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WALKING IN THE TRUTH

Gary Hanson.

3 John

It’s a couple of weeks now since the State of Origin series finished, and I guess whether your a footy fan or not, you’d have enjoyed cheering on your favorite team, depending on your own State of origin.

Now maybe you know what it’s like to play a team sport. Maybe you don’t. But if you do you’ll know how important it is to listen to the coach.

After all he’s the one with all the experience. He’s the one with the game plan. You’ve got to listen to him.

Now indulge yourself a little. Imagine that you’re a member of one of the State of Origin teams. I’ll leave it to you to choose which one.

Next, let’s imagine that out on the field our captain develops a serious attitude problem.

He’s decided he doesn’t want to be a team player. He wants to score all the Tries; he doesn’t want to follow the coach’s game plan.

As far as he’s concerned the coach has had his day. He wants to do his own thing, and if YOU’RE on the team and you want to follow the coach’s plan, this captain will send you off. Back to the bench.

Before you know what’s happening, there’s holes in the defence everywhere.

How do you think your team will go against the opposition? Not too well, I’d suggest.

Now if you’ve got that picture in your mind, you’ve got a fair idea of what was wrong in this church we’ve just read about, and why John wrote this letter.

Shortly you’ll meet the character who’s in the captains position, and you’ll see that he has an attitude problem.

He’s a one-man show. He doesn’t recognise John’s authority. He’s even making false accusations about him.

Now remember who this is we’re talking about here. This is John the Apostle. The same John who was taught by Jesus and given authority as a leader of the church.

A well qualified coach. Someone to be listened to. Or maybe not.

Let’s read what John has to say in V.s 9&10:

“I wrote to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. 10. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us.“

Seems a little odd doesn’t it, that this sort of person should be leading a church. But there it is.

So what’s happening here. What is it that’s got John so stirred up. What’s the underlying issue? It’s almost as if there’s some sort of rivalry between them.

Well if we want to understand what’s going on here, it’ll help us to know the background.

The situation was, that at this particular time, false teachers had already begun to work their way into the church.

You may remember these characters being mentioned last week.

Traveling about from town to town, peddling their own version of truth about Jesus. Creating distrust and disunity.

So John the Elder or district overseer decides on a plan. He sends men of sound faith and teaching to strengthen the church.

John calls them “The Brothers.”

But he doesn’t just send them without warning. He first writes a letter - telling them what’s going to happen. Explaining his plans.

Having done this I guess he expected them to be welcomed with open arms.

But Diotrophes isn’t happy. And instead of seeing this as help, he sees it as a challenge to his position as leader of the church.

So when they arrive, he won’t have anything to do with them. He just turns them away and anyone who does accept them, is turned away as well.

The bottom line is he doesn’t welcome “the truth.”

Look again at verse 10.

“So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us.”

Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.”

Well it looks like he’s lost he plot doesn’t it ?

With this fellow in control, the enemies of the church are laughing. They’re out of a job! Because he’s tearing the church apart all on his own.

With friends like Diotrophes, who needs enemies?

Now you have to ask yourself why’s he doing it?

Well, the answer is he’s doing it to protect his pride. The fact is, he’s more interested in strengthening his own position than strengthening the church.

Look at how John describes him in verse 9:

“Diotrephes who loves to be first.”

And don’t we all know someone like that ? He’s looking after number one. It’s just an ego trip. He’s there to glorify himself. And so the report comes back to John “the church is falling apart. And worse than that, it’s an inside job!”

So what does John do next? Well, he writes another letter. But not to Diotrephes.

Look back to the beginning of the letter and you’ll meet the man the letter was written to. His name is Gaius. It’s obvious Gaius is known to John, either personally or by reputation. It’s also clear that Gaius knows Diotrephes.

More than likely Gaius is one of those who’ve been put out of the church, if not it won’t be long because the thing that really stands out here is how different these two fellows were.

If we want to describe Gaius in typical Aussie terms we’d probably say he’s “Fair-Dinkum,” “Ridgy-didge” or “On the level,” because everything John say’s about him seems to include the word “Truth.”

You might remember the Coca Cola slogan, ”Coca Cola - It’s the real thing.” What they were saying was, “You can forget about the other brands Pepsi, Jolt, and that colourless Cola - they’re just fakes; they haven’t got what it takes; they just don’t measure up to the standard.” But Coke is the Real Thing.

Well, when it came to Gaius, his love for others, his faithfulness, and his humility: they were “the real thing.”

Take another look at Vs 3&4:

“It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness TO THE TRUTH and how you continue to walk IN THE TRUTH. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking IN THE TRUTH.”

Well he sounds like a pretty impressive fellow doesn’t he? But what does all this really mean?

“Faithfulness to the truth”....”Walking in the truth”...”Loving in the Truth” What does it mean?

Well, isn’t it talking about the sort of life he was living, things he was doing, the way he was playing the game?

Here’s where the difference between Gaius and Diotrephes really starts to stand out.

Gaius welcomes the men John sent; he welcomes the truth.

He shows them Christian love and hospitality.

Perhaps Demetrius spoken of in Verse 12 was one of these brothers. Maybe the bearer of this letter.

Gaius sees himself with them, as players in the same team, with the same goal.

He wasn’t there to big note himself or lift himself up, everything he did was for The Name, and we see those words down in verse 7 speaking about these fellows John had sent out.“They went out for the sake of the name.”What name was that? The name of Jesus!

What Gaius was doing, what these brothers were doing, was not for themselves but for Jesus pick it up at verse 5:

“Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

It was for the sake of THE NAME that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men, so that we may work together for the truth.”

Welcoming the Truth is a life changing experience - a whole new game plan.

You see, in his gospel John says Jesus is “The Truth” John 14:6. Welcoming “The Truth” is welcoming Jesus. So when we read in verses 3&4 the words “The Truth”, we can insert “Jesus.”

Follow as I read verses 3&4 again:

“It gives me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to JESUS, and how you continue to walk in JESUS, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in JESUS.”

You see, Gaius was imitating Jesus, following His example. Gaius had found The Coach with all the experience “the real thing” The standard to be measured by. He was “walking in the truth,” walking as Jesus walked.

And how DID Jesus walk? He walked with Selfless Humility. Throughout His ministry Jesus gave of himself to the point of physical exhaustion, for the sake of those He loved. And on the cross He sacrificed Himself so that we could be forgiven .

He came “not to be served, but to serve ,and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

That’s what Christian leadership’s all about: Serving; Selfless giving.

That’s what Diotrophes had missed. And it’s something we all need to take note of.

Are you a leader in the Church? An Elder? Youth leader? Sunday School or V.B.S. Teacher? Maybe you do the flowers, clean the hall or hand out jelly beans at the door. Whatever it is we’re doing, WE NEED TO BE LIKE JESUS! You need to ask yourself , and I need to ask myself: Am I doing this for love of Jesus [“the truth”] and for love of the Gospel or am I doing it for pride or praise or position: for self. Look down to V. 11:

“Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.” You know you’ll never find a shortage of bad examples to follow but you’ll never find a better one than Jesus.

We need to welcome Him into our lives. We need to imitate His perfect example of Truth, Love & Obedience.

Jesus shows us, both what God is like and what we aught to be like. If we look at Jesus we see God. If we walk as Jesus walked we please God.

Because He has no greater joy than to see His children welcoming and walking - in the Truth.