Transcript & Slides: Mission Support (3 John)

If you were to listen to that letter, you’d say, now I'm going to take Second John to heart. I don't want to help any bad mission or any bad outreach or any bad agency or organization that's not doing things the way they're supposed to or teaching the message they’re supposed to be bringing. You might be very cautious—and rightly so—about not supporting the wrong thing.

But don't forget: you do need to support the right thing. You do need to be engaged in God's mission, spreading the true gospel. Don't be so cautious about not supporting a bad missionary that you give up on missions altogether. That's one of the dangers we have as believers and as people with our weaknesses—we sometimes go off in one direction and think, boy, if I really take that message to heart, then I've got it right. But you've got to have some balance.

Third John is written not to say so much, “Now don't support that agency or missionary,” but rather, “Make sure you keep on welcoming and supporting those who are doing the work of God.”

At the time John was writing, there were traveling preachers. It was a different setting and culture than today. When you traveled in those days, you didn’t have nice motels to stay in. There were some inns, but they were houses of prostitution and places where thieves and killers were often at work. You really didn’t want to stay in one of those places if you could help it. Traveling Jewish people and traveling Christians would stay in homes instead of inns.

But when you show up hundreds of miles away from where you ordinarily live, or you’re on a journey, do you just knock on somebody’s door and say, “Hey, I’d like to stay at your place tonight”? That might have its issues. It was very helpful if you knew of somebody in the area you were traveling to who could take you in. If you said, “Well, I know a guy,” or “I know a family,” and the people who knew you also knew them, then they could recommend you. You’d get a letter of recommendation that would link you, the traveler, between somebody who knows you and the people you want to stay with who don’t have a clue who you are.

So you hand them the letter. The letter is from somebody they know, and it’s a recommendation: “These people—take them in—they’re good.” You would have a letter of recommendation.

Now Gaius is a man who has been hosting a variety of these traveling preachers in his household. On this occasion, Third John is probably written to recommend a traveling preacher named Demetrius to Gaius and his household. Gaius knows John, but he doesn’t know Demetrius. So John writes a little letter and says, “Hey, Demetrius is great. Take him in. Support a guy like this.”

That’s the overall context for the letter of Third John: it’s a letter of recommendation that a stranger can stay in your house and that you should support him, take care of him, and support the good work he’s involved in.

 As we think about this third letter of John, there are four key characters, and we'll divide our thinking among these four. There is John—we’ve already learned a lot about him—the elder, the apostle of Jesus Christ, the beloved disciple, closer to Jesus than any other human on earth. He’s the one who’s writing the letter.

He writes to Gaius, who is a mission partner. We don’t know whether he himself was a preacher or a key leader, but we do know that he made his household available to help the traveling preachers and to aid those who were involved in mission. We’ll see some of the things that John says to Gaius, and we’ll also see what John has to say about Diotrephes—Mr. Me-First—and also his comments about Demetrius, the missionary who’s actually traveling and being recommended by this letter. As we think about those characters, especially Gaius, Diotrephes, and Demetrius, we can learn a lot about our own walk with God: what to watch out for and what to continue in as we serve the Lord and Jesus Christ.

In the first verses he says, “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” (3 John 1-4).

There are some people who have met Gaius and have come back with news about him, and they have nothing but good to say. John is glad to hear that. In this greeting you see again the great heart of the apostle, and you see some of the things to pray for and the way he compliments Gaius.

It’s worth noting that he calls him “beloved” and tells him how much he loves him. It’s sometimes easy not to do that—even with our own family members—to show affection or express love. John expresses that he loves Gaius “in the truth.” They love because they both belong to the truth. They both belong to Jesus Christ; they both believe the gospel. That human affection he has is strengthened and built up by their shared convictions, by both being believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ, both having the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, living in them.

