“Truth and Troublemakers”
(3 John)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
- Take your Bibles and join me in 3 John (page 822; YouVersion).
Last week we studied 2 John and now this week John’s third letter, 3 John. This small letter is the shortest letter in the original Greek New Testament. And therefore, along with 2 John, is arguably one of the most neglected letters of the New Testament. For many it is unfortunately a tiny letter skipped over in one’s hurry to get on with the fantastic teachings of the Book of Revelation. Just skip over this stuff at the end and get on with the cataclysmic prophecies of the end-times! But 2 and 3 John are so timely and helpful to the church today.
When we read 3 John we discover that we are reading someone else’s mail. This letter is a personal letter to a guy named Gaius. And it is as though we’ve opened Gaius’ mailbox and removed his mail and read through his mail. And we are doing just that. God in His supernatural providence has preserved this letter for us in His Word because He knows us. And He knows that the members of Henderson’s First Baptist Church need the contents of this letter as much as Gaius and the members of the church to which he belonged so many years ago.
Like 2 John, 3 John was written by the Apostle John who likely was writing from somewhere near Ephesus in the latter years of the first century. In 2 John, the apostle warns church members about those who denied the incarnation. John warned the church not to allow these false teachers into the congregation to spread their false teachings. On the other hand, in 3 John, he encourages members to warmly receive traveling Christians who are teaching the truth, the truth of the Gospel. But where there is truth, there is nearly always trouble. Listen for all of this as we hear the Word.
- Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 The Elder, To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth:
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
3 For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
5 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers,
6 who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well,
7 because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles.
8 We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.
9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.
10 Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.
11 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.
12 Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink;
14 but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
- Pray.
Introduction:
One of the more succinct statements John makes in this short letter is found in verse 11 where he writes, “Do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.” Imitation.
I read a silly story about a guy who had lost his job and looked for work at the local zoo. He says to the zookeeper, “Look, I’ll do anything, clean cages, whatever.” The zookeeper says, “I really don’t need anybody right now” and the guy begins to walk away and as he’s walking away, the zookeeper remembers something. He says, “Hey, wait a minute. This may sound kind of crazy, but our gorilla died last week and if you wouldn’t mind putting on a costume and imitating a gorilla, I think I can hire you.”
The guy is desperate so he agrees and he puts on this gorilla suit and starts imitating a gorilla. Crowds begin to form around the cage to watch this “gorilla” jump up and down and grab at the bars, and so forth. One day, in his zeal to imitate a gorilla, the guy gets carried away and starts swinging on vines, but one time he swings too far and accidentally swings over the wall and lands into the lion’s cage.
Now he’s in major trouble because the lion is slowly approaching him and the man knows that if he calls out for help everyone will discover he’s just a man in a gorilla suit. On the other hand, if he doesn’t call out for help, this lion will kill him. So as the lion approaches, the man begins to cry out for help. Then the lion hurries to the man and the man hears the lion whisper, “Shut up, you idiot! You’ll get us both fired!”
Imitation can be good or bad. It depends on the thing we’re imitating. John says in verse 11, “Do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.” Why is that important? John adds in verse 11, “He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.”
And in this short letter of 14 verses we read about three different people, two of whom are worthy of our imitation–two men named Gaius and Demetrius, and the third of these three–a guy named Diotrephes–sets an example for us that we should shun at all costs.
The main application of this short letter, however, is that Christians “walk in the truth,” Jesus Christ Himself being the truth (John 14:6) and those who follow Christ live out the truth they embrace and profess. So this passage yields a few actions for Christians to take. First:
I. Develop Christlike Behavior (1-8)
This Christlike behavior is seen in this man named Gaius. Look again at verse 1. John writes the letter to Gaius. He says in verse 1, “The Elder,” that’s John’s way of referring to himself. He regards himself as a fellow elder of the church and is writing to, “the beloved Gaius, whom” John says, “I love in truth.”
As we read through the letter it becomes clear that Gaius was a leading member of the church he attended. His name, Gaius, was a common name in the Roman Empire, much like our Jim or John today. While his name was ordinary, John’s appreciation of Gaius was extraordinary. Three times John refers to Gaius as “beloved.” You see that term of endearment here in verse 1, then again in verse 2, and finally again in verse 5. It’s clear that Gaius is a loving, caring person.
John prays for Gaius in verse 2. He says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” John must have thought a lot of Gauis. John prays for Gaius, not just praying for his physical health, but praying for him–verse 2–that he “may prosper in all things and be in health just as [his] soul prospers.”
