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Becoming Fellow Workers for the Truth (3 John) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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It is good to have you with us again.
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We are glad you are here. Great to be back.
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Today we are shifting our gaze a little.
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Usually when the church talks about missions, the spotlight is
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it's firmly fixed on the person who's leaving.
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Right, the hero. The hero.
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You know the type. The biographies of these
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spiritual giants who hacked through jungles, learned
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unwritten languages, face down all kinds of peril to plant
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churches. And we love those stories.
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We do. They stir something in US, but
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today we're flipping the camera angle.
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We aren't looking at the person going down into the pit, we're
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looking at the person standing at the top.
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That is a very specific image you've conjured up.
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There it is, and I cannot claim credit for it.
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It actually comes from one of the most famous accounts in
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missions history, which we're going to use to kick this all
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off. OK, But before we get there, I
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should probably set the stage. We're opening up a chapter from
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the book Biblical Missions, Principles, Priorities and
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Practices, specifically a section written by Mark Tatlock
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and Chris Burnett titled Holding the Rope.
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And as always on Reformed thinking, we're looking at this
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through our particular theological framework,
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Protestant Reformed Confessional.
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We believe that theology dictates practice.
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What we believe about God, well, it determines how we open our
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wallets. And that distinction is going to
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be critical today because we're talking about money, we're
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talking about support, the structure of how the Great
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Commission actually gets funded. The touchy subjects.
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It can be, and it's so easy to be pragmatic about it, You know,
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just get the cash over. You can.
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But the Reformed tradition and more importantly, Scripture
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itself, gives us a very specific blueprint for this.
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It is not a free for all. So let's get to that hook I
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mentioned, the year 1793. The man is William Carey, often
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called the father of modern missions, a giant, a giant.
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And he's preparing to go to India, a place that at the time
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was incredibly hostile to the gospel and just physically
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dangerous for Westerners. He's meeting with his close
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friends, the people who are going to stay behind in England.
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These were the heffy weights of his circle.
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Andrew Fuller, John Ryland and Carrie says this famous line.
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He says I will go down, but remember that you must hold the
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ropes. It is a haunting image, really.
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Carrie is using the analogy of a mine, right?
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If you're being lowered into a dark, deep mine shaft to extract
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precious stones, or in this case precious souls, you are entirely
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helpless. Utterly.
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Your gravity, your supply line, your exit strategy, it is all in
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the hands of the person standing at the top holding that rope.
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And if the person at the top gets bored or distracted or
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decides they'd rather use their energy for something?
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Else then the person in the mind dies, or at the very least the
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work fails completely. So that's the premise we're
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working with today, the idea that God does not call everyone
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to be a goer. We're not all wired to learn 3
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languages, move to a different climate, and plant churches.
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That is a specific calling. Specific calling, but, and this
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is the key from our source material, God does equip every
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Christian for ministry, every single one.
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And for some, that equipping is specifically in the marketplace.
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Right. And this is what I love about
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this perspective. It validates the business
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person, it validates the entrepreneur.
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It says, hey, your ability to generate income isn't just a
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secular skill. God gave you that marketplace
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ability so you could be a rope holder.
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That is spot on. So for this deep dive, we're
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going to open up a tiny book of the Bible that often gets
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overlooked. Third John.
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So short you could miss it. You could, but it's essentially
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a training manual for rope holders.
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It's a letter from the Apostle John to a man named Gaius.
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We don't know much about Gaius, but we know he was a fateful
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rope holder. And John gives him, and by
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extension US, three requirements for how to do this job well.
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And they are pray for missions, sustain missions, and be
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discerning about missions. OK, let's unpack this
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requirement #1 pray for missions.
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Now I know what you might be thinking.
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Obviously, we pray for missions. That's basic.
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Of course. But Jen does something really
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interesting in the opening verses of this letter.
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He connects prayer to well to prosperity.
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He does, and we need to be careful here, because as soon as
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we hear prayer for prosperity, our theological alarm bells
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start ringing. Oh, they go off immediately.
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We think of the televangelist on a private jet telling you to sow
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a seed to get a Cadillac. That is not what is happening
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here. But look at the text verses 2
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through 4. John writes to Gaius.
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I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good
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health just as your soul prospers.
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So he is explicitly praying for his physical health and his
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financial success. No ambiguity.
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None. Yes, the Greek word there is you
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duo. It appears four times in the New
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Testament and it literally means to be let along a good road or
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to have a successful trip. And in a financial context.
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In a financial context, it means business success.
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It means things are going well, your ventures are succeeding.
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But notice the grammar, right? Our notes highlight something
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about the voice of the verb here.
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That's a keen observation. It's in the passive voice and
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this is significant. It implies that the prosperity
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isn't self generated. So Gaius isn't manifesting his
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own destiny. Not at all.
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God is the active agent. God is the 1 causing the
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prosperity. John is praying that God would
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bless Gaius's business affairs and his physical body.
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OK, so why? I mean this is the big question.
