Question
3 John 1:1-14
Key Verse: 1:1
“The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.”
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. To whom does John, the elder, address this letter? (1) What do
verses 1-3 tell us about John's relationship to Gaius?
2. From a Biblical point of view, what does it mean that he addresses
Gaius as a dear friend? (1,2,5,11) (Think about some Biblical
examples of friendship--Isa 41:8b [Ge 18:10,20-21,24; 22:2-8,23];
1Sa 18:1-3; 20:42; 23:17; 2Sa 1:26,27; Jn 15:13-14) Why is
friendship among men (or among women) so important?
3. What was John's prayer topic for Gaius and the brethren in his
church? (2-3) Why is it important to pray for spiritual well-being
as well as physical well-being?
4. Why does it give John joy to hear about Gaius' faithfulness to the
truth and that his children were walking in the truth? (3-4) How do
you define faithfulness? (Rev 2:10; Heb 13:8; Phil 1:8-11)
5. Read verses 5-8. How was Gaius apparently serving the brothers? Why
did John commend him? Why is it important to be hospitable? (Ge
18:1-10; 19:1-2) By contrast, why was Diotrephes rebuked? In what
ways was he a bad influence?
6. Why was Demetrius spoken well of? (11-12) Why did John cut his
letter short? What did he say in the final greetings? (13-14) What
can we learn from this letter about the relationship between truth
and hospitality? Truth and friendship?
Manuscript
Message
3 John 1:1-14
Key Verse: 1:1
“The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.”
3 John is a letter from St. John to a young man, Gaius. In this
letter, St. John is very happy about brother Gaius' church members who
are faithful to the truth. So he blesses them both physically and
spiritually. St. John also gives them an instruction to be hospitable
to strangers. "Strangers" meant those who were traveling around
preaching the gospel of salvation, depending on God's help only. When
we study this book, the epistle of 3 John, we learn that the entire
flow of the contents seems to be how to make friendship in Jesus.
First, to my dear friend Gaius (1).
Look at verse 1. "The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in
the truth." Here, old and saintly John writes an epistle to Gaius, who
seemed to have been a young man who was faithful to the truth, and whom
St. John loved most. In verse 1, we learn an important spiritual
lesson. St. John was known as the top-class apostle. But he called
Gaius, the young man, "my dear friend." At that time, to be called
"friend" by a renowned apostle was not an ordinary event. When we study
the Bible carefully, the word "friend" has a deep meaning in it. When
we think about the word "friend" in the Bible, naturally we remember
the friendship between God and Abraham. Abraham is known as the friend
of God. Isaiah 41:8b says, "...you descendants of Abraham my friend."
Also, James 2:23b says, "...and he [Abraham] was called God's friend."
In the Bible, to be a friend of God or of the saints is a great honor.
Also, it involves great sacrifice and recognition of divine character.
God and Abraham were good friends. Once, God saw that Sodom and
Gomorrah's violence and injustice were too great. So God decided to
destroy Sodom and Gomorrah after long-suffering patience (Ge 18-19).
Before going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, God appeared as the three
visitors to Abraham. Abraham was so happy to have the strangers to his
house. He begged them to stay at his house overnight. He said to Sarah,
"Quick, get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread"
(Gen 18:6). The old man, Abraham, ran to the herd and selected a
choice, tender calf and made Hebron beef steaks. Then the angel
revealed that he is God Almighty and said in Genesis 18:10, "I will
surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife
will have a son." At last, God was going to give Abraham a son after 25
years of waiting. It was good news personally to Abraham and Sarah, who
had a no-son problem. More than this, God told Abraham all the secrets
he had had in his mind. God told a top secret to Abraham. We cannot but
say he is a friend of God's. The secret was that God would destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 18:20,21, God revealed his top secret to
Abraham, saying, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and
their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have
done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
There was no secret in the friendship between God and Abraham, because
God trusted Abraham not to reveal his secret to others. At the moment,
Abraham remembered Lot who was living in Sodom and Gomorrah. So he
begged God to rescue Lot. He prayed to God, saying, "If there are fifty
righteous people in the city, would you really destroy it and not spare
the city for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?" (Gen 18:24)
Abraham was very slow in accounting. But when he thought about the
situation of Sodom and Gomorrah, he was afraid that there would not be
fifty righteous people for whom God would subside his anger. So he
began to cut down the number of righteous men, five by five, from fifty
to ten. Here we see a real picture of friendship. There is kindness and
understanding and great sacrifice in the friendship among God's
people. God said to Abraham, "Ten righteous men? Okay." Actually,
there were not ten righteous men. Finally, Abraham revealed why he
prayed to God so persistently. It was for the sake of rescuing his
nephew, Lot. God agreed to save Lot and his family members.