He says, “Beloved, I love you in the truth,” and then he offers a prayer. That prayer is an excellent guide for how to pray for others, and perhaps even how to pray for ourselves. He says, in effect, “I know that you’re flourishing in your soul.” That’s the great thing about this prayer—he prays that Gaius’s body and life will do as well as his soul is doing. That in itself is quite something to say about somebody, isn’t it? It’s possible Gaius wasn’t in the greatest of health or had been struggling with some things, but his soul was doing well, and that was the most important thing. John says, “I know your soul is doing well. I’ve had a report from others who say that you’re in the truth, you’re with the truth, and you’re flourishing in your spiritual life. Now I pray that your body and all of your other endeavors will catch up with your soul, so to speak. Your soul’s doing great, and I pray that your body will be in excellent health, and I pray that everything you do will flourish.”

Literally, when he says, “I hope you’re doing well,” it means “journey well” or “I hope your trip is going well.” Even though he’s not talking about an actual trip of Gaius, he wants his journey through life to flourish and be blessed in every way.

Now, there is a danger of getting this flipped around—saying, “Well, God promises health, wealth, and success, and that’s what we’re going to target. We’ll have a health and wealth gospel.” That’s a terrible way to go, seeking my own health, success, and prosperity first, and leaving my spiritual life somewhere down near the bottom. But having said that, your health does matter, and success in your endeavors does matter.

As the Bible puts it, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). That’s what our Lord Jesus Christ said. He said your Father knows you need the other stuff, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and then these other things—food, clothing, and what you need for your health—will be added to you.

So when we pray for each other, let’s first pray that our souls, our spirits, will be healthy and flourish. The apostle Paul said, “Outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). Even if your health is doing poorly, if inwardly the Holy Spirit is renewing you day by day, then you are blessed. But don’t be afraid to ask for the other blessings too. When you’re walking with the Lord and he’s blessing your spiritual life, it’s fine to pray for physical health and for success in the things you set your hand to.

That love John has, that prayer he offers—we can follow that in relation to our fellow believers, even to members of our own family. Express your love for them. It’s even more delightful when it’s love rooted in shared truth. Pray that their souls will flourish. When you’re praying for your children or grandchildren, pray that their souls will flourish, and then that their bodies, studies, jobs, and other pursuits will do well—but above all, pray for their souls and walk with God.

Then John praises Gaius. He says, in effect, “I’ve heard great reports about you. In fact, they reported it right in front of the church here what a great guy you are.” They were really impressed by Gaius, and when they got back to John’s church, they had good things to say about him. John then adds, “I have no greater joy than to know that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 4). He’s a pastor who cares about his spiritual children, and what gives him joy is to know that they not only believe the truth but live it—to know they are walking in the truth, walking the road that leads to life. When you care about people and see them walking that road to life, that brings you joy.

If you're a parent who loves the Lord Jesus Christ, what is your biggest source of joy? If you’re like John, you’d say, “I can’t think of anything I’d love more than that my children are walking in the truth—that my sons and daughters love the Lord Jesus Christ, love the Scriptures, and live according to the Word of God.” You can see God at work in them. There’s no greater joy than to see your children walking in the truth, and no greater heartache when they aren’t.

Those of us who are responsible for the spiritual care of others—who are involved in the church’s leadership or simply in discipling and encouraging one another—when our hearts are set on the spiritual well-being of others, it’s joyous when they’re walking with the Lord and grievous when they’re not. Then we redouble our prayers so that we may yet have that joy of seeing our children walk in the truth.

John continues, “Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are” (3 John 5). That’s a strange pairing of words, isn’t it? They’re brothers, and they’re strangers—fellow Christians whom you’ve never met before. In one sense, they’re instant brothers or sisters; in another, you don’t have a clue who they are.

He says, “You’re taking people in on the say-so of others. They’re brothers and sisters, they’re strangers, but you’re taking them in. They’ve testified of your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God” (3 John 6). So Gaius accepts them, and when they move on, he relaunches them with supplies—food, money, and whatever they need for the trip. That’s what Gaius has been doing, and John encourages him: “You’ve been doing great. Keep at it.”

“For they have gone out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles” (3 John 7). A better translation might be “the pagans,” because John isn’t referring merely to non-Jewish ethnicity but to unbelievers. They aren’t getting funded by unbelievers. “Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth” (3 John 8).

When John writes to Gaius about mission support, he wants to combat compassion fatigue. Sometimes you can support something for a while, and then it just keeps going on. You might think, “One more missionary? Didn’t I already have nineteen of them through here? Now number twenty comes along!” You might get a little tired of it, or there may be so many causes or people you could support that you finally say, “Everybody’s always wanting money. I think I’ll spend more on my next vacation.”

