and John Mark and others, along WITH them on their missionary journeys, and discipled them as they WENT, and then they would sent them BACK as itinerant teachers (often carrying these NT letters), to check in on and further train up the “established churches” while Paul and the apostles pushed on to new, uncharted territory.
But sometimes those established churches didn’t even KNOW the disciples of Paul, or John. They just knew Paul or John. So the apostles would send “letters of recommendation”, on their behalf, to the churches.
And that’s the backdrop for John’s praise of Gaius here in v5 for this “faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. [John’s saying, “Don’t just feed them for a couple days then send them out, empty-handed. If it is truly more blessed to GIVE than to RECEIVE, as our Lord taught us, then Gaius,these “brothers”, these 1st c. MISSIONARIES, present you with an opportunity to be BLESSED, if you will be faithful to bless them. v6: “in a manner WORTHY of God” himself; Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” I’ve heard pastors ask, “If JESUS himself walked into our church this Sunday - kind, gentle, and loving, but a smelly, dust-covered Middle-Eastern man nonetheless, how would our church react?” It’s worth pondering...
In GAIUS’ case, he does the right thing. He shows these stranger-brothers true Christian hospitality. As John says we ALL ought; v8: “we ought to support people like these, that we may ALSO be fellow workers for the truth.”
So how can YOU apply this? Ask yourself: “In what TANGIBLE ways can I, today, as a “fellow worker in the truth” lovingly empower the spread of God’s gospel truth to all nations?” Starting right here in your own city, your own Jerusalem… St. Louis? I would argue that in context, the lesson to be learned from Gaius’ example here is that it is important for you, personally, to support the gospel ministry of the church, FINANCIALLY. Now, if you’ve been at West Hills these past 2 years and 4 days that I’ve been lead pastor, you know how infrequently I like to talk about giving. It came up in the story of the widow’s mite in Mark 12, and when God invented tithing in Genesis 14. So I talk about money whenever God’s word FORBIDS me to avoid the topic.
But here’s the deal: I’m not asking you to give because West Hills is in a tough spot, financially; we’re NOT - praise God.
I’m not asking you to give because I need a raise - I don’t; although I probably wouldn’t REFUSE it if you forced the issue… :)
And I’m certainly not asking you to give so that God can bless YOU materially, “sow your seed of faith and God’s gonna make you rich,” and all that garbage.
No, I’m asking you to give because, like Gaius, you love the TRUTH. And you love this church’s ministry of the truth, our ministry of the word, the gospel; And you believe, like we do, that more people need to HEAR the truth, need to KNOW the truth, the capital “T” Truth - Jesus: the Way, the Truth and the Life - you see him moving in the life of this church, and you want to be a part of helping make that possible for others. To be a “fellow worker for the truth”
If that’s you, then we would be HONORED to have you support West Hills financially. You can drop a check off or go to our website today. But if that’s NOT you, then I’d just lovingly, but truthfully encourage you to check your heart this morning, because one of 2 things is probably going on; either 1) you love money more than you love the ministry it was meant to empower; that’s just GREED, all the more reason to give: you kill greed with generosity; OR, #2) you just can’t support the ministry of THIS church, in particular. Church stats say that people stop giving 3-6 months before they leave a church. If that’s you, I want you to know that for what it’s worth, for MY part, you have my blessing to go find a church where you can JOYFULLY give and serve and be used by God… so long as it’s a GOSPEL-preaching church. Because true Love empowers the truth, in tangible ways.
#3 - Truth needs love, because Love enforces the truth. (vv9-10)
Now we get to the REAL reason for the letter. Sure, John loves Gaius. But he didn’t go to the trouble of sending a letter halfway around the known world just to encourage Gaius. No, the situation is that this church leader, Diotrephes, is causing trouble.
Now, there’s a lot we don’t KNOW about Diotrephes; we don’t hear about him anywhere else in Scripture or in church history; just these 2 verses. So we don’t know, for instance, WHY Diotrephes took issue with John and the brothers, or I should say, what EXCUSE he gave the church for his disapproval. I think we DO know why he opposed them, as I’ll explain in a moment.
