Fellow Workers For The Truth
A study of 3 John 1:5–8
“Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”
3 John 1:5-8
Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:
-Beloved: “agapētos”; adjective — beloved, esteemed, dear, favorite, worthy of love.
-Faithful: “pistos”; adjective — to do something harmonizing with (Christian) faith.
-Efforts: “ergazomai”; verb — to give one’s strength to the work which the Lord wishes to have done.
-Love: “agapē”; feminine noun — affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love.
-The Church: “ekklēsia”; feminine noun — a company of Christians, or of those who, hoping for eternal Salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs according to regulations prescribed for the body for order’s sake; those who anywhere, in city or village, constitute such a company and are united into one body.
-Name: “onoma”; neuter noun — the Name, namely, of the Lord Jesus.
-Gentiles: “ethnikos”; masculine noun — in the N. T., the nature of pagans, alien to the worship of the true God, heathenish; substantively, the pagan, the Gentile.
Observation/Summary(short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):
In this passage, John praises Gaius for his faithfulness to Christ seen in his hospitality given to a group of traveling Christians missionaries who Gaius had never met before. The kindness he showed to strangers exemplified the love of Christ in him, and this love is what the brothers testified of to John in their report about the loving reception they received from Gaius. As John commends Gaius he also encourages him to continue in the good work he started by sending these brothers on their way “in a manner worthy of God,” because they had gone out to preach Christ to the Gentiles supported only by the Christian church. John makes the point that as Christians we need to support our fellow Christian’s who do this sort of work for God, and when we do we become “fellow workers for the truth.”
Implication (what does this mean to us):
God calls some Christians to leave their homes and travel to foreign lands to preach the gospel and make Christ’s name known in one way or another. He also calls many Christians to stay and serve where they live. Whether we are called to go or stay, we are ultimately called to be “faithful” to whatever it is God has called us to. The brothers Gaius received into his home were faithful to the call of God for them to leave home on a missionary journey, and Gaius was faithful to the call of God to support those whom God had sent out. The calls to go or to stay are equally important, and here we see Gaius praised for faithfully staying and providing hospitality to Christian brothers who were strangers to him.
In Gaius’s hospitality we see the love for one another that is so important for Christians to practice. 1 John 4:7–8 tells us as Christians we are to love one another, because everyone who loves is born of God and knows God for God is love. Gaius did not know these brothers, but he knew they were true believers, brothers in Christ, and that was enough for him. He loved them simply by virtue of their identification with Christ. In doing this Gaius was faithful to the call of God in his life, and his love shown to these men was a great testimony of the love of God to all who heard of it in the church.
We would do well to prayerfully consider what God is calling us to do based on the gifting and resources He has given us, and crucially we must never despise His calling. It is easy to become discontent with our lot in life. If we have been called to stay maybe we would rather go, if called to go, perhaps we would rather stay. Or maybe we have been called by God to endure calamities, hardships and deprivations our brothers and sisters have not, and we may struggle with discontent in that; but in all this we must remember God is in control of every molecule in time and space. He appoints the time and place of our birth, death and everything in between. When we rail against our place in life, we forget the Rock who bore us and gave us life (Deuteronomy 32:18).
When we take our eyes off our Lord and cease to prioritize His will for our lives, we become ungrateful and discontent, and we forget all that He has done, all that He will do, and how glorious, good, and majestic He is. When we do this we cease to be faithful to the calling He has placed on us. This is not specifically spoken to in this passage, but as I read of the faithful Gaius who showed hospitality to traveling missionaries I cannot help but think of the contrast in roles God gives us, apart from our choosing, and feel convicted of my own struggles with contentment and gratefulness in this area for my own reasons. Perhaps this is something you can relate to as well. Whatever the case, we would do well to learn from the example of faithful Gaius. We are not called to do “great things” for God. God is great, and our faithfulness to Him in the time and place He has sent us into magnifies His faithfulness and greatness to all who see (Hebrews 12:1–2).
Another important lesson to learn on the topic of hospitality or providing support in any way is the manner in which John exhorts Gaius to provide such help. John urges Gaius to send the brothers “on their journey in a manner worthy of God.” When we provide support of any kind to our brothers and sisters in Christ we should provide for them as if we were giving aid to Christ Himself. In speaking of the final judgment of mankind in Matthew 25:31–40, when God will separate the righteous from the unrighteousness, Jesus says those who will inherit His Father’s kingdom are those who care for the material needs of those who are in great need.
He describes this group of people as “the least of these” and says rendering aid to them is as if we rendered aid to Christ Himself. This is slightly different from supporting missionaries, but the principle remains the same. When we provide support to those in need, the Lord sees it as if we were helping Him. And as we are blessed with the ability and opportunity to show love in real practical ways, as with all things, we must do so as unto the Lord. If Jesus came to our door in need of food and shelter, we would not give Him scraps to eat and a moldy blanket to sleep in outside. We would surely give our best to Him, and when we help others, especially brothers and sisters in Christ, we must help “in a manner worthy of God,” just as if we were giving to God Himself; for that is how God sees it.
But this passage does speak specifically of support given to gospel workers. The brothers Gaius supported had “gone out for the sake of the Name.” The “Name” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was for the sake of making His glorious Name and free gift of salvation known that they left their homes and families. When we support gospel work with prayer and material support we become “fellow workers for the truth.” Gaius was not subordinate to these missionaries and neither were they to him. Both were practicing faithfulness to the call God had given them and were therefore “fellow workers” for the truth.
Without both the front line soldiers and support soldiers no battle can be won. Consider the example of the North African campaign in WW2. The Germans outmaneuvered and outgunned the British forces in North Africa and pushed them back rapidly, but the Germans outran their supply lines, ran out of supplies, and the British were then able to push them back and defeat them. The Germans in North Africa ran out of the three “B’s” required to win a war, that is, “bullets, beans and band-aids.” The soldier with the rifle is of no use without ammo and food, and the soldier supplying the food and everything else is left exposed without the frontline soldier. The analogy is not perfect, but it is helpful. God has a role for each of us to play, and when we fulfill our God given role in spreading the gospel, we are “fellow workers for the truth.”
Application (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):
From this passage we learn to think of every role in God’s church as vital and important. Like faithful soldiers we must not abandon our post. Just as faithful Gaius provided hospitality to traveling missionaries, we must be on the lookout for opportunities to use the resources and abilities God has given to support the work of taking the gospel to every people group in the world. Whether that means going or staying, our priority needs to be faithfulness to Christ and the calling He has given us.
This passage should cause us to think of supporting brothers and sisters in Christ who are in need as if we were giving to Christ Himself. This should cause us to help “in a manner worthy of God.” God deserves our best, not our scraps, and the same is true of everyone God gives us the privilege of giving to out of the overflow of all He has given us. This passage should also cause us to pray for hearts that are faithful to God in every season of life. No matter the lack or abundance, God is great and glorious, and He is worthy of our faithfulness.
Self Reflection:
Are there any practical ways I can start practicing Christian hospitality with either prayer, my home or other resources?
How can I be a faithful “fellow worker for the truth” with the gifts and resources God has given me?
Has God called me to be faithful in staying or in going? Am I willing to surrender my will to Him and obey even if the calling is not the one I would have chosen?
#JesusChristisLord #truth #faithful #biblestudy #love