There’s always that temptation to pack it in after supporting people for a while. So John encourages Gaius, saying, “You’ve been doing great. Keep it up. Don’t quit.” He praises the fact that Gaius loves these “brother-strangers” who come his way and helps them in their mission.

That reminds us of what the Bible says: when you show kindness and mercy to strangers, sometimes that has turned out to be helping angels without knowing it (Hebrews 13:2). And always, it turns out to be helping Jesus. Jesus said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). When Jesus tells the parable of the sheep and the goats, where some were harsh and unhelpful to his brothers and others were kind to them in times of need, we often take that parable to be about general willingness to help the needy—and certainly it includes that—but in particular, it’s about helping “these brothers of mine” who are in need. It may refer very much to these traveling emissaries of Jesus who sometimes need clothes, food, or other help. When you take them in and help them, you’re showing mercy and kindness to Jesus himself.

If you need incentive the next time there’s an opportunity to help somebody, remember—you might be helping an angel, and you will surely be doing something for Jesus himself, and he will take it personally. So love and help strangers in mission. Don’t lose your heart for people who still need salvation.

How are people going to hear the gospel unless somebody preaches? And how are they going to preach unless somebody sends them? That’s the logic of Scripture (Romans 10:14-15). So keep in mind those who need Jesus and those who need the help of the church in situations of poverty. There are many opportunities, and yes, if you paid attention to them all, it would exhaust your resources instantly. But don’t let that be an excuse to do nothing. Choose carefully, and then support generously.

Support it as God’s cause. John says, “Deal with them in a manner worthy of God.” Treat them the way God wants you to treat them—or to put it another way, treat them the way you would treat God, because he takes it personally. “Send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.” Don’t just give scraps or leftovers. Be generous with the missionaries you can help.

That’s what John is saying to Gaius, and we can adapt it to our own situation. We have missionaries in Germany, Uganda, and various other places in the world—people the Lord is using, and people we want to keep supporting.

He also says these are admirable people—people who love the gospel and who leave their comfortable situations to bring it to others. These are people to be admired. Nowadays you sometimes hear, “Oh, they’re cultural imperialists—those missionaries.” But God has a very different take on that. When there’s a gospel others need to hear and people are willing to stick their necks out to bring that gospel in love, these are admirable people—people to be esteemed.

He says, “They went out for the sake of the Name.” They’re people of the Name. They want to spread the Name. They know “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). They’re people of the Name, so honor and admire what they’re doing.

And realize this: the people who need the gospel the most are the least likely to pay for it. People without Christ don’t say, “Oh, I need Christ so desperately—here are large checks to fund the spread of the gospel to me.” They don’t know they need Christ. But they do. And those who already have Christ and know the blessings of his salvation are the ones who need to fund the efforts so that those who don’t even know to pay for it will nonetheless benefit from receiving the gospel.

So John says they don’t count on the Gentiles for support.

The apostle Paul would say in his letters, “I don’t want to take a penny from you guys. In fact, other churches made themselves poorer when I first brought the gospel to you.” Jesus himself had said, “Freely you received; freely give” (Matthew 10:8). You want the gospel to be free—free, free, free—for those who are first hearing it. Let those who already have the gospel and its benefits be the funders and supporters so that the gospel can be offered freely to those who still need it so desperately.

So you see that basic principle: don’t count on lost people for support. If somebody says, “Oh, I like some of the work you’re doing”—they happen not to be a believer, but they know that a mission is doing something like providing clean water in villages or other humanitarian work they admire—and they want to write a check, this doesn’t mean you turn down their check or burn it. If they want to support something that’s part of the overall mission, then so be it—say thank you. But ordinarily, don’t count on unbelievers to fund the spread of the gospel. Count on unbelievers to say rude things about missionaries, but those who are the brothers and sisters of those missionaries are called to be partners with the truth.

