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Scripture Reading: 3 John 1:1-8
The subject of the Epistle of 3 John is encouragement to the fellow workers in the truth. In this message we shall consider 3 John 1-8. Verses 1 through 4 are the introduction, and verses 5 through 8 speak of hospitality to traveling workers.
The beginning of 3 John is similar to that of 2 John. In verse 1 the apostle John says, “The elder to Gaius the beloved, whom I love in truth.” Like Peter, John was an elder in the church at Jerusalem before its destruction in A.D. 70. According to history, after returning from exile, John stayed in Ephesus to care for the churches in Asia. Probably he was an elder in the church at Ephesus, where he wrote this Epistle.
The Epistle of 3 John is addressed to “Gaius the beloved.” This is not the Gaius of Macedonia (Acts 19:29), the Gaius of Derbe (Acts 20:4), nor the Gaius of Corinth (1 Cor. 1:14; Rom. 16:23), but another with the name of Gaius, a name that was very common at the time. According to the contents of this Epistle, Gaius must have been an outstanding brother in the church.
In verse 1 John speaks of loving Gaius in truth. Here “truth” denotes the revealed divine reality — the Triune God dispensed into man in the Son Jesus Christ — becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity, to live a life that corresponds to the divine light (John 3:19-21) and to worship God, as God seeks, according to what He is (John 4:23-24). This is the virtue of God (Rom. 3:7; 15:8) becoming our virtue, by which we love the believers. In such truth, the apostle John, who lived in the divine reality of the Trinity, loved Gaius the beloved.
In verse 2 John says, “Beloved, concerning all things I wish that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.” According to the context of this verse, “all things” refer to external and material things. Probably the word “wish” is used in the sense of prayer. Literally, the Greek word for “prosper” here means to have a good journey, to go on well, that is, to succeed in reaching a desired end; thus, to prosper. “Health” here is bodily health, as in Luke 5:31; 7:10 and Luke 15:27.
In verse 2 John speaks of the soul prospering. Man is of three parts: spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). The soul is the mediating organ between the body and the spirit, possessing self-consciousness, that man may have his personality. The soul is contained in the body and is the vessel to contain the spirit. With the believer, God as the Spirit dwells in his regenerated spirit (Rom. 8:9, 16) and spreads from his spirit to saturate his soul, that it may be transformed to express Him (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). This is the prosperity of the believer’s soul. When our soul is occupied and directed by the Spirit of God through our spirit to direct and use our body for God’s purposes, it prospers. The apostle wishes that the one who receives his Epistle, who is a beloved brother, outstanding in such prosperity of his soul, may prosper in all things and in bodily health, just as his soul prospers in the divine life.
Our body may prosper in health, and our living may prosper in many material things. However, our soul needs to prosper in the divine life. What, then, is the prosperity of our soul? The prosperity of our soul is the spreading of the divine life into the soul. Through regeneration the divine life has been imparted to our spirit. Now from our spirit this life needs to spread into our soul. If this takes place, our soul will prosper by the spreading of the divine life into it. I hope that we all shall pursue this so that we will have adequate experience of the prospering of our soul through the spreading of the divine life into it.
The beloved brother Gaius was prospering in his soul. The apostle John wished that this brother would not only prosper in his soul, but also prosper in material things and that he would be in health. This greeting here is particular; it is unique in the entire Bible.
The New Testament is a book on spiritual prosperity, not on material things or bodily health. Nevertheless, John, who writes concerning divine things, wished that the one who received this letter would prosper in bodily health and even in material things.
In verse 3 John goes on to say, “For I rejoiced greatly at the brothers coming and testifying to your truth, even as you walk in truth.” The truth concerning the Person of Christ is the basic and central element of John’s mending ministry. When he found that his children were walking in truth (v. 4), he rejoiced greatly. To walk in truth means that the Triune God becomes our enjoyment in reality. Therefore, our daily walk is the walk in truth, which is the reality of the Triune God enjoyed by us.
In verse 3 John speaks of “your truth.” “Your truth” is the truth concerning Christ, especially His deity, by the revelation of which the recipient’s way of life is determined and to which the recipient holds as his fundamental belief. The thought here is deep. John’s thought is that the objective truth becomes ours. Hence, the truth becomes subjective to us in our daily walk. This truth is the reality of Christ’s deity. Our life is determined and shaped by the revelation of this truth. This means that we live, walk, and behave in the divine reality of the Triune God, who is our enjoyment. This enjoyment shapes our walk, our way of life. This indicates that our way of life is determined, shaped, molded by what we believe concerning the Person of Christ and by what we have seen and enjoyed of this reality. This truth is actually the Triune God becoming our enjoyment.