But we also don’t know just how bad this dude was. Some scholars suggest Diotrephes was a false teacher himself, or at least in cahoots with them. Most think he probably WASN’T, otherwise John would have just exhorted Gaius to “put Diotrephes out of the church”.
So what DO we know about the situation? 2 important things:
1) We know that Diotrephes was a selfish, power-hungry leader, who was probably insecure and envious of John’s obvious apostolic authority amongst this church. John diagnoses his sin in v9: “Diotrephes... likes to put himself first”. It is the worst possible trait, for a supposedly “Christian” leader. Remember how Jesus DEFINED leadership, in His church?
Matthew 20:25-28 “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,[c] 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,[d] 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Or Matthew 23:11-12 “The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Or how Jesus’ top disciple, Peter, exhorted the elders that HE trained: “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight… not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3 not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:2-3)
Diotrephes is the OPPOSITE of all those traits. It’s all about him. And he’ll do whatever it takes to assert himself and HIS authority, over against John and the brothers’. Look at the four-fold progression of UN-lovingness, exemplified by Diotrephes:
He starts with SLANDER - and I think John must have had a Bostonian accent, judging by his use of the phrase “talking wicked nonsense”; but at any rate, Diotrephes bad-mouths John and the brothers.
Then he begins to SNUB them too - v10: “he refuses to welcome the brothers”; their preaching is no longer welcomed in his church
But then Diotrephes is SO insecure and paranoid that he actually STOPS those who DO want to support the brothers;
And finally, “not content with that”, he actually SHUNS fellow believers for doing the right, loving thing: “if you support THEM, Diotrephes says, then you’re kicked out of my church,”
And friends, as much as I’d love to tell you the church has CHANGED in the last 2,000 years, we know there’s nothing new under the sun, is there? Unfortunately, pastors and elders are still just as susceptible to being self-centered, greedy, envious, domineering, insecure, controlling, power-hungry SINNERS as we’ve ever been. Should I be SUSPICIOUS of Pastor Thad? This bright, gifted, up-and-coming young pastor, only 8 years my junior; some of y’all even like HIS preaching better than MINE! You see where this begins to creep in - it’s good job security for Diotrephes to cast aspersions on John’s character; John is a THREAT to Diotrephes’ own authority.
But despite that, the SECOND thing we know, is how John plans to deal with Diotrephes. For starters, John’s already “written something to the church” (v9), but Diotrephes used the Michael Scott special filing bin - the garbage can - for that letter. So THIRD John should ACTUALLY be FOURTH John (or I suppose you could even make the argument that had Diotrephes not trashed the earlier letter, our third John wouldn’t have even needed to be WRITTEN - praise God, that He is redemptive enough to even use human sin, Diotrephes’ SIN, as the catalyst for his own holy, inspired word. By the way, did you hear that we found more Dead Sea Scrolls just last week?! How cool would it be if we found the FIRST 3 John, John’s earlier letter that Diotrephes IGNORED…
But John had written to try and address this stuff, Diotrephes trashed that letter, so what does John do? He writes NOW to Gaius. To prepare him. Because Jesus instructed us in Matthew 18, how to deal with a brother in sin: ““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. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. ” (vv15-17)
John tried it alone, through a letter; Diotrephes didn’t listen. Now John’s gathering a couple brothers, like Gaius, in anticipation of confronting Diotrephes face to face. If he STILL refuses to listen, they’ll bring Diotrephes before the whole church, and if he STILL won’t repent, they’ll kick him out.
But here’s the main point: it takes LOVE to enforce the truth.
John is planning to confront Diotrephes because 1) he loves Diotrephes, and knows he cannot let this brother continue down his path of sin and destruction, 2) John loves the CHURCH, and he cannot let Diotrephes continue to wreak havoc and confusion and lead others astray with his insecure, inhospitable jealousy, and most of all, 3) John loves the LORD, and if Jesus says that the right thing to do is to confront, then even if it makes for an uncomfortable conversation for John with Diotrephes that he would honestly rather avoid, he’s gonna obey the Lord.