I love the way John puts it there—he says to be “partners for the truth,” or it can also be translated “partners with the truth.” In his earlier letter he said, if you’re helping out people who are false teachers and spreading bad doctrine, you share in their wicked work (2 John 11). Now we get the flip side of that. When you help someone who is an ambassador of the gospel, you are a fellow worker for the truth. You are a fellow worker with the truth. You’re working right alongside the God of truth and his ambassadors. That’s the tremendous value of mission support.

Not everybody has the gifting or the calling to become a traveling preacher in that setting or a missionary in our setting. But all of us can be partners with the truth, partners with the Spirit of truth, with Jesus Christ who is the truth (John 14:6). It’s a glorious thing to be able to be partners with the truth. That’s what you are every time you pray for an evangelist, a missionary, or an endeavor of the gospel. That’s what you are every time you give generously, every time you write a note of encouragement to a missionary. Be glad partners with the truth—not someone suffering from compassion fatigue who says, “Oh, what’s the use?” God gives you one lifetime—it’s not all that long. Use it well. Spread the truth yourself, and be a partner and ambassador with those who are spreading the truth.

After speaking all these wonderful words to Gaius, John has something to say about another kind of person. “I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority” (3 John 9). John had actually written a letter to the church in that area, and it never got through. Diotrephes got it and said, “I want people to listen to me. I don’t want a letter from somewhere else giving instruction that would detract from my position. I’m not sure I like what this guy John says anyway.” So that first letter John wrote—it’s not one of the letters we have in the Bible—it’s the one that got tossed aside by Diotrephes.

“I wrote something,” John says, “but he doesn’t listen, and the letter never got through. 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 help them and puts them out of the church” (3 John 10).

Mr. Me-First is not one of the Bible’s more attractive characters, but it’s important that we pause a while and think about him. When you read John’s first or second letter, or some of the other general epistles, you hear that false teachers are bad, bad, bad—and bad doctrine is deadly. Those who deny that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh—John says that is the work of the antichrist (1 John 4:2-3). We do have to take very seriously those warnings against false doctrine and those who spread it.

But having said that, it’s jerks and me-firsters who have wrecked more churches than all the heretics put together. That may be too strong a statement, but it’s close to the truth. There are people who may not openly defy sound doctrine but who love the spotlight. They love the sound of their own voice. They love to get their own way. They can’t stand sharing attention or sharing authority. They’ve got to do it their way.

You can see how far that can go in the case of Diotrephes. Once you fall in love with being in charge, with being “the man,” even Jesus’ best friend isn’t worth listening to anymore. Think about it: you’ve got this old man—the apostle John—who was leaning on Jesus’ shoulder at the Last Supper, who was there when he died, who took care of his mother Mary as his own mother, who was filled with the Holy Spirit of truth—and you can’t learn anything from him?

That’s when you get so centered on your own ego that you can’t learn from anybody, because it would be too awful to admit that John might know something more than you do, or that he might be closer to Jesus than you are. Diotrephes gets a letter from John and rejects the authority of an apostle himself.

That’s still a danger with the me-firsters. They may not even say, “I reject biblical doctrine,” but they’re very selective about it, and they act as if they’re the authority on it. They also act as if they’re the authority on a lot of things that aren’t even in the Bible. So there can still be a rejection of apostolic authority without attacking the main doctrines of the faith.

Diotrephes’ biggest problem isn’t necessarily heresy or false teaching—though he may have had some doctrinal errors; we don’t know that for sure. His biggest problem is that he had to be the grand poohbah—he had to be the one. Many churches have been terribly damaged by that.

There are people who have tremendous gifting. You’ve got to understand that a person like Diotrephes often has ability, a dynamic personality, and a very forceful character. A lot of people are looking for someone like that—someone who seems very sure and clear, someone with energy, dynamism, and leadership ability. It’s wonderful when God gives someone those abilities. But it’s very dangerous when somebody falls in love with their own image in the mirror, with the sound of their own voice, and with their own gifting.

Many a church has had a guy who became the grand visionary who “knows God’s way” for that church and that community, and there’s nobody who can ever tell him differently or correct him. They don’t have real counsel or a team of elders or deacons—they’re “God’s personal secretary,” and they’ll tell you how it is. And if you don’t believe it, just ask them!