We believe that the Triune God became a man and lived on earth, died on the cross for our redemption, and in resurrection became a life-giving Spirit. Now this life-giving Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. This Spirit is the consummation of all that the Father is and of all that the Son is as a person possessing divinity and humanity. Christ the Son is the very God and also a real man, who has accomplished redemption and is now the Life-giver, the life-imparting Spirit. We believe this, and this belief now shapes, determines, molds, our way of life. This is what it means to walk in truth.
The philosophy a person holds will determine his way of life. What a person believes will always shape his living. We Christians walk in the divine truth. This means that our way of life is determined, shaped, molded, by the divine reality — the Triune God Himself — which we enjoy.
In verse 3 John says to Gaius, “Even as you walk in truth.” The one who receives this word not only holds to the truth, but also walks and lives in the truth. The truth concerning the Person of Christ should not only be our belief, but should also be our living, a living that testifies to our belief. The truth in which we walk, therefore, becomes our truth in our daily life.
In verse 4 John continues, “I have no greater joy than these things, that I hear that my children are walking in the truth.” As in 2 John 1:4, “truth” here is the divine reality, especially concerning the Person of Christ as revealed in John’s Gospel and first Epistle, that is, that Christ is both God and man, having both deity and humanity, possessing both the divine nature and the human nature, to express God in human life and to accomplish redemption with divine power in human flesh for fallen human beings so that He may impart the divine life into them and bring them into an organic union with God. The second and third Epistles of John emphasize this truth. The second warns the faithful believers against receiving those who do not abide in this truth, and the third encourages the believers to receive and help those who work for it.
Both 2 John and 3 John are based on 1 John. Both 2 and 3 John indicate that we need to live in truth and walk in truth. The difference is that in 2 John there is the prohibition of participating in heresy, of participating in any teaching that is against this truth. We must stay away from any teaching or any person who is against the reality of the Triune God. But in 3 John there is the encouragement to help the fellow workers in the truth. We need to join ourselves to anyone who works for the divine reality of the Triune God that we are enjoying, and we need to do whatever we can to promote this work. Hence, in 2 John there is a negative attitude toward heresy and in 3 John, a positive attitude toward the work for the truth. Whether our attitude should be negative or positive depends on whether the particular situation is for the divine reality or against it.
The concern of the apostle John in writing his three Epistles was the enjoyment of the Triune God. This is also our concern today. Among believers there is a great lack of the divine reality and hardly any enjoyment of the Triune God. Instead of the enjoyment of the Triune God, Christians have religion with doctrines, creeds, rituals, and practices. Using a phrase from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, we may say that, as a whole, today’s religion is a “vanity fair.” Whereas John Bunyan used this term to describe the world, we use it to describe religion. Instead of reality and the enjoyment of the Triune God, with religion there is all manner of vanity. We, however, need to be careful not to merely talk about truth, reality, without having the genuine experience of the divine reality.
What is the truth, the divine reality, that John talks about in his Epistles? This reality is the Father in the Son, and the Son as the Spirit dispensed into God’s chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people so that they may enjoy Him as life, life supply, and everything in the new creation life. Actually, this truth, this reality, is the enjoyment of the Triune God. The Father in the Son became a man, who died on the cross to accomplish redemption and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. Now He can dispense Himself into His chosen people so that they may have Him for their enjoyment and also as their life, life supply, and everything they need for the life of the new creation. This is the divine reality as revealed in the Epistles of John.
Many Christians today do not pay attention to this divine reality. Instead, to them everything concerning God and salvation is objective. They have only an objective God, objective Savior, objective redemption, objective salvation, objective justification, and objective reconciliation. They may believe many fundamental doctrines, but all these doctrines are merely objective and are used to form a religion. In the spiritual lexicon of these Christians there is no such word as enjoyment.
The Bible reveals that God is our enjoyment and He is food to us. According to the pure Word, God is edible (John 6:57). After the creation of man, we have the tree of life. Then in God’s redemption and salvation as typified by the history of Israel, we see the eating of the Passover lamb with the unleavened bread. After the children of Israel entered the wilderness, they daily ate manna, which is a type of Christ. Although certain Christians realize that manna is a type of Christ, they do not realize that the Lord Jesus is edible. In chapter six of the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus reveals that He is the bread of life and that we need to eat Him. Furthermore, we remember Him at His table by eating and drinking Him.
The Lord Jesus established the table by taking bread, blessing it, passing it on to the disciples, and telling them to eat it. He charged them to do this in remembrance of Him. This indicates that the Lord’s way for us to remember Him is not by kneeling or prostrating ourselves. Rather, what honors Him is that we remember Him by eating Him. The principle is the same with the drinking of the cup.
