3 John 11-15 - Closing remarks

3:11,12

What we do matters, we should not do evil but good. So anyone who promotes what is evil has not seen God. It may be that in John’s day some of the false teachers were actually claiming to have seen God, but anyone who promotes what is evil clearly does not know God at all.  These false teachers may even denigrate those who hold to the truth. WE can see both these factors playing out in regard to the issue of sexual morality. John then positively promotes Demetrius. We should commend those who faithfully speak and teach the truth.

3:13-15

As at the end of 2 John, John says he has much more to say, but wants to see them face to face. He closes with a friendly greeting.

3 John 1:5-10 - Pointing out error

3:5-8

John encourages Gaius that what he is doing is helping the brothers and sisters. Moreover the brothers and sisters were appreciative of his efforts and were reporting how helpful he was being. Gaius is encouraged to continue to treat them well. These brothers and sisters were going “for the sake of the Name. In the previous letter John had warned about not helping those who were opposed to the gospel, conversely it was important to help those who were for the gospel.

3:9,10

Now there comes a warning about a church leader, Diotrephes. This man was all about self promotion and was even opposing John. We should honour church leaders, but there is also a time to point out clear errors and wrong behaviour. Moreover Diotrophes was spreading malicious rumours about John. Thus man was a clear destructive influence.

3 John 1:1-4, and Intro

3 John - Chapter 1

3 John was also written by John the apostle, see introduction to  1 ans 2 John. In 2 John John had warned against giving hospitality to travelling preachers who did not teach the gospel, but denied the humanity of Jesus. In this letter he urges that to offer hospitality to faithful preachers, and warns against a church leader who seems to be of the controlling type.  Leaders who are concerned with their own aggrandisement rather than promoting Christ are a danger.

3:1-4 As in 2 John, John introduces himself as “the elder”, and the letter is addressed to a particular individual called Gaius. He starts by encouraging Gaius. When we have to deal with opposition it takes it out of us, and we need encouragement. He commends Gaius for continuing to walk in the truth. Standing up for the truth is a spiritual battle, and takes effort, so we need to be built up.

3 John 1:11-15 - Do not imitate evil but imitate good

1:11

John urges his readers not imitate evil. The first thing to note is the clear implication that evil is at work in what Diotrephes is doing, again there is no beating about the bush. The second is that we are not to employ the same weapons (see 2 Cor 10:4,5). We are only to imitate good. Jesus said that by their fruit shall you know them (Matt 7:16), and John is making a similar statement here.

1:12

Having named the evildoer, John now names the good brother, Demetrius, and strongly commends him. Everyone who knows him speaks well of him, and his life is in line with the gospel (the truth). It is not just a matter of who has the right opinions, but also a matter of the life a person lives. John then makes it clear that he adds his commendation of Demetrius as well. And Gaius knew John and that he was reliable.

1:13-15

Verse 13 is very similar to verse 12 in 2 John, as is verse 14. John wants to meet up with Gaius face to face. He then closes with a typical blessing and farewell.

3 John 1:9,10 - Talking wicked nonsense

1:9

John now mentions another person by name. Diotrephes seems to have had a leadership role of some sort, but was fulfilling the role not as a servant of Christ and the people, but as a means of self-aggrandisement. He did not recognise John. ESV has “does not acknowledge our authority”, NKJV has “does not receive us”. The practical implication of the two translations is the same. We may wonder why such short letters as 2 and 3 John appear in the Bible. They do not contain anything like the same grandeur of Romans, Ephesians or Hebrews, nor even of 1 John. However, they deal with issues that still are, and always have been, relevant in the church. In 2 John we have the matter of whether or not we should welcome false teachers, to which the answer is a resounding no. We would do well to question our current practices in the light of this. Here we are dealing with self-centered leaders. John deals with the matter head on, including naming the person concerned. Again, we have much to learn from this.

1:10

John says that if he visits then he will raise the matter directly. ESV has “talking wicked nonsense against us”, I prefer the NKJV “prating against us with malicious words”. In short, Diotrephes was a prat, and John was not afraid to say so. Diotrephes was a very controlling leader. He refused to welcome the faithful brothers, and if anyone did welcome them, they were put out of the church. We all know that this sort of controlling behaviour is still very much around in all branches of the church. As mentioned in my comments on the previous verse, these two short letters deal with very real problems that churches have to address.