There is biblical warrant here for praying for general prosperity as well as spiritual prosperity. But what about the so-called “Prosperity gospel?” Aren’t we concerned about false teachers today who peddle the notion that God wants everyone to be healthy, wealthy, and happy, and drive luxury cars, and so forth?
Yes, we are concerned about this because the so-called prosperity gospel of just, “Name it, and claim it” and God gives you whatever you want is a false gospel. But that doesn’t mean that we cannot, as John does here, pray for the general prosperity of another believer.
I think John Stott is helpful here in his small commentary on this letter. He writes:
Those who have recently developed the so-called “prosperity gospel” (that God means all His children to enjoy health and wealth in abundance) can find in this text only the flimsiest foundation for their position. Consider these points: (1) they depend almost entirely on Old Testament promises of prosperity, which were spoken to the nation Israel and were not repeated in the New Testament to either Christian individuals or the Christian community; (2) they are insensitive to the poverty and hunger of many believers in developing nations, to whom the prosperity gospel evidently does not apply; and (3) they overlook the New Testament emphasis on adversity rather than prosperity as the chief mark of the followers of (Jesus Christ) the Suffering Servant.
And so praying for the general prosperity of another believer is a good thing so long as by this we are not believing that it is God’s will for everyone to be healthy, wealthy, and rich in the abundance of one’s possessions.
Continuing in verse 3, John writes, “For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth.” John has been told by those who had visited Gaius’ church that Gaius was a man in whom the truth lives. Literally, Gaius says, “I rejoiced greatly when [I learned] that “the truth is in you, just as you walk in the the truth.” Gaius embodied the truth.
John adds in verse 4, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”
To “walk in truth” is to live in conformity to the truth. It’s to apply what you read and hear in God’s Word to your behavior. And when you apply God’s Word to your behavior, it becomes evident to others.
It’s like the two guys who were walking through a city and one of the men pointed to someone and said, “That man is a soldier.” Noting that the man was wearing civilian clothes, His friend asks, “How can you tell that guy is a soldier?” And he says, “I can always tell a soldier by the way he walks.”
People can often tell whether we are true followers of the Truth, by whether we embody the truth in our behavior. For genuine Christians, there is no disconnect between what you read in God’s Word and how you live in God’s world. For real Christians, there is no separation between hearing the truth on Sunday and walking the truth on Monday.
Walking in the truth means that the truth is “in us.” If it is in us we will live it out. It’s like the psalmist wrote in the very first psalm, Psalm 1:1-3, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”
You want true prosperity? Read the Word. Meditate upon the Word. Read it, digest it, eat it, breathe it, and you will then live it.
Continuing now in Verse 5, John writes, “Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers,”–verse 6 “who have borne witness of your love before the church.”
John had heard from others that Gaius was “faithful” in doing good “for the brethren and for strangers.” This is a reference to Christian missionaries as verses 6 and following make clear. John writes, that these folks, verse 6, “have borne witness of your love before the church.” Continuing in verse 6, “If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well,”–verse 7– “because they went forth for His name’s sake [the name of Christ], taking nothing from the Gentiles (taking no money from unbelievers).” So John adds in verse 8, “We therefore ought to receive such (the word means to provide support), that we may become fellow workers for the truth.”
So John is commending the Christlike behavior of Gaius here. Gaius is a man known for his “love.” Others, verse 6, bore witness to his love. He loved others and loved especially to provide for those who, verse 7, “went forth for” the name of Christ; missionaries. And these missionaries, verse 7, “took nothing from the Gentiles,” they took no money from unbelievers but rather received help from believers, from the church.
The early church was focused on missional outreach. It’s the church’s job to “make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19-20).” Everyone is called to pray, give, or go. And when each of us works together in this disciple-making missional endeavor, we become–John says in the last part of verse 8– “fellow workers for the truth.”
“Fellow workers,” is the Greek word from which we get “synergism,” working together powerfully. Christian workers are allies of the truth. Each of us is an ally of the truth, whether we pray, give, or go.
When you give to missionary work see yourself as an ally of the truth. Otherwise, you may give but your thinking will be like, “Well, I feel good in that I gave some money to help those people over there.” That’s like merely mailing money off to a charitable organization. What John is talking about here is being a “fellow worker,” synergism, so that you are a vital and necessary part of the work. You are an integral part to seeing the work through of making disciples of the nations. Your role in giving is like a chain to which the other chains of praying and going are linked.
Gaius is clearly a man of Christlike behavior and so Christians, in the imitation of a good example, make the application to “Develop Christlike behavior.” Now, from a bad example, number two, Christians:
II. Destroy Conceited Behavior (9-11)
John says in verse 9, “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.” Here is an indictment of this guy named Diotrephes, a man indicted for his prideful, self-centered, conceited behavior.
