The Letters of John

Day 40

SCRIPTURE

¹The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

²Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. ³I was overjoyed when some of the friends arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth. ⁴I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:1-4, NRSV)

WHAT

As we begin to look at the third letter in the packet from John the elder in Ephesus to Gaius in a sister church, let’s recall the theory of Professor Luke Timothy Johnson with which I am working.

That theory states that all three of these documents (two are technically letters and one is more like a sermon) were sent to Gaius, a leader in a sister church that was dear to the elder John, on the occasion of a church schism. That schism was very painful for the elder because of the influence of the Gospel According to John with its emphasis on ONENESS, including Jesus’ prayer for ONENESS (John 17). Gnostic influence had infected Gaius’ church and led to severe misunderstanding of the nature and work of Jesus as the Christ. John the elder wrote a “sermon” (1 John) that he wanted read to Gaius’ church to encourage remaining believers to stay faithful to their church and not be enticed by the “antichrist” schismatics who “went out from us.” He also wrote a cover letter (2 John) to the reading of that “sermon” letter.

John the elder packaged all this with a personal letter to Gaius (3 John). He sent the whole package with a man named Demetrius. In addition to vouching for Demetrius and the documents he delivered, this letter to Gaius also addresses a problem Gaius was having with a rival leader named Diotrophes.

Not only does this theory help us make some sense of the very short letters of 2 and 3 John, but it also helps explain why the Church bothered to preserve them at all since they are so very short and do not contain anything new. It is their connection to 1 John that made them worth saving and passing on.

We need to establish a bit more historical context before we dive into this brief letter.

In the late first century or early second century A.D. when these letters were written, it was becoming increasingly dangerous to be identified as a Christian. We have seen already how the Roman emperors Domitian, Nerva, and Tatian were stepping up the heat. Christ-followers were losing their lives for their faith. But opposition also came from one’s neighbors. Persecution was also local. And that was even more painful because it came from people you knew well.

Roman culture involved regular festivals to the gods centered around the temples to those gods. These festivals involved religious activities, of course, but they were also akin to state fairs and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to some extent. They involved eating, markets, and even sporting competitions. Participation in the festivals was a way of demonstrating one’s loyalty not only to the god but also one’s loyalty to the emperor, the empire, and one’s community. Failure to participate marked one as different, suspect, perhaps even treasonous.

Disciples of Jesus were under enormous pressure to conform to this cultural expectation to participate in the festivals to the gods, including the emperor who was in many places worshiped as a god. Faithful Christians would, of course, not participate. How would neighbors react to these people who by their actions demonstrated they were “not one of us”? They became suspect. Neighbors would not buy from them in the marketplace, maybe not even sell to them. These disciples would find no one willing to tutor their children. (Education outside the home was by tutors in those days as there were no public schools.) Thus their children’s futures were negatively impacted by the parents’ faith commitments. Their homes and businesses mysteriously caught fire, and the authorities paid no attention. All this was happening locally.

This made identification with Christ very costly and even dangerous. One area in which this had very practical consequences was travel. If you as a Christian were traveling from one city to another -- either as a missionary or more likely on business -- in a world with no hotels and B&B’s, with roadside lodges generally being seedy and unsafe places, you had to rely on the hospitality of others to put you up overnight. You needed to make sure your commitment to Christ was not going to be used against you by your host. The best way to do that, of course, was to stay with fellow Christians.

Hospitality – giving it as well as receiving it – was thus an essential component of life for early Christians. In such an environment, to deny hospitality to a fellow Christian was also to deny Christ. We’ll see John the elder praising Gaius in this letter for being exemplary at offering hospitality to Christian travelers. He’ll also condemn a rival leader, Diotrophes, for withholding it. Offering hospitality was a way to “walk in the Truth” of sharing Christian agape love.

It is against this cultural and historical background that John the elder writes to Gaius. Unlike 1 John, this letter does clearly follow the conventions of first century letter writing. It starts off by identifying the author and the letter’s recipient:

The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. (3 John 1:1, NRSV)

We have seen how the elder addressed the church to which he was writing in 1 and 2 John. He used the Greek word teknion, which means “little children.” Here, however, he addresses Gaius as “beloved” which is the Greek word agapētos, in which you can clearly see agape. He’ll address Gaius with this word of deep love three more times (vv. 2, 5, 11). John uses the word ten times in the three letters combined.

William Barclay comments that this is very notable. These letters are letters of warning and rebuke. Yet, their tone is the tone of agape love. “Even if he has to rebuke,” says Professor Barclay, “John never speaks with irritation. The whole atmosphere of his writing is that of love.”