You might think I exaggerate, but spiritual abuse often occurs when you have someone who is the unquestioned know-it-all, the be-all and end-all. If you follow religion news, or even your own experience, you know how often that happens. Where there’s someone very gifted and dynamic who also loves to run the show, what a mess that can end up being—and very often, they just plow ahead.

I won’t name names, but I’ll give an example I saw recently. A man led a megachurch in one city, and after a while, it just grew and grew. He was a person of tremendous gifts, seemed to be pretty orthodox—and then it all blew up. The staff, one by one, began telling how he berated them, was rude to them, blew up on them—a mess. So the church folded. He relocated and now says all the theology he used to teach is garbage, that the things he used to call important aren’t true. But now, he says, he’s seen the light and has the real deal for you. He still has no elders to advise him, and he already has over a thousand people following again, because one thing hasn’t changed: he is first, he is the man. His whole theology changed, but he’s still Mr. Me-First.

Look at Diotrephes. The true missionaries come to town, and he doesn’t want them. It may be that he had false doctrine and didn’t want people teaching truth, but it may also be that he just didn’t want them because they weren’t his guys. You might say, “Surely they must have been false teachers—why else would he refuse them?” But I don’t think that’s necessarily the case at all. I’ve seen turf wars among churches. I’ve seen people who say, “I don’t want him because he’s not mine.” It’s not that they’re teaching falsehood—it’s just that they’re not “my people.”

He’s so centered on himself that somebody doing good work under anybody else’s authority isn’t “his person.” He goes even further—those in his church who welcome the missionaries, he kicks out of the church. He excommunicates them for receiving evangelists. Why? Probably because he said not to. “I said not to! Don’t you know that in the church God gives authority to the leader, and he who messes with the leader messes with God’s anointed? You have not submitted to God’s authority, so out you go—my way or the highway!”

You think that’s an exaggeration? It’s not necessarily a big fight about doctrine; sometimes it’s just a fight about turf. “You didn’t do what I wanted, and I have the Holy Spirit. Your job, Mr. or Ms. Peon, is to submit to me.”

Well, John has been around a while. He was around Jesus a while. He’s been doing the work of the Lord for a while. He’s seen a few people in his day, and he sees right through it. He says, “Okay, here’s the deal: he loves to be first.” John sums up this man’s whole character in one phrase—Diotrephes loves to be first.

Maybe we could even say it takes one to know one. Back in the day when John was young and immature, following Jesus, he wanted to be first. He and James went to Jesus and said, “Hey, could we have the two top spots in the kingdom?” It takes one to know one—and John had been there, done that, and been corrected by the Savior. He can see right through it now.

John says, “If I come to town, I’ll tell of what he has done.” He doesn’t resort to bad-mouthing or gossip—he simply says, “I’ll show up, and people can make a choice. Is it going to be John, the beloved disciple, or Mr. Me-First?” Maybe when John actually shows up, all the bad stuff Diotrephes said about him will evaporate in the presence of the real deal. People might say, “What were we thinking?” But either way, Diotrephes is hurtling toward that day when John comes to town.

It’s one thing to say, “Me first, I know it all,” but what do you do when you’re in the presence of someone who really has spiritual authority, who really does know the Lord Jesus Christ, who isn’t just looking out for himself? When people see that contrast, Diotrephes isn’t going to come out looking so good.

There’s another John besides the beloved disciple—Jesus’ cousin, the one who prepared the way for him, John the Baptist. One day John the Baptist was having a bad day in his “church growth project,” at least as his disciples saw it. They came to him and said, “Master, that other guy—you know, that Jesus person—people are leaving us to follow him!” And John said, “My joy is now complete, because that’s why I came. He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:29-30).

That’s the motto of anybody whose calling is to point to Jesus Christ. In fact, that was the first sermon I ever wrote in my life. I was assigned that text—“He must increase, I must decrease.” The first sermon I ever wrote was titled “Pointing to Jesus.” I’ll never forget it. I’m sure anyone who heard it has forgotten long ago, but it was the first one I wrote, so I remember it. My job is pointing to Jesus—he must increase; I must decrease.

