Imitate What Is Good

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 15th of October, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  A recording should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, today we’re going to look at the Apostle John’s 3rd and final letter.  Now, the Apostolic letters were pretty much passed around from church to church in the Asia Minor region, especially those written by Paul, so that all believers might have the chance to read and learn from them.  While John’s 1st letter appears to be written to the church at large, the 2nd and 3rd seem to be addressed more to either specific church families or to certain individuals.

We mentioned last week that the 2nd letter was addressed to “the chosen lady”, which could have indeed been a specific woman, or a sister church to the one John was currently with in Ephesus.  This 3rd letter, though, is definitely addressed to an individual, and one to whom John is expressing his concern about another specific individual and his actions within the church.

The message John conveys is one we would do well to heed ourselves.  So please listen and follow along to John’s 3rd letter to all who might read it, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 This letter is from John, the elder.

I am writing to Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love in the truth.

2 Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. 3 Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth. 4 I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.

5 Dear friend, you are being faithful to God when you care for the traveling teachers who pass through, even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God. 7 For they are traveling for the Lord, and they accept nothing from people who are not believers. 8 So we ourselves should support them so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth.

9 I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us. 10 When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church.

11 Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God.

12 Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, as does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we speak the truth.

13 I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to write it with pen and ink. 14 For I hope to see you soon, and then we will talk face to face.

15 Peace be with you.

Your friends here send you their greetings. Please give my personal greetings to each of our friends there.

--3 John 1 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, You have blessed us so richly by making sure we would have the letters to read even today that were written by our Lord's Apostles.  Their insights and instructions enrich our lives.  Thank You, Father, for inspiring them.  And thank You for ensuring their words would be accessable to us in our age.  Sadly, though, Father, we don’t always spend as much time in Your word, reading these letters, as we should.  We get too wrapped up in the day-to-day workings of our lives.  Please help us see the wealth of good information contained in the Apostolic letters.  And please help us heed their warnings and instructions.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please protect us from those who serve Satan and carry out his evil deeds.  And Father, please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

John Wesley, the father of the Methodist Church, once challenged us Christians to, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all people you can, as long as ever you can.”  That ought to be enough to keep us busy and out of trouble for a while.

Back in the 1970's, the Association of Life Underwriters of Washington, D.C, conducted a little survey where it was shown that for every dollar reaching the needy, the sick, the underprivileged child, and the aged adult, the cost of channeling it through the church is just eight cents, while the cost of channeling it through voluntary charitable organizations or the federal government is 27 cents and $3, respectively.

Let me repeat that...  For every dollar intended for the needy, the church can deliver that dollar for the cost of only 8 cents, whereas it costs 27 cents to go through a voluntary charitable organization and $3 for the government to handle the task.  Every one dollar that our government spends helping the poor, the sick, the underprivileged, the elderly, costs the American taxpayer three dollars!

Now granted, those figures are 50 years old now, but I bet the ratios are pretty close to the same today.  It looks to me like the church is the most efficient provider of services by far.  So let's follow John Wesley's encouragement and do all the good we can as a church family, working for Jesus.

One might ask how can the church do so much better at helping those in need, providing so much at so little a cost?  I think we can look at the time when Jesus fed over 5,000 people with nothing more than two small fishes and five small loaves of bread.  He did this miracle by putting it in God’s hands.  When we trust in God, when we put a seemingly impossible task in His hands, He can make a little go a long way.  When the church imitates Jesus in this manner, we can do a lot with a little.

After an opening introduction similar to what we read in the 2nd letter, John gets right to the point.  He is concerned about the treatment that some “traveling teachers” received in Gaius’ church.  Some versions of our Bible call these folks “brothers” or “brethren”.  In effect, they were disciples who went from church to church throughout the known world, sharing the Gospel message and teaching those church families more about Jesus.  These were people much like Paul, who not only planted churches but also visited some that other missionaries had started, like the church in Rome.

Well, some of these traveling teachers brought back a report of how that church was staying faithful and living according to the truth of the Gospel.  And apparently they made sure to note that Gaius himself had been especially welcoming and supportive of them while there.

Let me point out something here that comes up very briefly toward the end of the letter, where John mentions a man named Demetrius.  Demetrius was very likely one of these traveling teachers, perhaps the one who brought the report back to John.  John speaks highly of Demetrius, to let Gaius know how much his support was appreciated.