Interestingly the name “Gaius” is akin to “Bob.” It was one of the most common names in ancient times. There are three other people named Gaius in the New Testament (Acts 19:29, Acts 20:4, Romans 16:23, 1 Corinthians 1:14). There is no reason to identify John’s Gaius with any of these others. According to tradition, this Gaius was made the Bishop of Pergamum by John himself. “Here, he stands before us,” writes Professor Barclay, “as a man with an open house and an open heart.”

Following the ancient letter writing convention, the initial greeting is to be followed by well wishes for the recipient before getting into the “meat” of the letter:

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. (3 John 1:2, NRSV)

Despite the heavier content to come later in his letter, the elder is interested in the physical as well as the spiritual health of Gaius. “John was like Jesus,” notes Professor Barclay. “He never forgot that people have bodies as well as souls and that they matter, too.”

By using this conventional letter writing format, the early Christian letters like this one were not something remote and theoretical. Rather, they were the kind of letters which ordinary people wrote to each other every day. We are getting a glimpse at the real life of Gaius, the elder, and Gaius’ church.

As the elder moves to shift into the “meat” of his letter to Gaius, he writes:

I was overjoyed when some of the friends arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:1-4, NRSV)

The word the NRSV translates as “friends”, both here and in v. 5, is the Greek adelphós. It derives from delphus, which means “womb.” So an adelphós is one with whom you shared a womb, i.e., a brother or a sister. The entire New Testament, not just the elder’s letters, is full of references to Christians as a new family, the family of God. This letter is full of good, Greek names: Gaius, Demetrius, Diotrophes. Thus we see “the mystery of Christ” as Paul put it in Ephesians (Eph. 1:9, 3:3-4) at work. Gentiles are fully included in the family of God. God is making of the two peoples long divided ONE family.

John is referring to fellow disciples who had traveled to Gaius’ church and received warm, welcoming hospitality. We have seen how important this was in the world of the elder and Gaius. “Walking in truth,” or “faithfulness to the truth” referred not only to holding right beliefs, but also living out those beliefs, in this case, by demonstrating Christian hospitality in a dangerous world.

N. T. Wright points out, Gaius was demonstrating love for God and for his fellow believers. For the elder, that behavior is the sign that:

“…the truth of the gospel has really been grasped, not as an abstract idea but as what it is, the very life of God himself at work in his people. …’love’ for the early Christians was not primarily something you did with your heart and emotions. It was something you did with your whole life, not least your money and your home. So it had been with Gaius.”

Bishop Wright goes on to say:

“Truth, as always in John, is not simply a fact or a quality. It is an energy, a power, the living and dynamic quality that transforms people, communities and ultimately the world. We are privileged to be caught up in the work of Truth, turning our misguided and often wicked world into a place where once again the creator God is honored and glorified. And this collaboration in the work of the Truth comes right down to the practical details of a meal, a bed for the night, and a good start in the morning.” (Emphasis mine)

Nothing brings more joy to the elderly leader John than to hear that his children are walking in the Truth. And that walk included offering a meal, a bed for the night, and a good start in the morning. Again, it’s interesting to observe the elder’s word choice. For the word translated “children,” he uses teknon, not teknion as he used to describe church members. This word also refers to children, but it is older children it has in view, not the tenderest, most vulnerable as with teknion. This would be appropriate to describe a leader of the church such as Gaius.

In the next passage, the elder will continue to praise and encourage Gaius before turning to another problem in Gaius’ church.

APPLY

Collaboration in the work of the Truth involves practical details such as offering a meal, a bed for the night, and a good start in the morning.

PRAYER

Gracious God, I hear in this introduction to a brief letter the reminder that walking in the Truth, the work of love, includes not only the deeply theological and worshipful, but also the very practical things like offering a meal, a bed for the night, and a good start to the morning. In Christ. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Describe where this very brief letter fits in the theory of Professor Luke Timothy Johnson regarding the relationship of 1, 2, and 3 John. How does that help explain why the Church preserved this very brief and very personal letter in the canon of New Testament scripture?

2. Why was offering hospitality to brothers and sisters in Christ so important in the world of John the elder and Gaius? Why was denying hospitality to a fellow Christian also denying Christ?

3. Comment on William Barclay’s observation that, “John never speaks with irritation. The whole atmosphere of his writing is that of love.”

4. How do you react to N. T. Wright’s comment that “collaboration in the work of the Truth comes right down to the practical details of a meal, a bed for the night, and a good start in the morning”?

5. How can you apply these insights in your life?