To Be One in Christ: We Have Treasure in the Jars of Clay -- the Series of Explanation and Analysis of Scripture (21)
The Explanation and Analysis of the Verses of 3 JOHN
It is edited and compiled under the guidance of Holy Spirit. All thanks, praises and glories be to God!
1. The foreword -- John as the elder (1-4)
1:1-4 The main teachings that this foreword gives us:
3 JOHN 1:1-4 The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth. 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. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
(NOTES)
A. “To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth”:
As to those who live in LORD, their love won’t fade. Even the old person still has the sincerity and warm heart like the youth. The experiences of conducting oneself in the life could be more and more aged; while the heart to love LORD and love others should be renewed day by day (2Co 4:16).
(2) The old John is not only a kind father, but also is a good pastor, and is a soldier for the truth. Only with the life of father, one can breed the children; only with the labor of a good shepherd, one can build up the believers in strong spirits; only with the sincerity to guard the truth, one can rejoice in that the truth they preached is accepted and obeyed by others.
When the apostle heard that the believers whom he shepherd walk in the truth, he said that “I have no greater joy than to hear that”. It is obvious that the greatest joy of the apostle is not the love and respect of the believers to him, neither is the increase of the economic power of the church, nor is abundance of the care of the believers to him materially, but is that the believers walk in the truth.
2. Gaius who loves the LORD (5-8)
(1) Commendations (5-6, 2-4)
3 JOHN 1:5-6 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.
(NOTES)
From the commendations to Gaius of the apostle, it is apparent that Gaius can be as the example of the believers in many ways:
A. His soul is getting along well:
His growth and abundance in his spiritual life must be impressive to the apostle, as a strong man with good health. He pays attention to the spiritual things far beyond the worldly things.
B. He keeps the faithfulness to the truth and he continues to walk in the truth.
Note that his faithfulness to the truth is shown from that he walks in the truth, but not from his words in tongue. The truth is kept by walking in it, not by the words in tongues only. What he does can prove that his words and conducts are in agreement. How could others tell about his faithfulness to the truth? From that his motives to act are inspired by the truth and his conducts are in accordance with the principles of the truth, those who are close to him will have an impression that the truth has very high position and authority in him. His conducts are not from the blood and flesh, neither from the emotions nor the selfish will, but accord to the truth.
C. His good deeds (love) have been told by some brothers and the apostle.
It is obvious that his love is extensive, not only to those whom he respect and love, but also to all the brothers in LORD. Although his love is extensive, it is not shallow and fake, and he does not muddle through his work to serve others; otherwise, he won’t get the commendations from all who are received by him. On the contrary, since there are many people who testify about him in this way, it is obvious that his love to receive the guests are always the same. Not only one should receive the brothers with love in the beginning, but also he should welcome the guests coming later with the same love even after knowing the difficulties of the work of receiving the strangers. “Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. ” (Rom 12:13) One should not have less and less love and become more and more irrespective to those whom he receives.
D. Although he does not have the biggest gift (1Co 14:1;12:28; Rom 12:13), his spiritual virtues are graceful.
To serve others does not need the big gift, but needs only a gift of the humility. However, it can make one to be “the great” spiritually (Mat 20:26-28). Therefore, those who have small gift might not have low spirituality. In many cases, God use those who have good spirituality to do those low things. Only such people can work well on these things with their gift. In the times of the apostles, the Holy Spirit selected Stephen who is full of the Holy Spirit and God’s grace and power to overlook the daily distribution of the food, which is a good example. Gaius is also the same. Although LORD only give him the gift of receiving the travelers, he can make others moved by him. It is apparent that his spirituality is very good and he must be very humble, be willing to give up himself and patient, for to receive the strangers means to be humble to everyone. Whoever receives the guests will be more humble and learn to care about others’ needs. In this way, they can make the guests feel at home and comfortable, instead of feeling unfamiliar.
(2) The teachings (7-8)
3 JOHN 1:7-8 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.
(NOTES)
After the commendations, in these two verses, the apostle added the above encouragements to strengthen them, and made them feel the spiritual value of their work. Here, we can get the following teachings:
A. Receiving the servants of LORD (or brothers) and helping others:
This kind of work is that God give us by considering that we are worthy of it. We should take it as the glory, but not the burden.
B. To preach to the pagans, one should receive no help from the pagans
According to verse 7, it is obvious when the ministry go out to preach the Gospel, they should not take the material benefit from the outsiders, in case to put the Name of LORD into disgrace. This is an important principle of the workers.
