Glory to God! God is good and He is faithful to everyone who calls upon His name. Psalm 145:9 says that The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. Yes, the Lord indeed has been good to all of us during the past week and I am sure that most of us have enjoyed His presence, protection, and provision in our lives spiritually and materially. Although, some are still in the mood of the holidays and on-going celebrations, many of us are slowly but steadily settling down and adjusting with our normal life-style after three major seasons of continuous celebrations – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. I do believe that we all, as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, have had a wonderful and productive Christmas season where Christ’s name is held high in every aspect of our celebrations giving Him great reverence and honor and glory and lifting up His name above all other names among our family and friends.

As we continue in our SftW meditations, the Lord God has blessed us with a very blessed and purposeful Scripture passage for our meditation this week. The passage is taken from the Third Epistles of Apostle John (1:11) and the main focus of the passage we chose for our meditation circles around God and His goodness in relation to mankind. The passage invites us all, as His dearly love children, to turn away from all kinds of evil and continue to focus on doing good by keeping truth and love in action. Apostle John, introduces himself as an Elder to the his readers (3 John 1:1a; also refer to 2 John 1:1a), perhaps an elder of the church at large (maybe a status equal to the general president of a church denomination, archbishop, metropolitan, or patriarch of today’s context) not just an elder in a local (house) church as some might think in connection with today’s local church elders. By the time the Epistle was written (c.AD 88-95), he might have been the only survivor of the original Twelve disciples whom Jesus chose and sent out as His apostles to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons, and so on (Matthew 10:1-15; Mark 3:16-19; 6:7-13; Luke 6:13-16; 9:1-6; Acts 1:13). John was addressing the Epistle to his dear friend Gaius (3 John 1:1b, 2a, 5a; 11a), most probably the minister/leader of one of the house churches in Asia Minor. From John’s writings, we can understand that Gaius was a person who loved God and honored Him through his love for Jesus Christ and supported the gospel work. Gaius not only welcomed the traveling gospel workers/ministers but took care of them very well and assisted them with their needs for their further travels. John also mentioned two other ministers of the gospel in this Epistle, among whom the first one is Diotrephes (3 John 1:9-10). It seems like he was also a minister/leader in one of the house churches in Asia Minor. According to John, Diotrephes loves to be first and he refuses to welcome other ministers of the gospel and believers who travel from place to place for the cause of spreading the gospel and even stops those who want to welcome other ministers and leaders and he puts them out of the church (3 John 1:9-10). In addition, he was spreading malicious nonsense about them (3 John 1:10b). Apostle John assures that when he comes to visit the church, he will call attention to what Diotrephes is doing (3 John 1:10a). For John, everyone who follow Jesus Christ, both believers and ministers, ought to love one another: believers need to love their fellow-believers and the ministers of the gospel; and ministers need to love their believers and fellow-ministers; if not God’s love is not in them, as he wrote in one of his earlier epistles: We love because he [God] first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister (1 John 4:19-21). The Scripture sternly warns that the evil doers will be judged according to their wicked deeds, for the Scripture states that Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will go free (Proverbs 11:21), and God spoke through prophet Isaiah that: I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless (Isaiah 13:11). According to Apostle Paul, all those who are doing evil should be handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that their spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord (1 Corinthians 5:5). The other person Apostle John talks about is Demetrius. Perhaps, he was a traveling minister of the gospel and is well spoken of by everyone, including Apostle John, other gospel workers/ministers, and believers, which shows that Demetrius might have been a person of standing with integrity of heart and a hardworking minister of the gospel. In fact, Apostle John, as a prominent Elder (the leader of the leaders) in the early church, appreciated Demetrius and testified about him to Gaius and others in the house-church for his good behavior and his loyalty to the truth (3 John 1:12). John speaking well of Demetrius to Gaius and to the house-church he is part of would be with the intention to encourage them to extend their helping hand to Demetrius as he travels from place to place for the cause of spreading the gospel of salvation, because the practice of hospitality among the Christians was one of the key factors that helped the spread of the gospel and expansion of the early church right from its inception. Apostle John in his Epistles talks about the trustworthy ministers of the gospel as well as untrustworthy ministers who do not fully walk in the way of the Lord. While, John urges the believers not to offer hospitality or entertain unreliable and dishonest ministers (2 John 1:7-11), he encourages them to welcome and offer hospitality to trustworthy ministers who faithfully walk in the way of the Lord and do His ministry (3 John 1:5-8).