I’ve had times in my ministry when I was the “cool kid” in town, and people were coming to my church and leaving another one. Oh, glory—wonderful me! And I’ve been on the other side of it, when there was a cooler church in town and people left mine to go there. That’s the way it is.

If I’m going to be Mr. Me-First, then the only measure of my ministry is whether people have been flocking to me and doing what I say lately. But the real measure of ministry is: are they coming closer to Jesus or not? You can have a very large building full of people, but if they’re not coming closer to Jesus, your ministry is a total wreck. And if they are coming closer to Jesus, then it’s a success.

Well, enough about Mr. Me-First. He probably would have enjoyed hearing somebody talk about him for so long anyway. But be warned—hear what I said again. Watch out for the antichrist and false prophets, but also look out for the ones who seem kind of orthodox overall yet are me-firsters all the way, subjecting the people under them to spiritual abuse.

“Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God” (3 John 11). There John gives a sharp distinction.

John has talked about Diotrephes, and now he’s about to talk about Demetrius—and he has nothing but good to say about him. He says, in effect, “We all need to imitate somebody. Who are you going to imitate? Who are the models in your life?” Pick your models well, because they will rub off on you. “Imitate good, not evil” (3 John 11).

John has this way of bringing very sharp clarity to things. You don’t get to say, “Well, I’m kind of in the middle.” He says, are you with God, doing good? Or are you against God, doing evil? Those are your choices. Are you with him or against him? Are you doing good or doing evil?

If you don’t support mission, you need mission—that’s the short of it in what John is saying here. If you’re not going to support the mission of God, then evidently you still need the mission of God.

And by the way, John can’t even write a little dinky letter like this one without including his usual trio. Early on, he said, “I love you in the truth”—so you’ve already got truth (the knowing) and love. Here he adds goodness (the obeying) to go along with it. Those three always go together. They’re often in contrast to the way the world does things. That’s the fourth element John keeps emphasizing: you’re going to be different.

The way you’re different is by knowing the truth, obeying God’s commands, and doing good to others. Love God, love other people. You’ve heard me say it many times. You might ask, “Why throw it in again?” Well, because John threw it in again and again in his letters, so I have to say what he said. He never stopped repeating this: you have to know the truth and believe the truth; you have to love others and love God; you have to do good, not evil. That’s how you know you’re born of God—if those things are happening in your life.

The name Demetrius sounds a bit like Diotrephes—but he’s not a similar guy at all. “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” (3 John 12).

Now, those of you who’ve read the Bible a few times might remember the name Demetrius from another passage and wonder if it’s the same person. It’d be wonderful if it were, but we can’t be sure. The name comes up in Acts 19—Demetrius was a salesman who sold idols for a living. Business was hurting because Paul had come to town preaching Jesus, and when people believed in Jesus, they stopped buying idols. It hurt the market.

So Demetrius gave a big speech: “Guys, we love our goddess Diana (or Artemis, depending on your translation). We don’t want anybody detracting from her honor. And besides, we’re losing money!” He got the other salesmen all worked up, and before long there was a riot. You know how riots go—once you get a dither going, thousands of people can be rioting without having a clue why. Luke says in Acts 19 that most of them didn’t even know why they were there. The whole stadium and streets were full of people yelling and rioting, and it all started with Demetrius.

Now, we don’t know if that’s the same man, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if Mr. Idol Salesman somehow came to know the Lord and later became this man of whom nobody had anything bad to say? Whether or not it’s the same person, we do know this Demetrius had one verse summarizing who he was: he “has received a good testimony from everyone.”

Jesus once said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you” (Luke 6:26). But when John says Demetrius has a good testimony from everyone, he’s not saying that worldly people speak well of him. Diotrephes certainly doesn’t speak well of Demetrius. If you welcome Demetrius to town, Diotrephes will kick you out of the church. So not everyone speaks well of him—but everyone who loves the truth and the Lord Jesus gives a good testimony about him.

And he has a good testimony “from the truth itself.” What a wonderful thing to say about someone—that the truth itself endorses him! How does that happen? John might mean that Jesus Christ, who is the Truth, endorses him and gives him a good testimony. He may mean that the Spirit of Jesus—also called the Spirit of Truth—is powerfully at work in Demetrius and commends him. Or he may mean that if you know the truth and you know Demetrius, they match up.