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If we aren't preaching a health and wealth gospel where God
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wants everyone to be rich for their own comfort, why is the
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Apostle John praying for this guy to get richer and healthier?
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Context is everything. It always is.
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We have to look at the logic of the letter John is writing to a
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man who is already walking in the truth.
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We see that in verse 3. Yes, verse 3 tells us John is
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overjoyed because people keep coming back and reporting on
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Gaius's faithfulness so we know what guys does with his
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resources. He's funding missionaries.
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Exactly. He's funding them, he's housing
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them, he's feeding them. So John prays for guys to
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prosper so that he can continue to support the work.
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It's a means to an end. So it's instrumental wealth.
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It's wealth with a mission. Precisely.
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Think about First Corinthians 16.2.
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Paul tells the church to set aside money as he may prosper,
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and he uses a form of that same Greek word, yeah, uodutai, to
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help the church in Jerusalem. So it's the same.
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Logic. Identical logic.
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God gives you marketplace success so that you have the
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resources to advance the Great Commission.
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If Gaius gets sick or if his business fails, the missionaries
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he supports suffer. The rope gets frayed.
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The rope gets frayed, maybe it even snaps.
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So John prays God keep him healthy, keep his business
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booming because the Kingdom needs his rope holding ability.
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That completely changes how you view your job, doesn't it?
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If you're a listener working in finance or tech or construction
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or whatever, it is right? You aren't just working to pay
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your mortgage, you are working to fill the supply lines for the
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front. Your job has a direct Kingdom
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purpose. Changes how we pray for our
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friends in the church who are successful in business.
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Do we pray for their business success?
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We absolutely should. Not so they can buy a bigger
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boat, but so they can hold the road more securely.
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John's joy, he says. I have no greater joy than to
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hear that my children walk in. The truth is linked directly to
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this. How so?
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He sees Gaius using his resources for the truth, and he
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says Lord, give him more resources because I know where
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they're going to go. It creates this beautiful
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ecosystem. The goer needs the sender, The
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sender needs God's blessing in the marketplace.
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And all of it, every part of it, is for the sake of the truth.
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That is the theology of prosperity in a nutshell.
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Reformed style. It is not prosperity for self
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indulgence, it is prosperity for the sake of the name.
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Let's move to the second requirement John lays out.
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It's not just praying, it's actively sustaining missions.
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This is in verses 5 through 8, and John uses a very specific
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word to describe what Gaius is doing.
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He calls it work. Right verse 5 beloved, you're
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acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren.
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That word for accomplish or do is arrogism.
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I and. That's not a light word.
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No, it's a heavy word. It implies toil.
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It implies sweat and real effort.
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It's the same word used in the Greek Old Testament for Adam
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cultivating the ground in the garden, right?
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Yes, Genesis 2 Hard physical labor and Paul uses it in
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Thessalonians when he talks about working with his hands.
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So the point is that supporting missions isn't a passive hobby.
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It's not just clicking a donate button once a month.
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That's part of it, sure, but it's more the way Gaius was
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doing it involved active hospitality.
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These missionaries were strangers to him.
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He didn't know them personally. Which is an amazing detail.
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It is, but he took them in. He brought them into his home.
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And we have to remember in the 1st century, hospitality was not
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just having someone over for coffee.
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This was a major undertaking. A.
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Huge undertaking, you know. There were no Holiday Inns.
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Roadside Inns were dangerous, they were dirty and they often
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doubled his brothels. Not a place you want a messenger
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of the gospel staying. Not at all.
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So if a Christian missionary was traveling from city to city,
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they relied entirely on the network of believers.
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When Gaius received them, he was washing their feet, feeding
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them, giving them a safe bed, probably feeding their animals
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if they had them. It was real physical work.
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And our source material makes a massive theological point here.
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It says that receiving them is like receiving the Lord Himself.
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Yes, that connects directly back to Jesus's teaching.
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He who receives you, receives me, Right when Guy has opened
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his home to these strangers, he wasn't just being nice.
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He wasn't just being a good host.
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He was engaging in a theological act.
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He was sustaining the messengers of the King.
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And by sustaining the messenger, he becomes a partner in the
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message. He becomes a partner.
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It is a good work, as Jesus says in Matthew 5, that glorifies the
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Father. So we have the nature of the
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work. It's active.
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It's laborious. But then John talks about the
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manner of the work, how we should do it, and this is where
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it gets really convicting for me.
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Verse 6 You will do well to send them on their way in a manner
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worthy of God. That phrase just stops you in
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your tracks. Doesn't it?
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It does. In a manner worthy of God.
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What does that even mean practically?
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How do you do something in a manner worthy of God?
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Well, let's look at the Greek again.
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The word for send them on their way is propempo.
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It means to help someone forward to their destination.
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It's almost a technical term for outfitting a traveler in the
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ancient world. You didn't just wave goodbye at
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the door. You packed them a lunch for the
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road. You gave them money for the next
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leg of the trip. You might even walk with them
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for a few miles to ensure they were safe.