The practice of hospitality was crucial in the early church, which definitely boosted the spread of the gospel and expansion of the early church. In the early stages of the Christian faith/church, many people who heard the gospel message and witnessed the signs and wonders through the ministries of the apostles and other disciples of Jesus Christ believed in Jesus and became the torch bearers of the gospel. It was a common practice that many such preachers of the gospel became traveling ministers and traveled from place to place to share their faith in Jesus Christ. Usually, the well-to-do local Christian believers welcomed such traveling ministers into their homes and took care of their needs as long as they were in that town/city (this is based on what Jesus Christ commanded His apostles and disciples when He sent them out to preach the gospel [Matthew 10:9-11; Luke 9:1-4; 10:3-7]).  And these Christians and households also assisted such traveling ministers of the gospel with the necessary things for their further travel to the next city/town.

There are several examples mentioned in the Scripture regarding people welcoming and caring for other people. Below mentioned are a few examples for our information: During the Old Testament time, Abraham took care of a large number of people in his household (Genesis 12:5; 14:14; 24:34-36); when two angels who were disguised as men came to Sodom in the evening, Lot, Abraham’s nephew, invited them to his house to spend the night and wash their feet and have the evening meal (Genesis 19:1-3); Moses enjoyed the hospitality of his father-in-law Jethro (Exodus 2:18:21); an old man from the hill country of Ephraim, who was living in Gibeah invited a traveler with his concubine and servant (who were planning to spend the night at the city square Gibeah in Benjamin) into his house and fed his donkeys, provided water to wash their feet and something to eat and drink (Judges 19:16-21); prophet Elijah, being a Jew, was welcomed and taken care of by a widow at Zarephath in the region of Sidon (1 Kings 17:7-16); Elisha, being a Jew, was taken care of by a woman and her husband at Shunem ( Kings 4:8-10). During the New Testament time, a large crowd used to follow Jesus wherever He traveled to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God, to seek and find the lost, heal the sick, and so on (Luke 8:1, 4). Although He was not welcomed by many including some of His own people (Isaiah 53:3; Matthew 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24; 9:51-53; John 1:11; 12:37-38; Acts 3:13-15), some welcomed Him and supported His ministry and were actively involved in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself enjoyed the hospitality of many people who loved Him: for instance, the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-2); at the home of Matthew the tax Collector, who was also called Levi (Matthew 9:10; Mark 2:15; Luke 5:29); at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus (Luke 10:38-39; John 11:1-5; 12:1-3); Simon the leper (Matthew 26:6-7; Mark 14:3; Luke 7:37-38); a group of women who followed Him from Galilee supported Jesus and His disciples materially out of their own means, as it is mentioned in the Scripture:

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means (Luke 8:1-3)

In addition, when Jesus sent His disciples out with authority and power to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God and to heal every disease, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons (Matthew 10:1,8; Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1-2); and forgive people’s sins (Matthew 16:19; 18:18; Luke 24:47; John 20:23), He neither gave them anything materially to meet their needs for their survival nor assured them that He will arrange people to take care of their needs, rather He said:

Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house (Luke 10:3-7; also refer to Matthew 10:9-11; Luke 9:1-4)