3 John 1:5-8 - Fellow workers in the truth

1:5

In 2 John the church was warned against welcoming people who were false teachers. Here we get a counterbalance, in that Gaius is commended for helping Christians even though they are strangers. I guess we have all had the experience that we meet someone for the first time who is a Christian and our shared faith in Jesus Christ means there is an immediate bond between us.

1:6

The brothers who were welcomed by Gaius told their church of the warm welcome that they received from Gaius. It is not clear what the point of the second half of verse 6 is. The first part would seem to imply that they had already left and returned to their home church. Alternatively, they could have been staying for some period of time and have sent a letter to their home church. If the latter is the case, then John is urging Gaius to continue to act well towards them and to send them on their way with a blessing.

1:7,8

The brothers had gone out “for the sake of the Name”, presumably to spread the gospel. They received no help from the pagans. It is not clear why John says this, as one would hardly expect them to receive any help from the pagans. John then gives a general principle. The gospel cannot expect any help from the world (though it may sometimes receive some), so it is vital that the church works together, supporting each other, so that we can “work together for the truth”.

3 John 1:1-4 - I pray that all may go well

1:1,2

This addressed to a particular individual, Gaius, and one whom John obviously knew well. Verse 2 is one that is beloved of prosperity gospel preachers, supposedly showing that if we believe the gospel then financial prosperity should be ours. Well here is an example of why we should look at verses in the light of all Scripture (this also applies to those who tend more towards a “poverty gospel” (ie the poorer the holier line). First, in its immediate context it is a greeting, to base a whole theology on it without proper support from all Scripture is a very unwise thing to do. Now, God does care for all aspects of our lives, He does want all aspects of our lives to go well. Moreover, other things being equal, the more in line with God our lives are the better all things will be. The problem is that other things are not equal. First the negative side. There are three factors which mean that things will not be perfect in my life. One is my own sin and sinfulness. Second is that other people will sin against me. And thirdly, we live in a fallen, and therefore imperfect, world. But now let’s look at the positive side, and this is perhaps the most important. Part of the gospel, part of the promise of the gospel, is that we share in Christ’s sufferings.  So sometimes we will suffer unjustly or undeservedly, but God will work through this to bring about His good purposes in our own lives and in the lives of others. We need to grasp the full glory of the gospel.

1:3,4

John had clearly heard news of Gaius from others, and he clearly was progressing spiritually. How did John know this? Or, rather how did the believers who brought the news to John know this? It was because Gaius was faithful to the truth and was walking in the truth. Ie his “life and doctrine” were consistent with the gospel. In the light of my comments on v2, note that it is the quality of his life that matters, not his wealth! Note also that how John judges a man’s life is by how well it aligns with the truth of the gospel, he does not use a worldly measure. We should do the same when assessing ourselves, and when assessing others.

2 and 3 John - Introduction

Introduction

2 and 3 John are the two shortest books in the New Testament, both having the form of letters. The language and teaching bears a lot of similarities to that found in 1 John, and common authorship is a reasonable assumption. Despite their shortness, there is attestation or allusion to the letters from very early on in church history. Ireneus links 2 John with 1 John, and Clement of Alexandria knows of more than one Johannine letter. No one ever attributed the letters to anyone other than John the son of Zebedee.

The date of the letters is tied up with whether one takes them as being written before John’s gospel, or being written after the gospel. Most take the latter view, and that gives them a date of roughty 80-85 AD.

The letters do not state their specific destination, though 3 John does state the recipient, who is probably not one of the various Gaius’s mentioned in the New Testament. The region of Ephesus is taken as the most likely destination. 2 John seems to have the purpose of warning the church against travelling preachers who were not preaching the gospel. This is also timely today, when people have access to so much in the way of YouTube and podcasts. Some is good, but not all of it, and some is dangerous nonsense. 3 John was warning against a specific individual who seemed to be accruing power for himself. That is also very timely for our day as there are numerous instances of this sort of thing happening.

Why are 2 and 3 John in the Bible?

Two small books, two highly relevant issues

2 and 3 John are the two shortest books in the Bible, so short that one might ask why are they in the Bible at all? One could try to answer that question from a historical perspective, but I am not going to address that aspect here. Instead I am going to look at the issues addressed in these two letters. The Bible is God breathed, it was put together by God, walking through men, but God put it together through the Holy Spirit.