Divine friendship transcends human love. One day God said, "Take
your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of
Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains
I will tell you about" (Gen 22:2). Early the next morning Abraham got
up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his
son Isaac. He had cut enough wood for the burnt offering and he set out
for the place God had told him about (Ge 22:3). When they arrived at
the mountain, Isaac said, "The fire and wood are here, but where is the
lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "God himself will
provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son" (Ge 22:7-8a). Then
Abraham reached out his hand and took his knife to slay his son. The
Lord called out from heaven, "Abraham, Abraham!" "Here I am," he
replied. Then God said, "Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do
anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not
withheld from me your son, your only son" (Gen 22:12). The friendship
between God and Abraham was indeed remarkable. Without this friendship,
world salvation work could not have started. Because there was a
beautiful friendship between God and Abraham, it was possible for God
to carry out world salvation work, starting with Abraham. Mad dogs and
poisonous snakes cannot have friendship. They tear and bite one
another. We cannot say that this brutal animal activity is friendship.
Friendship cannot be done without divine discipline. Abraham received
divine discipline for 25 years. Finally, he grew up as a man of God
from among terribly ungodly people of the world. Thus he could be a
friend of God. Without friendship, nothing happens in this world.
We cannot forget the story of the friendship between Jonathan and
David (1Sa 17-2Sa 1). Once, Philistines surrounded the Israelite
armies at Socoh in Judah. The Philistine champion Goliath shouted
like a roaring lion to have a duel, saying, "Choose a man and have
him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will
become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will
become our subjects and serve us" (1Sa 17:8b,9). For forty days
Goliath came forward every morning and evening and took his stand
and taunted the armies of Israel. The armies of Israel were so
terrified that they lost their hearts. As soon as David arrived to
see about his brothers, at his father's request, he heard about the
champion Goliath's challenge to a duel and the boy David accepted
it. The Philistine champion was nine feet tall; his spear shaft was
like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed 600 shekels. But the
boy David said to the Philistine champion, "You come against me with
sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of
the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have
defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I'll strike
you down and cut off your head" (1Sa 17:45,46). In the duel, David
won with a sling shot. Thus, David became a very famous warrior of
faith in Israel.
After this event, he became King Saul's army commander. But the
humanistic King Saul became jealous of the boy David. When they were
returning home after the victory, the women sang, "Saul has slain his
thousands, and David his tens of thousands" (1Sa 18:7). Even though
King Saul made him the commander over his army, he determined to
destroy David at the opportune time. On the other hand, King Saul's son
Jonathan was different from King Saul. Jonathan became one in spirit
with David and he loved him as himself (18:1), instead of being jealous
of him. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as
himself (1Sa 18:1-3). Friendship is indeed sweet. When Jonathan saw
David's greatness, he recognized him as a great man. And he gave his
bow and belt to David to confirm his covenant friendship with David. In
the course of time, Saul was chasing David to destroy him, as he had
been doing for the last 13 years. But Jonathan promised David that he
would be a friend to him forever. 1 Samuel 20:42 says, "Jonathan said
to David, 'Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in
the name of the Lord, saying, "The Lord is witness between you and me,
and between your descendants and my descendants forever."'" Later,
David was wandering around in the desert with his 400 followers (1Sa
22:1,2). His wandering was indeed sorrowful and helpless. In addition,
his parents and relatives and all the helpless people came to him for
help. So he became even more helpless. Probably, he thought he was too
young to die. Still, his suffering was too hard to bear. In this
situation, Jonathan visited David in the desert and said, "Don't be
afraid. My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king
over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows
this" (1Sa 23:17). The two of them made a covenant again. There is a
saying, "A friend in need is a friend indeed." Maybe this saying, "a
friend in need is a friend indeed," came from the friendship between
Jonathan and David. They loved each other so much. When they had to
depart, they kissed each other and wept together--but David wept the
most (20:41). Time passed by rapidly, so rapidly. During the time of
King Saul's chasing after David, the armies of the Philistines grew and
grew. Finally, they invaded the armies of Israel. Even King Saul and
Jonathan had to fight on the battleground. King Saul and his son
Jonathan fell by the sword of the Philistines. King Saul had pursued
David to destroy him. But David never forgot that Saul was the Lord's
anointed king and Jonathan's father. David lamented by saying, "O
daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and
finery, who adorned your garments with ornaments of gold. How the
mighty have fallen in battle!" (2Sa 1:24,25) Next, he grieved over the
death of Jonathan, saying, "I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you
were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful
than that of women. How the mighty have fallen!" (2Sa 1:26,27) In the
lamentation of David for Jonathan, the words, "Your love for me was
wonderful, more wonderful than that of women," might be the most
poetic expression, more than that of Shakespeare, who said, "To be, or
not to be; that is the question."
