“The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. 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. 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. Beloved, it is a 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. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”

Something that we could track across John’s writings is this progression from macro to micro. In his gospel account, we see the good news of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ offered up to the world. What we’re seeing is informational, but also deeply spiritual, as it calls us to place our faith in the One True God, all written for the purpose, as John says in John 20:31,

“… so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

As we transition into 1 John, we see things shrink somewhat, from declaring Truth to the world, to communicating to the church. This is a directive given to those who have already placed their faith in Jesus, a beautiful, nuanced checklist, shoring up the priorities and relationships of and between believers in Christ. 2 John shrinks our scope again – whether we read the letter as the “elect lady,” as well as her “elect sister,” being churches, or literal women who presided over the hospitality of their house churches, John is addressing a singular location as opposed to the church as a whole. This is not to say that the words and message of 2 John are not applicable to the church as a whole, but that his addressed target audience has shrunk. Beginning 3 John, we see this occur again, as we’re now addressing a single individual in the person of Gaius. What this shrinking scope helps us see is the nature of God Himself. God is the omnipresent, omnipotent creator of the universe. Time, space, and reality itself are not just controlled by Him, they were made by Him. God exists on a macro level – the greatest, highest level, to the extent that we can’t properly conceive it. If left to our own devices, we may interpret that image as something like the distant, uninterested pagan ideas of god. Our own reasoning would cause us to think that a being that incomprehensibly above us could not have any vested interest in us as a whole, and certainly not on an individual level – but we would be very, very wrong to think that. When God answers Job, we see Him say in Job 38:4,

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.”

But later, in Job 39:1–4 God says,

“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth, when they crouch, bring forth their offspring, and are delivered of their young? Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open; they go out and do not return to them.”

You may be thinking, “Okay… Why are we talking about mountain goats?” Because this is the scope of God – not just great supernatural mysteries, but also natural occurrences, ungrasped, or unthought of by man. God’s knowledge and control reach to unimaginable heights, but also to the points that are so simple and so nuanced that they pass us by without notice. Every drop of rain has a number in the mind of God, every grain of sand is accounted for, every breath, of every person who has ever and will ever live was known by God before reality was spoken into existence. Jesus says in Matthew 10:28–31,

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

And He gives a parable in Luke 15:4–7 (as well as Matthew 18) saying,

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

It is crucial that we understand that God is not limited, that His knowledge, and mastery of His creation, ranging from the wide expanse of the starry universe, to the smallest microorganisms in the depths of the sea, is perfect and absolute – and His absolute power is reflected both in the macro and the micro. As we read John’s writings, going from an address to the world, to the church, to a church, to a person within a church, it all applies equally. In understanding the commandments of God, we have to see that what is true for all is true for one, and what is true for one is true for all. Gaius, the addressee of John 3 appears nowhere else in Scripture, and yet what we can glean from John’s words to a man of the church whom he clearly holds in high regard, applies to us all, because they are words teaching, affirming, and praising the Truth – and the Truth, whether seen from up close or far away, whether given simply, or expanded upon to the greatest possible degree, is always the Truth. Unchanging, immutable, eternal, and perfect.

Living “Your” Truth

1. There is no Truth without Christ

“The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. 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.”

We live in a broken world. This isn’t new information – the fall occurs in Genesis, and it’s really all downhill from there. From the curse of sin that has stained the earth, all conceivable wickedness comes forth, and at every layer of darkness, we find a form of idol worship. We murder because we do not revere what is made in the image of God, and seek to tear down His creation to suit our own desires. We lie, and cheat, and steal because we have no knowledge or regard for Truth, and seek to shape the world in ways that are desirable to our own corrupt flesh. In our sin nature, we know such deep corruption that we will take what God has explicitly given us, and misuse it in an act of open blasphemy. We can see this in the Old Testament in the matter of the bronze serpent. Numbers 21:4–9 tells us,

“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.’ Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

Jesus gives us further insight around this as He speaks with Nicodemus in John 3:13–15 saying,

“No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

For the Israelites in the wilderness, to look upon this fiery serpent was to look upon the thing that is killing you, to face your greatest, most dire fear, and be healed through this. When we look at Jesus on the cross, this is what we gaze upon, not as an isolated people group in the desert, but as all of humanity. We see the horror of our sin poured out – we see the wrath that we earned for ourselves delivered onto One who is entirely blameless, and as Isaiah 53:5 says,

“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

But what we as sinful people will do with the gospel of Jesus Christ mirrors what was done with the bronze serpent. After Numbers 21 we see no mention of the bronze serpent again until over a thousand years later, in 2 Kings 18:1–4,

“In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).”

