Read with Me
3 John 1-4 (HCSB)
The Elder:
To my dear friend Gaius: I love you in the truth.
Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically just as you are spiritually. For I was very glad when some brothers came and testified to your faithfulness to the truth—how you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Listen with Me
In these opening words of this brief letter to John’s friend Gaius, there are two main themes.
The first theme is shalom, peace, or better, wholeness in every area of a person’s life. John’s prayer is that every area of Gaius’ life, his health, his work, his personal relations, will all go well.
But this prayer is not just a general wish for good things in Gaius’ life. John clearly understands that a good and blessed life in every dimension springs from a soul that is doing well. This kind of shalom in every area is not an “outside-in” work, based on self-improvement. Instead, it is an “inside-out” work. As a soul is, so goes the rest of a person’s life. If the soul is darkened by sin and separation from God, the rest of a person’s life will tend toward dysfunction. If the soul is full of light that comes from being in relationship with God, the rest of a person’s life will tend towards shalom.
The other great theme in these opening lines is truth, a word John repeats four times in these four verses. John professes that he loves Gaius in the truth. He has heard that Gaius is being faithful to the truth, and is indeed walking in the truth, which gives him great joy.
These days there is widespread rejection of any kind of absolute truth, and an insistence that each person’s truth is true for them, and that it must be respected and even celebrated by those around them. In the end, this is a rejection of God Himself, because if He truly exists (And He does), then what He says is true is absolutely true, and all else is false, no matter how sincerely it is believed, or even if it is believed by a strong majority of people.
The truth that Gaius is true to is the truth of Jesus Himself, His identity as God’s one and only begotten Son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and the risen Savior of all who turn to Him in faith and follow His commandments.
At the time John wrote this letter, these beliefs were very much in the minority in the Roman Empire, and people were even being persecuted for them, as John himself had been. But Gaius was standing firm in what he knew to be true, and he was living that truth out in his day-to-day life.
Pray with Me
Father, these days there is so much confusion, even in the Church, about what is true. Christians have allowed the seeds of doubt to be sown in their hearts by our secularized society, doubt about the veracity and validity of the Scriptures; doubt about who and what Jesus is; doubt about Your goodness, Your power, and Your grace; doubt about what it means to be saved; and even doubt about what is sinful and what is not. And that doubt has had disastrous effects on our ability to thrive spiritually and to accomplish Your mission as the plant of doubt has grown and flowered in our midst. Help us, Lord, to return to simple reliance on Your word, the Holy Scriptures, divinely inspired in every word, showing us who You are, who Jesus is, what You can do, and what You have called each of us to be and to do in Your power, in Your strength, and with Your guidance. Amen.