All we know about this guy is what John writes about him in verses 9 and following. He is a bad guy in the church. He is a troublemaker in the midst of truth. In the church there were allies of truth and enemies of truth. Diotrephes has a pride problem.
John identifies Diotrephes as a man “who loves to have the preeminence.” That is, he loves to be first. And Diotrephes was so full of himself that, last part of verse 9 he, “does not receive us.” That is, Diotrephes would not welcome John and his close associates. Now you’ve got to be pretty self-centered to turn away the Apostle John, the disciple whom Jesus loved!
So John writes in verse 10, Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.”
John says that Diotrephes is guilty of, “prating against us with malicious words.” It means literally, to “talk nonsense.” Apparently Diotrephes felt threatened by John and was speaking in a way to undermine his credibility. Diotrephes was more concerned for his own glory, the glory of his own name, than the glory of God. He was a man who failed to embrace Colossians 1:18, “that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
But John adds in verse 10 that Diotrephes is not content with slighting John and his friends. He continues in verse 10, “Not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren (that is, the missionaries who visited the church), and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.”
In other words, Diotrephes would not receive these Christian missionaries into the church–for whatever self-centered reason–and furthermore, if there were someone in the church who wanted to receive these missionaries, Diotrephes kicked them out of the church! Just kicked them out!
Talk about a self-centered, prideful, conceited person who is throwing his weight around! Little wonder that John follows this up with, verse 11, “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.” It’s seems John is warning his dear friend Gaius, “Don’t follow the bad example of Diotrephes. Don’t imitate what is evil!”
John adds in verse 11, “He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.” And it’s hard not to conclude that John seems to be calling into question whether Diotrephes is even a Christian. He appears to be a church member who is not saved.
Because, again, what does John write in verse 11? Right after condemning Diotrephes for his prideful activity, John warns in verse 11, “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil (hint: like Diotrephes!), but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does what is evil has not seen God.”
What’s the take-home application from the bad example of Diotrephes? Destroy Conceited Behavior. Eliminate pride in all its forms.
Easy to condemn Diotrephes, but what about you? Are there times you are like him? Are there times others may describe you as John described Diotrephes in verse 9, one, “who loves to have the preeminence?” Do you have to be the center of attention? Number one?
When another person receives God’s favor, how do you respond? Do you congratulate that person or do you seethe in bitterness? How do you react when you don’t get your way? Do you demonstrate that you are walking in the truth like Gaius or do you throw your weight around like Diotrephes?
Here’s another contrast. Right after condemning the man named Diotrephes, John commends a man named Demetrius. Verse 12:
12 Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself…” So here is the third action for Christians. We have said, Develop Christlike Behavior, Destroy Conceited Behavior, Thirdly:
III. Display Commendable Behavior (12-14)
Just one verse to describe this guy named Demetrius and all we know about him comes from just this one verse, verse 12, but how commendable is this man:
12 Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true.
In other words, there were three things that testified to the good behavior of Demetrius. First, he “has a good testimony from all,” that is, “All who really knew Demetrius testified that he was a good man,” then verse 12, “and from the truth itself.” In other words, if you placed the truth of God’s Word alongside Demetrius, you’d be like, “Yep, he measure up. No hypocrisy here.” And then thirdly, John writes in the second part of verse 12, “And we also bear witness, and you know that our witness is true.” That is, we also testify that Demetrius is a man whose behavior we commend to you as worthy of imitation. Be like Demetrius!
So who testifies to your behavior? Based on the way you work at your job, would your boss say, “Look, he’s the real deal. I mean, he has a good testimony from all.” She has a good testimony from her co-workers. Do you display commendable behavior before your spouse, your children, the lost people you are trying to win to Christ? How do others describe you? Do you, like Demetrius, display commendable behavior?
John concludes his short, one-page letter much as he does 2 John, verse 13 and following:
13 I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink (we might say today, “I do not wish to merely text you, or message you, or email you);
14 but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
Three main actions for Christians:
Develop Christlike Behavior–like the behavior of Gaius,
Destroy Conceited Behavior–like the behavior of Diotrephes, and
Display Commendable Behavior–like the behavior of Demetrius.
- Stand for prayer.
Hear again this important statement from verse 4. The Apostle John says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”
Jesus Christ is the embodiment of Truth. He is the Living Truth to which the written truth points. When we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior we then begin, by the power of the Gospel, we begin to “walk in truth.” Are you walking in truth?
Let’s pray…
“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 (11).”
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