While Gaius was appreciated by Apostle John for (i) his faithfulness to the truth and (ii) his continuous walk in the truth and (iii) his unswerving willingness to extend hospitality to all the trustworthy and reliable ministers of the gospel, especially to the traveling ministers (3 John 1:3-8); John denounced and condemned the attitude of Diotrephes for (i) his unfaithfulness to the truth, (ii) not welcoming faithful and trustworthy traveling ministers nor (iii) allowing others to welcome such traveling ministers, and (iv) spreading malicious nonsense about the ministers of the gospel (3 John 1:9-10). In the light of all the evil that is going on in society as well as among the so-called believers, John urges his dear friend Gaius (and us, now) not to imitate what is evil but to imitate what is good. Apostle Paul also talks about the idea of imitating saints in his writings: for instance, he writes to the believers in Corinth: … for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me (1 Corinthians 4:16), and again he urged the believers in Corinth to Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1), elsewhere Paul stated: … be imitators of God as dearly loved children (Ephesians 5:1). In addition, he wrote to the believers in Philippi that Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:9). Apostle Paul, once being an enemy of the gospel and now being a defender of Christian faith and a faithful follower of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Romans 8:35-39; 2 Timothy 4:6-8), can boldly say to imitate him as he imitates Christ. Apostle John admonished his dear friend Gaius not to imitate what is evil but to imitate what is good because anyone who does what is good is from God but anyone who does evil does not trust God wholeheartedly nor has he/she has seen God (3 John 1:11). John is telling this to his friend Gaius as well as to each of us because it is human tendency to imitate someone who is influential or if someone sees something different in other people’s life, they will try to imitate such people. Imitating someone for good cause is great and rewarding but the danger lies in imitating others is that if someone imitate some wrong person whose motives are wrong and hurtful, it might cause trouble to the person who is imitating as well as to everyone around them. Apostle John stated that:

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another (1 John 3:9-11)

John stated that:

We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did (1 John 2:3-6)

Remember, God created us all in His own image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7), and the Scripture states that we are all equally important to Him (Deuteronomy 10:17; Romans 2:11; John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Peter 3:18). The holy God did not separate Himself away from us but our sinful actions have separated us from Him, as prophet Isaiah stated: … your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things (Isaiah 59:1-3). Therefore, if we have failed our heavenly Father in any way, we need to ask forgiveness from Him; if have failed our dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, we need to ask forgiveness from them; if we have failed anyone who is near or far, who knows us or does not knows us, we need to ask them for their forgiveness in our life. The Lord God, who is loving and compassionate and merciful, forgave us our sins, iniquities, transgressions, trespasses and any wrong we have committed before Him in Christ Jesus (Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 43:25; 44:22; Jeremiah 31:34b; Matthew 6:14; 26:28; Romans 4:7-8; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13; 1 John 1:9). Therefore, let us not imitate what is evil but what is good because anyone who does what is good is from God and anyone who does what is evil has not seen God (3 John 1:11).

Dear friends in the Lord, as we have learned that Gaius did exceptionally good in connection with taking care of the visitors/guests who are traveling from place to place for the cause of the gospel, including the strangers who had come into his town/city (3 John 1:5-8). Gaius did hospitality theoretically and practically, which means, he practiced hospitality not only in his words but also in action/deed. He not only opened his heart and hands to help others but also he opened his house for such people who were in desperate need. We also learned about Diotrephes who neither welcomed those traveling ministers nor allowed others to welcome them. In addition, he was trying to throw out those who were willing to welcome the traveling ministers from the church, and he was intentionally spreading malicious nonsense about the trustworthy ministers of the gospel, including Apostle John (3 John 1:9-10). Apart from Gaius and Diotrephes, we also learned about Demetrius, a faithful servant of Christ, who was well spoken of by everyone, including Apostle John and other trustworthy ministers of the gospel (3 John 1:12). Like Gaius, let us love truth and walk in truth, let us love and welcome the people of God including the ministers of the gospel, let us pray for them and support their ministry in every possible way so that God’s Kingdom will be extended in our neighborhood and across the world. Like Diotrephes, many a time we take our own interests and concerns as more important than loving or caring for others or helping those who are in desperate need. Let us try our best not to do any evil in the way Diotrephes did to the believers and ministers of the gospel. According to Apostle Peter: They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness (2 Peter 2:15). Jude wrote about such people, saying: Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion (Jude 1:11; also refer to Revelation 2:14). It is high time for us to pray to God to open our spiritual eyes to see the people God would have us serve so they may know the love of Christ Jesus for them and His atoning/sacrificial death on behalf of them. Like Demetrius, let us be people of standing and well spoken of by everyone and earn a good testimony from everyone around us including our own family members, church members, neighbors, friends, colleagues, and so on. In the light of everything we have discussed above, studied or meditated upon, let us listen to what the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the words of Apostle John (3 John 1:11) and follow our Lord and Savior Jesus wholeheartedly in doing good in our relationship with our Heavenly Father as well as to everyone else around us. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!