HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1515
3 John
Y O U A R E V I S I T I N G A C H U R C H in your new community for the
first time. When you walk in, no one greets you, no one asks your name
or offers a warm smile. You walk in, sit through the service, then walk
out. The church lacks hospitality. You will not likely come back. But
when you visit another church, you are greeted with friendly handshakes and warm smiles, offered help in finding where you want to go,
and perhaps even given an invitation to Sunday dinner. You have found
a hospitable church, and it may become your new church home.
Hospitality is a friendly handshake, a warm
What you will be
reading about
smile, a good meal. But it also goes beyond these.
It is warmth of presence, an extension of person1:1-15
hood, an expression of love. We all admire a hosGod’s people should live by
the standards of the gospel
pitable person, church, or home.
John is an old man now. From Ephesus he
writes to his friend Gaius to commend him for the hospitality he has been
showing to traveling missionaries, many of whom John had personally sent
to that church.
In stark contrast, a church leader (possibly a self-appointed leader) named
Diotrephes rejected these missionaries and therefore rejected John himself,
adding some gossip about John with his rejection. Diotrephes then became
even more nasty, excommunicating from the church those who did receive
these missionaries.
In a parting comment, John also praises another man named Demetrius for
his good works, a man who has earned universal praise.
Hospitality does not go unnoticed. It earns well-deserved praise, in John’s
time and in ours. How we treat others is a visible badge of honor, revealing our
true character to others.
Key verses in 3 John
1:3 -5 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.
I could have no greater joy
than to hear that my children
are following the truth. 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.
1:11 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.
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