In the intervening years, the people of Israel kept up with the serpent, but rather that keeping it and remembering the righteous judgement that God passed on their fathers in the wilderness, and the mercy He bestowed upon them, they came to worship and give offerings to the serpent itself, perfectly acting out what Paul would later write in Romans 1:22–23,

“Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

This is what the world in its uncomprehending darkness does with the sacrifice of Christ, twisting truth to suit their passions. The Word of God, the commandments of Christ are broken up, parsed apart, and cherrypicked for whatever parts are agreeable to the individual. It would be like finding someone who is in poor health, and their doctor urging them to get more fresh fruit in their diet, but because they don’t like fresh fruit, they opt for fruit flavored candy instead, and then pat themselves on the back for what a wonderful job they’ve done… It’s insane. This is crucially important for us to understand and keep in mind as we begin reading 3 John, firstly because when John says to Gaius that he loves him “in truth,” this actually means something. The world in its brokenness, in its repellant relationship with Truth, has a fundamental problem with definitions. Love, peace, truth, mercy, grace, right and wrong – these words do not mean the same things in the mouth of the world as they do from those who are new creations in Christ. When John says that he loves Gaius in truth, we see John, the elder, acting out the commandment he has to consistently called us to in 1 and 2 John – 1 John 2:3,

“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.”

1 John 3:23,

“And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.”

1 John 4:21,

“And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

2 John 5–6,

“And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.”

John’s love for his brother in Christ is not some halfhearted, worldly thing, nor is it relayed in some over the top, showy sort of way. This is genuine, heartfelt, brotherly affection, stirred up by the Spirit, and attesting to John’s personal obedience to the commandment he has urged his “little children” to follow. We can also see this through what John follows this with,

“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.”

This is a kind enough sentiment, but it bears remembering the time and place in which John writes these words to Gaius – a man taking part in, or leading a house church when Christianity is both spreading like wildfire through the work of the Holy Spirit, and also facing extreme opposition from the world through persecution, and the introduction of false teachings. No Christian is at peace with the spirit of the world, and Gaius lived in a time where persecution existed in a very violent way. In his hope for his brother in Christ, John calls us back to Paul’s words from Philippians 4:4–7,

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

This is the hope that we know personally in Christ, and the hope that we share with one another in our faith.

“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.”

I titled this “Living ‘Your’ Truth” – understand, this is meant mockingly, it’s said with condescending sarcasm, because truth is not subjective, there is no “your” truth. Experience, perspective, and opinion are all subjective – but Jesus says in John 14:6,

“… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus is the literal embodiment, the manifestation of Truth. The identity of Christ is not subjective, the Son of the Living God is not open to interpretation or opinion. Hebrews 13:8–9 tells us,

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.”

And Colossians 3:2–4 says,

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

What John hears testified about Gaius is blessed and praiseworthy, because the truth that he is walking out is the Truth of Christ. When your truth is Christ’s Truth then you may take heart in the firm foundation of its authenticity, but if your truth is something of your own invention then it’s no truth at all, but is rather a delusion of your flesh, a broad and open gate that leads to death. There is no truth, be it for creation as a whole or in the heart of the individual, apart from Christ.

2. There is no Love without Truth

“Beloved, it is a 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.”

Galatians 3:27–29 tells us,

“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

What we see as we continue in today’s passage is the utter lack of division among those who are joined in Christ, even if they’re strangers. We have to remember that while the mission and Spirit of the first century church was identical to the mission and Spirit of the church today, how it looked from an operational standpoint was vastly different. In our current era, especially in the western world, the church is somewhat static, having a set building dedicated to worship, set service times, and a clear, publicly visible structure. Meanwhile, our information flows abundantly. We have the benefit of the entire canon of Scripture, a whole Bible, Old and New Testament, readily available and dispersed around the world. This, coupled with the largescale access to the internet we have gives us incredible access to information. Yesterday I received one email from Crossway with four different articles linked in it on various Bible study and application. I have an app on my phone with, to quote their site info, 3,500 Bible versions in 2,300 languages, and over 10,000 reading plans and devotionals… The first century church did not have a fraction of this access, nor was the church they attended as visible and fixed in their society as what we know today. While they certainly had the Old Testament, the New Testament was still extremely new – so new that it wasn’t completed yet, much less compiled. This was an era when letters from church elders (basically everything we see from Romans on, save some individual messages like 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and possibly 2 and 3 John), were taken around and read aloud in multiple churches, where the churches themselves were held, sometimes in secret, in peoples homes. This didn’t mean that their teaching was bad, or inferior – as I said before, the Holy Spirit that guided the church from the very beginning is the same Spirit that indwells and guides us today. But it did mean that in an era of traveling, itinerant preachers, there were false teachers and grifters that crept in among them. While it may have looked different, this is actually the same as the church today – this still happens, and it’s always something to be guarded against. This is the context for the warning in 2 John 10–11,

“If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”