Apply this in your own life, beloved: Who might God might be calling YOU to lovingly confront with the truth this week? Maybe you’ve been putting off that uncomfortable conversation for months - for YEARS! - under the guise of “love”, “Oh, I just need to “bear with them”... or MAYBE you need to confront them!
For some of you, it may be your PASTOR. A few of y’all at home have been dodging my calls - I doubt if you’re still tuning in, but maybe someone here who you DO pick up the phone for will feel convicted about THEIR need to confront you about your unwillingness to come confront me so we can talk about whatever I said or did that upset you. This is what Christians DO for one another. In love.
#4 - Truth needs love, because Love exalts the truth. (vv11-12)
John exhorts Gaius: “Beloved, do not imitate evil (those like Diotrephes) but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”
And then John offers Gaius a counter-example in v12, in the ministry of Demetrius, who probably carries this letter from John TO the church, and is ALSO at risk of being kicked out by Diotrephes, if Gaius doesn’t shelter him. John commends, exalts Demetrius’ example of faithful service: he “has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself (truth is OBJECTIVE; you can’t argue with the truth of Demetrius’ loving example). But Johns adds: We also add our testimony”. Everything should be established on the evidence of 3 witnesses (Deut 19:15). The WHOLE church, truth itself, and me, John.
But I think John has someone else in mind when he zooms out in v11 and says: “do not imitate evil but imitate good.” Because after all, the ULTIMATE example of good, worth our imitation, the perfect EMBODIMENT of goodness, capital “G” Good, was Jesus himself. John’s saying: HE’s the one who you want to imitate! John states it plainly elsewhere in his letters:
1 Jn 2:6 “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” → Christians, those “in Christ”, ought to WALK in the way Jesus walked; live it out. Imitate his example.
1 Jn 4:16-17 “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”
*We imitate what we celebrate, what we exalt.
*So let me ask YOU: Whose example do YOU Imitate? I HOPE it is Jesus. But here’s the thing: when you inevitably FAIL, do you trust in HIS UN-failing love for YOU - John says, “THIS is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 Jn 4:10) Beloved, I hope you’re not betting your spot in Heaven on your ability to imitate HIM; but RATHER, on Christ’s love for you, his willingness to lay down his life for you, as the propitiation, the perfect sacrifice, that satisfied a holy God’s just wrath against your sin. Have you put your faith in Jesus?
Finally, #5 - Truth needs love, because Love enjoys the truth. (vv13-15)
Similar to 2 John, John concludes in vv13-15 on this loving note: “I’ve got more to say, Gaius, cuz I love you SO much, but I’d rather just catch up face to face soon. Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.”
He says, “We’re not just BROTHERS; we’re friends too.” A brother’s someone you HAVE to love, whether you like it or not. A friend is someone you LIKE. Someone you ENJOY. John says: I can’t wait to hang out again soon. Swap ministry stories, of what God has been doing in our lives. Til then: peace be with you. All the friends here say, “Hey”; greet all the friends THERE for me, each by name. Maybe this was a small house church. And NOT a church of 300 people and growing every week, like West Hills. But brothers and sisters, that just means you get to have more friends than John did. One of the things I’ve been looking forward to MOST throughout this entire pandemic, is when I finally get to introduce some of my awesome new friends, who’ve been coming for 3… 6… 12 months now, to some of my awesome OLD friends who I haven’t SEEN in 12 months now. Because love ENJOYS fellowship in the truth.
*Do you enjoy loving relationships with others in this church community? If you feel like you DON’T, yet, we’d love to get you plugged in - stick around for ultimate frisbee TODAY! We’ll have more and more fellowship opportunities coming up, as the restrictions loosen - I encourage you: meet new people; get to know their names; what a blessing this church community is! Amen?