Walking in the Truth

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
3 John 1 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:3-4, NIV)


REFLECTIONS:
As in his previous letter, John is delighted to know that someone is "walking in the truth," living with the sort of integrity that both reflects and embodies the truth of the gospel itself. This "walking in the truth" involves not just correct doctrine and proper behavior, but a sincere love for God and for our fellow man. For John, love is the sign that the truth of the gospel has really been grasped, not as an abstract idea, but as what it truly is—the very life of God himself at work in his people. 

It is this love which must then flow out into practical acts of service. The act of service that John highlights in this letter is hospitality. The ministry of hospitality was vitally important in the time of the early church, where all that most people "knew" about Christianity was that it was bizarre, crazy, and socially undesirable. If we remember the context in which this letter was written, we can begin to see that traveling missionaries, or Christians traveling on ordinary business, would be very dependent on local groups of believers for board and lodging. It is for this reason, that hospitality is highlighted throughout a number of the New Testament letters (Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9 and others). 

Gaius, it seems, took this message to heart and went out of his way to be generous. (It's possible that the Gaius in this letter is also the one mentioned for his hospitality in Romans 16:23.) John's companions who had visited Gaius had come back with a glowing report, and part of the reason for this letter seems to be to thank him. This is love in action, as John was urging in 1 John 3:18—not in word only, but in deed and in truth. In fact, as we have seen in other New Testament passages, "love" for the early followers of Christ 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.

The traveling missionaries that John mentioned had gone out "for the sake of the Name," the great and powerful name of Jesus Christ. This would most definitely put them at risk in their Roman culture, and, partly for that reason, they determined not to receive help from non-Christians. Similar to the twelve and the seventy-two, they were trusting in God's protection and provision (Luke 9:1-6; 10:1-12). And God graciously provided through the hospitality of his people. Yes, says John, this is how our faith is supposed to work. We are meant to "work together for the truth" (verse 8).

Truth, as always in John, is not simply a fact or a quality. It is a power, a living and dynamic quality at work to transform the lives of individuals, communities, and the wider world. We are the people privileged to be caught up in the work of Truth, participating with Christ in turning our misguided and broken world into a place where the creator God is once again honored and glorified. And this collaboration in the work of the Truth comes right down to the practical details we find in acts of hospitality—a warm meal, a bed for the night, and a good start in the morning.

Our safe, easy, and affluent Western lives are wildly different from the Christians of the first century. Precisely because of these differences, we have a lot to learn from those early days. The cheerful courage and faith both of such first-century missionaries and of those who gave them hospitality (perhaps arousing suspicious questions from neighbors) ought to remind us that following Jesus is expected to be an adventure. We are meant to be living on the edge. New things will happen. New people come into our lives, and even though they were strangers a moment before, suddenly we realize we are part of the same family (verse 5).

And that, perhaps, is the main lesson of all these verses. At the heart of the New Testament vision of the church is that sense of family, of being brothers and sisters. Some of us have been privileged enough to experience the familial nature of the church at various times along the way. And when that happens, it's a wonderfully beautiful thing. It's like being back with John, Gaius and the rest, trusting in the Truth and walking in it.


PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for adopting us into your family through the life and ministry of your Son, our brother, Jesus Christ. Strengthen and inspire and motivate us to love our brothers and sisters in all sorts of practical ways. By your grace, help us to live as conduits of your generosity as we walk in the truth and carry forth the Name.


WHO AM I?
I am Tres Sansom, and I love chocolate sheet cake. Kate surprised me with one a few days ago for my birthday, and I'm still experiencing the sugar high.