What we’re seeing in 3 John is the opposite – instead of a warning, John commends Gaius and his church for the righteous treatment they’ve given true brothers as they come to them in their travels. Despite the fact that these men were strangers to them, they were brothers in Truth, and what that meant is that there was automatically love and generosity between them. The world does not comprehend Truth, and it does not comprehend Love, because these two things are both found perfectly manifested in God, and His holiness is foreign to a world in open rebellion against Him. They use the words “truth,” and “love,” but again, we live in a broken world that struggles desperately with definitions – what they say is not what they mean. There is an isolated sort of callousness in worldly reasoning. You’ll hear things like, “I’m a Christian, but that’s personal, I don’t need to share that with everyone,” or “People can live how they want to live, what happens between consenting adults is none of my business.” Christians do not persecute one another, we do not pass condemnation or final judgement, knowing that we have no authority to do so. We do however, know sin from righteousness through the discernment of the Spirit, and we do not pretend that light is darkness, or that darkness is light. What this means is that within the church, where Truth abounds, so does Love. John writes, not of some isolated, “you do your thing, I’ll do mine,” way of thinking, but of his exceeding joy to see believers walking in Truth, abiding in God, and testifying to the work of the Spirit through their love for one another – even those who come to them from outside their immediate church, but are joined as part of the body of Christ.

3. There is no Love without Fellowship

“You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”

If we’re joined in Truth, then we’re joined in Love, and if we love one another, a clear marker of our unity is our fellowship with one another. We read in 1 John 1:6–7,

“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

We are joined to one another through the Holy Spirit – Ephesians 4:4–7 tells us,

“There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

As Christians, we worship the same loving God, we are redeemed by the same blood, and made new with the same life. This means, as John has already shown us, that we rejoice in the blessings and triumphs of our brothers and sisters. We are guided, both in good times and in bad as Romans 12:15 tells us,

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

We are connected in a deeper way than flesh can comprehend, and that means supporting one another in all things, to the salvation and sanctification of others, and the glory of God. While there are many acts of service that this could apply to, it merits addressing one of the most direct methods of support that we can lend to ministry (and everyone’s favorite subject) – tithing. If we look at those that John is speaking of in today’s passage, we see that they accept nothing from the gentiles. That is to say, they’re not expecting, or even accepting payment from those they share the gospel with. This seems to be similar to Paul’s line of reasoning in 1 Corinthians 9. To paraphrase the chapter, Paul makes it abundantly clear that a worker in the name of Christ has a right to his wages – but he gives these up, largely so that it can be said by no one that he shares the gospel for personal gain. This gives a sharp distinction from the wolves in sheep’s clothing who traveled peddling false messages with their hands out. This is not to say that Paul never accepted any support or hospitality from fellow believers, but there’s a caution around accepting support that we see shared by those mentioned in 3 John. This matter of accepting support from certain places, as well as (as I mentioned) the matter of our tithes has an extremely early Biblical precedent, in Genesis 14:17–24, and Abram’s interaction with both the high priest of God, as well as the king of Sodom,

“After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’ And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, ‘Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.’ But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, “I have made Abram rich.” I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.’”

To unpack this, we have Abram, returning after a victorious battle, and encountering Melchizedek who, before we have any sort of priestly establishment as would later come to the Levites in the line of Aaron, is called the “priest of God Most High,” as well as the “king of Salem.” King of Salem can have multiple implications – some believe that “Salem” was an ancient name for Jerusalem, and that he was king of what would one day be the city of David. There’s also the fact that “Salem” translates as “peace,” so we’re seeing Melchizedek called the king of peace. While he’s discussed further in Hebrews, we don’t get much information about Melchizedek here in Genesis – except for the fact that he and Abram seem to be very much on the same page. Melchizedek blessed Abram, and Abram in response gives him a tenth – the first Biblical record of tithing, before it was ever given in the Law. Conversely, we see the king of Sodom – the corrupt and wicked city that will be utterly destroyed just a few chapters after we read this. Despite dealing with him respectfully, Abram accepts no gift from this man – just as the church workers John speaks of in today’s passage accept nothing from the gentiles, so Abram will take no gift or offering from this ruler who is not pursuing the will of God. We cannot look at the church, at our brothers and sisters who are doing the work of Christ, the ones with whom we are in fellowship with, joined through Love and Truth, and think to ourselves, “I don’t need to contribute – someone else will do it.” The New Testament is not as specific in its giving requirements as what is seen in the Law given to Moses, and the Law itself was fulfilled by Christ, but this does not mean that we’re not called to give in support of the ministry of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 9:6–8 tells us,

“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

This isn’t freedom from giving, but rather freedom in giving – just as we are not alienated from fellowship, but held free in it through the Love and Truth of Christ. God has blessed us all uniformly in our salvation, yet distinctly through various gifts. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:7–11,

“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”

We use the gifts that God has blessed us with, and we support the church into which we have been adopted. By supporting the mission of the body of Christ, we support those who work in the name of Truth, and find ourselves as doing the same work alongside them. We do not live and operate as the world does, but are redeemed and set apart from the wickedness of our flesh. We are kept in Christ – in His Truth, in His Love, and in the fellowship fostered by the Spirit in the hearts, minds, and actions of all believers.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=814dCcaujE0