These days there are not real friendships among men. They have
girlfriends and boyfriends, but we can scarcely find the true
friendship among men. May God bless us that many young men may have
friendships among men, friendships which are wonderful, more wonderful
than that of women. Since young men began to have only girlfriends and
young women began to have only boyfriends, this friendship was gone and
disaster has risen sky high. Where there is friendship among men, the
influence of friendships makes families stable, as well as societies
and nations.
Jesus is the Son of God. So he doesn't have to be friends with
mundane men with fallen mentality. But he did his best to make friends
with his twelve disciples. It was not easy for him to make friends with
them, because they were typical mundane men and mostly men from the
bottom of society. They were good at political competition and eating.
They were, as a matter of fact, nobodies. Even though Jesus is the Son
of God and came to this world to become the atoning sacrifice by
shedding his blood for the sin of the world, he made friends with the
twelve apostles until a vine and branch relationship was established.
He said in John 15:13-14, "Greater love has no one than this, that he
lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I
command." Jesus recognized his twelve disciples, who were very
immature, as his friends, even though they were his disciples. Jesus
strongly stressed the friendship among men. Jesus believed that when
the Twelve became true friends in God, they would change the world and
world mission would be possible. In light of this lesson, we must learn
that, among our men fellowship directors and vice-directors, we must
make friends with one another as Jesus made friends with his
disciples. Then we can change the world by God's grace. We can reach
out to 187 countries with our missionaries. We must pray to change the
worldly consensus that young people only want to have girlfriends and
boyfriends, even from among married people. We must really pray for
them to have many men friends among men, and many women friends among
women. As history proves, when we have friendships between men and men
and between women and women, families will be stable, society will be
stable, and this country will be stable as well. Maybe you would say,
"Why is it so important to make friends among young men and among young
women?" But in history, friends among men are so important. For
example, as we know well, Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a low-class
Catholic monk. But he did not like the corruption of the Church. So he
wrote 99 theses and displayed them in public. His life was at risk from
religious temple police and the pressure of the church. After his
discussion with men of the church hierarchy at Worms, on the way home,
Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) kidnapped him and kept him in a
castle. In the castle, Luther translated the Septuagint into the
German Bible. For this, Melanchthon gave his heart for his friend
Luther. There is no Luther without Melanchthon. Another example is
John Calvin (1509-1564). In Calvin's time, the Catholic hierarchy
massacred Christians, condemning them as heretics. But Calvin wrote
"The Institutes of the Christian Religion" to the king of France at the
age of 22. Without the help of his friend Huldreich Zwingli
(1484-1531), Calvin's writing for the defense of the Protestant church
and new Christendom in Geneva would have been impossible. In short,
without Zwingli, there is no Calvin. Likewise, we must have at least
one friend. Then God will bless our friendship among us and make us
great men in this generation.
Let's read verse 1 again. "The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom
I love in the truth." St John was an eminent Christian leader at that
time. Gaius was a young man, unknown to the Christian world. But St.
John called him "friend," instead of calling him, "Hey, you boy." It
was possible for St. John to call him "friend," because he honored God
as God and honored God's servants both young and old, as God's
servants. We can make friends when we have self-esteem, the fear of
God, divine respect and divine love. As UBF leaders, among men, there
are many friends. Still, let's ask God's mercy to have faith to have
many more friends among men.
Second, faithfulness to the truth (2-4).
St. John was very happy to hear that Gaius' church members were
faithful to the truth. So he blessed them. Look at verses 2-3. "Dear
friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well
with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It 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." According to these
verses, St. John blessed that all may go well with Gaius and that he
would have good health, and also that he may have spiritual health. In
the past, we greeted by saying, "How are you?" It meant a greeting
about the other person's well-being. But these days, many say as their
greeting, "How are you doing?" They don't greet the other person, but
talk about his business. They imply, "How are you doing in getting
instant benefits?" We have to go back to saying the greeting, "How are
you?" instead of "How are you doing?" We must not only say, "How are
you?" but we must also bless with the blessings of God as St. John
mentioned in 2 John 1:3, "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father
and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and
love."
