This week’s “Wednesday Word” is a summary of Trent Hunter’s exposition of 3 John given on Sunday, August, 23, 2009.
John’s third letter is the most personal of all of his writings, written to Gaius, a beloved friend whom John loves in truth. In this letter from the apostle to his friend, we have the embodiment of the John’s vision for the Christian life that he has written about in his other letters. John’s letter follows a typical pattern. There is a standard greeting from verses 1-4. The body of the letter extends from verse 5 all the way to verse 12, and John closes his letter from verses 13 to 15. But while this is the shortest letter in the New Testament, it is as rich as it is brief.
In the course of his personal letter, John introduces us to a number of different people. He writes about Gaius, who sends missionaries on their way in a manner worthy of God. We meet traveling missionaries who go out for the sake of the name. We meet Diotrophes, who sends people out of the church for supporting those same traveling gospel ministers. We meet Demetrius, about whom everyone has something good to say. Finally, we meet “the friends,” who are those companions in the gospel dear to both the author and the reader and with whom they share a sacred partnership in the gospel.
John’s purpose in writing was to encourage John in his support of traveling missionaries in a context where Diotrophes, “who likes to be first,” was casting this as a matter of spiritual irresponsibility.
Of course, wanting to be first is the primary problem of the fallen human condition. We saw this in Adam when he ate of the tree. We saw this in Cain when he killed his brother from envy for the favor he had before God. It couldn’t have been that Cain actually wanted God’s favor, he just didn’t like being second. In the contrast between Gaius and Diotrophes, we see the best way to expand and to shrink the kingdom of God, to regard and to steal God’s glory. We cannot be the greatest in everyone’s eyes and have God be the greatest in everyone’s eyes. Of course, Jesus addresses this when he says, the first shall be last and the last shall be first. And of course, Jesus demonstrated this in his submission to death on a cross.
There is comfort for those who live between the times to know that the first century church had its share of complicated theological, but also practical problems.
John writes to encourage Gaius to persevere in his support of missionaries in a context where some where persecuted for doing so. True to apostolic form, John did not simply to tell Gaius what to do. He gives him reasons that are tethered to gospel realities. John, and the rest of us, are to send missionaries out in a manner worthy of God, because such people go out for the sake of the name, they do without pay from those to whom they go, and by supporting such people, we become partners with them for the truth.