These two letters deal with two highly relevant issues. 2 John deals with how the church should handle false teachers. At the time there were many travelling teachers and preachers. Some of these preached heretical and dangerous nonsense. Throughout history, and especially today, there have been false teachers. John tells the church that they are not to welcome these false teachers at all, for if they did they would be sharing in their wicked works. Now consider how so much of the church deals (or rather fails to deal) with false teachers. Consider how some Christian radio programmes/podcasts/magazines deal with false teachers. So often they are treated as having a viewpoint that is worthy of equal consideration. If we do this then we need to be aware that we are sharing in "their evil work".  In 2 John (as in 1 John) we find a very different approach. False teaching is called out for what it is, dangerous and poisonous evil. Of course we have to be aware of going to the other extreme, but that is not much of a danger for most of the church at present. We see in the Church of Scotland and some other churches how they have completely collapsed on LGBT issues. There are many good Christians in the Church of Scotland and some good churches, but as an institution the Church of Scotland no longer has anything worthwhile to say on matters relating to human sexuality.

Then what do we find in 3 John? We find John addressing the issue of dealing with a self-centered and self-aggrandising leader. This leader, Diotrephes, was refusing to welcome good travelling disciples, and moreover if anyone did dare to welcome the good brother Diotrephes would cast them out of the church! He was a controlling individual. Sound familiar? There have been individuals like this in every branch of the church throughout history, and such individuals are certainly around today, and are equally destructive. What does John do? Well he names the individual and deals with it directly.

So both these letters deal with issues that are just as relevant today as they were two thousand years ago. And in both letters the matters are dealt with in a direct and firm manner. Evil is called evil. God put these letters in the Bible for a very good reason, for our instruction. We would do well to consider the lessons of these two letters, and to pay heed to them.
There are times when we can wonder why we are having to deal with all sorts of "stuff" in churches. Well, we can know that New Testament church had to deal with just as many issues as we did, and the nature of the issues was much the same as we have to deal with, and God has made provision for us to deal with them.

3 John 4-14 - Dealing with opposition

John prays a blessing on Gaius. Now verse 2 is beloved of prosperity teachers. Let’s be honest here, mostly they are making far too much of this verse than is merited. Look, the truth is this. God does want the absolute best for us; we are sinners living in a fallen world; we are being redeemed and sanctified; we share together with Christ’s sufferings in the work of building the kingdom. Any teaching needs to take into account all of these. To focus on any one of them to the exclusion of others leads to error. To focus on the blessings at the expense of others will give us a false and distorted view of life. Equally, to focus on suffering and sin part without the blessings will give an equally distorted and wrong view.

Gaius is then thanked for helping John’s workers, and is encouraged to continue doing so. Quite often in the various letters people are encouraged to continue doing good. We need to recognise that it is easy to become weary of doing good, there are times when we get discouraged, so we need to be continually encouraged.

Diotrophes was the bad leader. It is not clear what his exact role was, maybe he assumed a higher status than he actually had. Whatever the case, he was causing trouble, and had rejected John’s letters. He also slandered John and his co-workers. He was also refusing to accept Christian brothers who passed by.  His behaviour was not good, and Gaius is urged to recognise what is good and what is not. He need have no fear that Diotrophes is doing God’s will, for his actions clearly demonstrated that he did not know God.

Conversely, Demetrius is commended for his good works and attitude. John again closes the letter with the desire to see Gaius personally, and then to say a lot more to him.

3 John 1-3 - Problems in Leadership

This was written by John to a church leader called Gaius, and is largely about how to deal with another leader called Diotrophes. So again we see that a New Testament church had real problems, this time with at least one of the leaders acting against Christ. These things should not happen in the church, but sadly from time to time they will happen. So we need love, wisdom and power to deal with them when they do occur.

Why did God put this book in the Bible? Well, partly for the reasons outlined above, namely to give us a reality check and to ensure we do not have any rose-tinted view of what the church is like. Secondly, as I have said before, John is the Apostle of love, his letters deal a lot with love, yet he also instructs Gaius to take firm action. The two need not be in conflict.  There are two extremes we can go to. One is to just focus on “love”, the other is just to deal decisively with all opposition. Neither is right, we need both. The church in Ephesus that received the first letter in Revelation dealt firmly with false teachings, but forgot her first love. In this letter we have the love message tempered with firmness in handling false teachings and bad leaders.