The man is a walking Bible—not because he can spout verses, but because when you read the Bible and ask, “I wonder what a real Christian looks like?” you can point and say, “Hey, that guy! He looks like a Bible to me.” Wouldn’t that be a fantastic thing to have said about you? That Christians who know you give a good testimony, that the truth itself endorses you, that your life is like truth come to life right in front of people’s eyes.

That’s what the world needs—people who are walking Bibles, people full of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

John adds, “And by the way, I think he’s pretty good too. You know I don’t lie about these things.” So this is John’s endorsement: Demetrius is recommended by godly people, recommended by God’s truth, and recommended by this godly elder and apostle.

Another thing about Demetrius is that he doesn’t make up his message—he just delivers it. Those of us who are called to be ministers of Christ can learn from that. If you’re a “me-firster,” you always like to have your own little wrinkle, something that sets your message apart from everybody else and makes you feel a bit superior. But Demetrius is one of those men who’s been given a message, and he delivers it. He doesn’t try to add to it or dress it up in some new way. He’s a man you can count on.

I know for myself, I pray that I might sometimes come close to what’s said of Demetrius. There’s nothing better. Each of you can look at your own life—if it could be said of you that the Christians who know you see a genuineness in you, and that those who know the Bible well would say, “That’s what a Bible-believing, Christ-loving, Spirit-filled person would live like,” then you’ve made the right ambition in life. None of us dare look in the mirror and say that about ourselves, but John does say it about Demetrius. May God give us grace that something of that would come through in our own lives, because that’s what the church needs.

We don’t just need people who oppose the antichrist and get our doctrine straight—though we certainly need that in a day of error and confusion. But we need people in whom the truth itself is obvious in who they are and how they live. We think we need better arguments, better apologetics—and then the foremost apologist in the world dies, and what’s revealed about his life afterward ruins nearly everything about his message. You have to have a life. You have to have a love that backs up the message you’re trying to bring.

Remember: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). I’m here to be a faithful messenger, to deliver his message—not to add to it, subtract from it, or improve upon it.

Those are the characters in this letter. Then John closes the way he did his last one. “I have much to write to 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. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name” (3 John 13–15).

I suppose I could ask for a quick poll—is it better to be there or to be watching for months and months because you can’t get out? Many of us already know the answer. We went through that whole lockdown process, and there were nice, pious people telling us it’s just as good to Zoom it in—but no, it’s not. “I hope to see you soon; we’ll talk face to face.”

Then he adds that warm, personal touch: “Peace to you. The friends here greet you. Greet the friends there by name.” You know the people I know—tell them hi from me. The personal aspect is beautiful. Here’s this great giant of the faith, this man who knows Jesus Christ, who writes the deepest literature in the New Testament, and yet he remembers individuals and deals with them in love.

Well, that’s the little old letter. John is a great figure. Gaius, Diotrephes, Demetrius—if I quiz you next week, you might have already forgotten their names. That’s the danger. But even if you forget their names, don’t forget the lessons. Don’t forget the importance of being a partner in mission. Don’t forget the danger of those spiritual abusers who are me-firsters—people who seem very dynamic and have great gifts of leadership but do not lead like Jesus Christ and don’t listen to anybody but themselves. Beware of people like that.

And remember good old Demetrius. Nothing fancy about him—just one verse about his mission in the Bible—but what a verse it is! He was a man who lived the truth. You could hear it from him because he delivered the message faithfully, but that message was also written all over him in the way he lived.

Prayer

Dear Father in heaven, keep us in your truth. Help us to walk in the truth, to love one another as you have loved us, to support all those who love you and are faithful to you. Build up our unity in Christ. Make us vigilant against what is false and phony, without rejecting your genuine work or being too quick to judge others. We need your Holy Spirit’s discernment in all of this.

As we bring to a close these messages from your mighty apostle John—delivered and given to him by the Holy Spirit—help us take to heart that you, Lord Jesus, are the Son of God come in the flesh, that you came as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, that God is light, God is love, and that we are called to reflect that light, love, and goodness by obeying your commands. Make that more and more a reality in our lives by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within us. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.