In this letter, John encourages Gaius and his church to continue being hospitable to these teachers, even though they might be complete strangers, for they are traveling and teaching for the Lord Jesus.  And for their efforts they receive only support from the churches that sent them and the churches that receive them, as Gaius did.

But there was one man there in Gaius’ church who rejected the teachers and refused to have anything to do with them.  Not only that, but he also told other believers not to help the teachers.  And if they decided not to listen to him and helped the travelers anyway, he kicked them out of the church!

Now John describes this Diotrephes as one who loves to be a leader.  We might call him a self-styled leader, someone who wants to be in charge of things.  John makes it clear that when he comes to visit, he will make everyone aware of what this man has been doing, including the evil accusations he has made against John and the brethren, all of which is in sharp contrast to the teachings and commands of Jesus.  In this letter, John is exercising his apostolic authority and rebuking Diotrephes, and he has every intention of doing so in public when he comes to visit.

Then John offers his friend, and us, some very good advice.  Don’t let this man’s bad behavior have any impact on how we live and act.  Don’t let his bad example influence us.  Follow only what is good.  Imitate what is good, not what is evil.

Now we today are in a great position to see what is good, for we have all the works and deeds of righteous men and women throughout the ages saved for us in our Bible.  And in all of that, we can easily see that Jesus is the best example to follow, the best to imitate.

Hear the words the Apostle Peter spoke to the household of the Roman centurion Cornelius as recorded by the Apostle Luke in chapter 10 verses 38 and 39 of his Book of the Acts of the Apostles…

38b "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

39a “And we apostles are witnesses of all He did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem."

--Acts 10:38b-39a (NLT)

Jesus went around doing good, everywhere He went.  He healed all who were oppressed by the devil, those afflicted in body and in spirit.  He taught the truth of God’s word.  Then He gave His all, sacrificed Himself, just so we might be saved.  And His Apostles witnessed it all.

He could do all this because God was with Him.  He put everything in God’s hands.  That’s a great example to imitate – putting everything in God’s hands.

In his three letters, John fully endorses doing good.  He says that doing good shows we are children of God.  In this final letter, he reminds us that “those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God”.  We are to do good and not follow the example of Diotrephes, who has proven that he does not know God.

Of course, we know that doing good brings many rewards, including personal satisfaction.  In the 5th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 28 and 39, John recorded Jesus saying…

28b “The time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, 29 and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.”

--John 5:28b-29 (NLT)

In this life, we have choices.  Jesus is telling us the results we can expect from one of those choices: to do good in this life or to do evil.  The folks who have done good in their life will rise from the dead to everlasting life.  Those who continued in evil will also rise from the dead, but to judgment.

Now notice that Jesus didn’t say “those who have done evil”.  It’s a pretty safe bet that we’ve all done something bad in our lives, something with evil intent.  But we’ll only be judged for it if we keep on acting that way, if we continue doing bad things rather than repenting and trying to only do good.  If we truly are children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, we will turn from any evilness and do only good.  We will follow only what is good, just as Gaius did, with Jesus being our very best example.

So let us imitate what is good.  And God will be with us.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who showed us how to live.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for giving us so many examples of how to live in a manner that is pleasing to You.  And thank You for all the warnings for us to avoid bad behavior.  Too often, Father, we get confused as to what really is good and what is evil.  Too many times we hear what we think is good being called evil, and what we think is evil being called good.  Forgive us those times, please Father, when we begin to wonder what we should do.  Please help us better understand Your word and how it applies to our life.  Keep reminding us to spend more time with You and in Your word.  And please help us to not be afraid to share our Lord Jesus with others, sharing Your love, so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and grace.  And Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith and tries to pull us away from You.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, everything You did while in human form was done out of love.  Even when You would rebuke the religious leaders, it was out of love – Your love of Your Father God, and Your love for us that we not be led astray by the false teachings of the Pharisees and scribes.  Thank You, Lord, for Your words and deeds - for how You lived - this serves as the best example for us to follow.  We pray, dear Lord, that we do only good moving forward in this life.  Please, Jesus, help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing Your story, the Gospel message, with the lost.  Help us show them Your love, for this is the ultimate good.  Shield our minds and our hearts from the world’s lies and empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.

And Jesus, please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.