It is vital that we all see what the divine reality is. The Divine Trinity should become our subjective enjoyment. This is the divine reality, and this is what has been neglected by Christians today. Therefore, in the Lord’s recovery we have been charged by the Lord to pay full attention to this matter.
In the recovery we should not have the words “reality” and “truth” as mere terms. If we have only terms, then we are still in the realm of doctrine, although it may be doctrine of a higher standard and more complete truth. We all need to see that the truth, the reality, is the divine Person — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — becoming our enjoyment and even our constituent.
In both 2 and 3 John the apostle John speaks of loving in the truth. In 2 John 1:1 he also says that those who have known the truth also love the receiver of the Epistle in truth, because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever (2 John 1:2). Furthermore, both in 2 John 1:4 and in 3 John 1:3-4 John is happy to see that his children are walking in the truth, that they are walking in the enjoyment of the Triune God. The reason we love others is that we enjoy the Triune God and that the Triune God enjoyed by us is love. Because we enjoy the Triune God, love flows out of us to others. Because we take into us the God who is love, because we “eat” God as love, we become love. Concerning this matter, we are reminded of the saying, “You are what you eat.” The result of eating God is that we love others in truth.
Beginning in the first century, distractions and replacements of the divine reality began to creep in. Among Christians today there are a great many replacements, substitutes, for Christ. Many have Christ only in name.
In order to experience and enjoy the Triune God in a practical way, we need to see that He is the Spirit dwelling in our regenerated spirit. This Spirit is the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit, who is the consummation of the processed Triune God. This Spirit may be considered the “extract” of the Triune God. Just as the extracts of certain substances used as medicine or for cooking may be quite strong, so the Spirit as the extract of the Triune God is very strong. Today our God is the Spirit in our spirit. If we turn to our spirit, stay in our spirit, and exercise our spirit to call on the name of the Lord and pray-read the Word, we shall enjoy the Triune God. Then this enjoyment will change us, transform us, and shape our way of life.
In verses 5 and 6 John goes on to say, “Beloved, you do faithfully in whatever you may have wrought for the brothers, and this for strangers, who testified to your love before the church, whom you will do well to send forward worthily of God.” Here John speaks concerning hospitality to traveling workers. In verse 5 “whatever” refers to the hospitality afforded (as taught by Paul in Rom. 12:13 and Heb. 13:2), the receiving of the brothers (3 John 10) who traveled for the gospel and the ministry of the Word. The word “this” also indicates hospitality rendered to those brothers who went out for the sake of the truth. Because those brothers were not acquainted with Gaius, the one who received this Epistle, they were strangers to him.
In verse 6 John says that these traveling brothers, who were mostly strangers to Gaius, unacquainted with him, testified to his love before the church. This was in the past and was in the church where the apostle was. Then John continues by saying that Gaius will do well to send them forward worthily of God. This indicates something to be done in the future. The apostle on the one hand praises Gaius for what he has done in receiving the traveling brothers in the past; on the other hand, he encourages him to send them forward in the future. In particular, John encourages Gaius to send them forward worthily of God, that is, in a manner worthy of God.
Here “worthily” modifies “send forward.” The sending forward should be in a manner that matches God, who is generous. This indicates that the sending forward must be with generosity.
In verses 7 and 8 John indicates that by rendering hospitality to the traveling brothers, we may become fellow workers with those who go out for the sake of the truth. Verse 7 says, “For on behalf of the Name they went out, taking nothing from the Gentiles.” The Name here is the exalted and glorious Name of the wonderful Christ (Phil. 2:9; Acts 5:41; James 2:7). Since the time of the Lord’s ascension, there has never been a name on earth above that of Jesus.
In verse 7 John says that the traveling workers for the truth take nothing from the Gentiles. The Gentiles, pagans, have nothing to do with God’s move on earth to carry out His economy. It is a shame and even an insult to God for anyone who works for God’s New Testament economy to receive help for God’s work, especially financial support, from unbelievers. In the apostle’s time, the brothers who worked for God took nothing from the pagans. Therefore, the apostle encourages the believers to support this work for God’s economy.
In verse 8 John concludes, “We therefore ought to support such, that we may become fellow workers in the truth.” The Greek word translated “support” is hupo-lambano, made up of two words: hupo, under, and lambano, to take; hence, to take up from underneath, that is, to undertake, to sustain, to support. We, the believers including the apostle, ought to support and undertake for the need of the brothers who work for God in His divine truth and who take nothing from the Gentiles. If we support the traveling workers, we participate in the work and thereby become fellow workers in the truth.
In verse 8 “truth” denotes the revealed divine reality as the contents of the New Testament according to the apostles’ teaching concerning the Divine Trinity, especially the Person of the Lord Jesus, for God’s economy. All the apostles and faithful brothers worked for this.
