TUESDAY April 18th
3 John 1:1
‘The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.’
We come to the third letter of John, again it is just one chapter. John again simply just introduces himself as ‘the elder’ and he is writing to a man called Gaius, an unusual name, I have only ever met one person with this name, it doesn’t seem to feature in the top 100 baby names lists! But let’s notice how John refers to this brother in the Lord, ‘beloved’ and then he says ‘whom I love in truth’.
I wonder if this short letter is possibly just one example of many letters that John wrote to individuals, we don’t know, but it is evident from John’s language that he lived out practically what he had been instructing the recipients of his first letter to be, that is a people who loved one another, thus fulfilling the commandment of God.
John then expresses what he wishes for Gaius in verse 2 ‘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.’
John was not only interested in the spiritual well-being of this brother in the Lord, but he was interested in his physical well-being and his welfare as well.
He then continues ‘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.’
John had received a good report about this brother, he had evidently come to faith, he had heard possibly the ministry of John or some of the other elders, apostles and he had taken it on board, he lived out the truth of the gospel and the truth of the word of God, he walked in truth, that is he was as Jesus had instructed in Matthew 5:13-16 walking as the light that needs to shine in the darkness and as the salt that was needed to savour the unsavoury world. We could say he was exactly what it said on the label, he believed the truth, he loved the truth and he walked in the truth.
Hearing that the believers were walking in the truth gave great joy to John, if we change the analogy, he was filled with joy as the sheep under his care, lived out what they had been instructed in the Lord, in the context of what John had written in his first letter, it gave him great joy to see the sheep under his care abiding in God and walking in obedience, and any shepherd in the natural is filled with great joy when everything is going well with his flock. And for those of us who have been given the same pastoral care and responsibility for the sheep under our care, and speaking personally for myself it gives great joy to see it is going well with the flock. May we all, that is both shepherd and sheep, continue to walk in the truth, in the words of the hymn, walking in the light of God.