C. To receive the servants of LORD is to work with them together. (8)
This verse tells us apparently that to help those who work for LORD is to work together with them. This is a spiritual investment. Although Gaius himself might go everywhere to work, he receives those who go out to work for the Name of LORD; this is his “spiritual investment”, for he actually also shares in the work of many people. The believers nowadays should take the promise of this verse seriously like Gaius, so that they will be willing to share in all kinds of holy work for LORD.
Note that, this verse is closely related to the previous verse. If the believers do not support the work of preaching to the outside, it is equal to that they oppress those ministry who go out, and will make it difficult to keep the principle of “receiving no help from the pagans”. If they do the opposite, they will help the ministry to rely on LORD wholeheartedly.
3. Diotrephes who sinned (9-11)
3 JOHN 1:9-11 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. 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.
(NOTES)
There are totally five evil doings of Diotrephes:
A. who loves to be first -- seeks to be in the limelight;
B. refuses to welcome the brothers;
C. gossips maliciously about the apostles;
D. stops those who want to do good;
E. is imperious and persecutes the good brothers.
There are disputations in church and the spirituality goes down. It is most likely because some who are immature spiritually, with warm hearted outward, but actually loving the vanity, fight for and manipulate the power in the church for personal ends. Such people will be against and attack the faithful servants of God, and persecute the brothers who love LORD, for they must conduct regardless of the truth and the glory of God, and will inevitably provoke the protest of the brothers who love LORD faithfully. Therefore, the minor problem might appear to be the disharmony in the church; the bigger problem might appear to lead the church into astray, accept the heresy and cause the division. Therefore, one should be careful on the selection of the leader of the church.
The apostle especially claims that he will “call attention” to what he is doing. To “call attention” is a gentle word. Therefore, it does not mean that John will get there to hold a meeting to question and judge him. It only indicates that he will declare the evil doings of Diotrephes, for the purpose to let all the people understand and not to be affected by him, also to warn others not to help him to do the evils. At the same time, it is to comfort those brothers who are bullied.
After the apostle talked about the evil doings of Diotrephes, he added some gentle persuasions (11). There is no any fierce word at all. It shows that he is calm inward without any intergradient of the blood and flesh. That is the reason why he can observe things correctly and deal with it properly.
The old John who has sufficient qualification to rebuke and command others, persuaded the evil doer with the exhortations. In this way, it will make others to do good willingly and spontaneously, which is much better than using the method of oppressing. It is because there is no any method of oppressing can really make people to do good.
“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.”:
Only those who do what is good belong to God; those who do what is evil do not know God and have no reverence to God. Therefore, they do not know to be away from the sins and evils; instead, they persecute the good and kind people at their own wills.
4. Demetrius who do what is good (12)
3 JOHN 1:12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone--and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
(NOTES)
There are few people who can get the commendations from many people. On the contrary, if one does things wrong, he will get the talks from others easily. Although Demetrius is a unknown person, he is one who gives out the light. His good deeds are completely from the truth (are testified by the truth.), which are in accordance with the principles of the Bible and are different from the good deeds of the worldly people. The Bible can testify about him; it is apparent that his good conducts and words are in agreement, and are from the honest and kind heart.
“and even by the truth itself”:
It is because the believers have the Spirit of Christ in them; that is, the Holy Spirit of truth and our Counselor, who also testify about us.
In one church, there are the believers who do good and the believers who do evils. No matter to do good or to do evil, neither is because of their status in the church. Therefore, we should not take the bad believers as the examples to forgive ourselves, but should take the good believers as the examples to encourage ourselves. We should not lose heart by looking at the bad side, but should be compelled in love by looking at the good side of others.
5. Concluding remarks (13-15)
(1) Wish (13-14)
3 JOHN 1:13-14 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
(NOTES)
“I have much to write you”:
Although there are many things to write, the old John did not want to use the pen and ink. This might be because:
A. Since they will see each other soon, he need not to write much.
B. The old John has dear feeling to those who received the letter. He always feels that it is better to talk face to face rather than being separated far apart and writing with pen.
C. The words of the old John show his rich love in LORD all the time.
(2) Greetings (15)
3 JOHN 1:15 Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.
(NOTES)
To greet them by name shows his sincere care. It seems that he is afraid that Daius might send his greetings casually. This shows that his care to the believers is from the love of LORD, but not only to give his regards for the sake of courtesy.
Reference:
1. Zhongdao Chen: “The Lectures on the Bible Studying of the Letters in New Testament”.