St. John was very happy to hear about their faithfulness to the
truth and also that they walked in the truth. We must understand the
meaning of faithfulness. Faithfulness is the expression of our own
personal faith to Jesus. Unfaithful people never committed themselves
to God. Unfaithful people neglect to be loyal to Jesus. Unfaithful
people are very proud and critical like one lady in our fellowship.
Without faithfulness we cannot please God. So whatever we do for the
glory of God, we must do with a life-giving spirit. St. John said in
Revelation 2:10b, "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will
give you the crown of life." Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday and today and forever." Jesus was faithful to the will
of God, even to death on the cross. St. Paul was faithful when he was
old and tired. One of the prison epistles is Philemon. That letter
reveals God's compassion on human beings so well. Among Paul's prison
mates, there was Onesimus, who stole his owner's money and secretly got
into Rome. He was arrested and put in prison and he became a prison
mate of St. Paul. He was a devious and dangerous young man. In the
past, those who stole money as slaves were supposed to be hanged. But
he ventured to go to Rome by running away from his master. He was a
dangerous person to approach. But St. Paul taught him the Bible one to
one. He was changed. Paul wrote an epistle to Philemon and sent
Onesimus back to him, asking him to treat Onesimus as one of the
brothers. Paul could do that because he was faithful to his Lord
Jesus. In his epistle to Philemon, he didn't mention anything about
his hardship in the prison. He pleaded with Philemon and his church
members to accept Onesimus as one of their brothers, even though he was
a runaway slave. Truth is that faithfulness comes from the love of
God. When we realize the love of God, that God sent his one and only
Son as the atoning sacrifice, and shed his blood for the sin of the
world, we can be faithful to God. Unfaithfulness seems to be
beneficial. But unfaithful people are living in the darkness, not in
the truth. Here the "truth" refers to Jesus.
Third, be hospitable to stranger-brothers (5-13).
In the past, the proclamation of the gospel of salvation was
possible by those who travelled from town to town, village to village
and country to country. But usually Christian Bible teachers did not
have money. They used to find fellow Christian brethren and stay with
them. They never received help from the pagans. We call them
stranger-brothers, because they are brothers in Christ, but they are
strangers. They were like the horse-riding preachers during
Whitefield's time. During John's time, all Christians were gospel
preachers. But the number of churches could be counted on one's
fingers. These stranger-brothers came so frequently. There was a danger
of being arrested by pagan authorities for those welcoming a
stranger-brother. Yet they had an even more difficult problem. It was
to feed them while they were staying as long as they stayed. As we
know, in ancient times, very rich people could afford to eat two meals
a day. But ordinary people barely ate one meal a day. So we can guess
how difficult it was to treat these constantly crowding
stranger-brothers. But St. John urges them to treat them well. Look at
verse 8. "We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that
we may work together for the truth." In America, to give hospitality to
a stranger-brother is very difficult. But thank God that UBF brethren
are eager to give good hospitality to stranger-brethren. We must be
ready to give good hospitality to stranger-brethren at our 1997 UBF
International Summer Bible Conference. There is one American shepherd
who is so hospitable to Christian brethren. So he invited many guests
to his apartment. He even invited his senior shepherd to his dinner
table more than five times during the last ten years. In the Old
Testament teaching, to give hospitality to strangers is emphasized
frequently. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were very selfish. But
Abraham's nephew Lot was very hospitable. When the angels visited him,
he invited them to his house. Abraham was the most exemplary person in
giving hospitality. When he was ready to give hospitality to the three
strangers, he met God. He also heard the good news that he would have a
son after one year.
In the church there was a man named Diotrephes, who loved to be
first. But his act of faith was less than nothing. What he was doing
was gossiping maliciously, speaking about Christian brethren. In
addition, he refused to welcome the brothers and did not give
hospitality to them. He also stopped those who wanted to give
hospitality. If they invited strangers to their houses, he put them out
of the church. St. John was very sorry about Diotrephes because he
spoke very subtle things to deceive Christian brethren, and he was not
hospitable to the brethren (9-10). St. John encourages them to be good
Christians who can give good hospitality to strangers. Look at verse
11. "Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone
who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not
seen God." There was a young man called Demetrius. He was very
hospitable to the stranger-brethren. So his testimony was regarded as
true. St. John wanted Christian brethren to be like Demetrius. Giving
good hospitality is what is pleasing to God. Those who are not
hospitable are not doing what is good to God, and vice versa.
Today we learned how to make a good friendship in Jesus. We also
learned that we must be faithful to our Lord Jesus and that we must
also be very hospitable to our Christian brethren. All these are
possible when we realize the love of God through his Son who became an
atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.