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You're setting them up for success.
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OK, so that's the sending, but the standard is what gets me
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worthy of God. The word for well or worthy
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there is Carlos. It implies a high standard of
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excellence, of beauty, of quality.
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It's the same root word Jesus uses when he calls himself the
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Calo shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the excellent shell.
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OK, that adds a lot of weight. It does.
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So think about it this way. If Jesus Christ himself showed
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up at your door on his way to the next town to preach, how
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would you pack his bag? Would you give him your leftover
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sandwich from yesterday? Would you give him a tattered
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coat you were planning to throw away, or would you give him the
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absolute best you had? You would give him the absolute
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best, no question. You would empty the bank account
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if you had to. That is the standard.
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That's what John is saying. Because these missionaries
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represent God, because they carry his name, we must treat
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them as we would treat God Himself.
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The authors of our source material put it very bluntly.
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We cannot give missionaries tattered leftovers.
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Treating missionaries like beggars insults God's name
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because they are his emissaries. Ouch.
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That hits home. I mean, how often do we see
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mission support as charity? You know, here's a little bit of
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what I have leftover at the end of the month, right?
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Spare change? Or we donate our old clothes to
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the Missions fund drive. John says no.
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If you are a marketplace Christian who has been prospered
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by God, you are obligated to provide high quality care
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excellence. It totally challenges the
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poverty mentality regarding missions.
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There is this weird idea in some church circles that missionaries
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should be poor, that if they are struggling somehow, they're more
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spiritual. Yeah.
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That it's more noble, right? 3rd John just destroys that
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idea. The sender's job The rope
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holder's job is to ensure the goer is fully supplied,
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comfortable and cared for so they can focus on the work.
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Because their work is hard enough as it is.
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Incredibly hard. If we send them out poorly
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equipped, we aren't saving money, we are dishonouring the
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one who sent them. We're telling the world that our
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God is a cheap God. So we pray for prosperity so we
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can give. We work hard to sustain them.
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We send them with excellence. But why?
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I think section four of our outline digs into the theology
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of funding. Why do we do this?
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John gives 3 reasons and verses 7 and 8.
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And this is where the Reformed worldview really provides a ton
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of clarity. The first reason is in verse 7,
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for they went out for the sake of the name.
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Capital and name. Yes, the name of Jesus.
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That is the Christological motivation.
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These people aren't building their own brand.
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They aren't trying to become famous authors or influencers or
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get a big following. They're not.
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Building a platform. No, they're going out to make
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the name of Jesus known in places where it isn't known.
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And John says that singular focus is sufficient reason for
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the church to underwrite all their expenses.
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If they are about his business, we support them.
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Period. That's the positive reason.
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But then comes the negative reason, and this is fascinating
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to me. Verse 7 continues receiving
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nothing from the Gentiles. This is a policy statement.
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Huge. Yeah.
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The early missionaries refused to take money from the very
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people they were trying to evangelize.
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And the question is why? Was it some kind of pride, like
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we don't need your Pagan money? No.
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It wasn't pride, it was theology.
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Deep theology. Think about Ephesians 2.1.
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The Reformed doctrine of total depravity reminds us that
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unbelievers, the Gentiles in this context, are dead in
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trespasses and sins. They're spiritually dead.
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Spiritually dead they cannot please God, and in their
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deadness, how do they think about religion?
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They think transactionally. Exactly.
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I do something for the gods. The gods do something for me.
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I give the God money or a sacrifice.
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The God gives me rain or a good harvest.
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That's how all Pagan religion works.
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OK, I see where this is going. If the missionaries took money
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from the pagans, it would completely confuse the message
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of grace. It might suggest that the gospel
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can be bought or that the listener contribute something to
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their own salvation. That salvation isn't free.
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Right. But the gospel is free.
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It is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone to
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protect that message, to guard the purity of grace.
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The missionaries had to say, no, we are giving this to you.
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You do not pay for it. That puts a massive burden on
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the church, then an incredible burden.
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It does. It absolutely does.
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If the funding cannot come from the outside, it must come from
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the inside. It creates a closed loop, a
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self-sustaining system. The Church funds the mission so
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the world can receive the gospel of grace without charge.
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And if the church doesn't hold the rope?
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Then the missionary either starves or has to compromise the
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message by asking unbelievers for help, which muddies the
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witness. It creates confusion about the
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very nature of God and salvation.
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So refusing money from unbelievers is actually a way of
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preaching the gospel. It's a non verbal sermon.
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You are. Correct.
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That's a great way to put it. It testifies that our God is not
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a God who needs to be bribed. His people supply his work.
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That leads to the third reason in verse 8.
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Therefore, we ought to support such men so that we may be
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fellow workers with the truth. There is that word ought ofelu
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in Greek, and it means a debt, a duty.
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We owe it to them. It is not optional.
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It's not a suggestion. It is not charity, it is a moral
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obligation. It's the same word used when
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Jesus said we ought to wash one another's feet.
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It's what Paul used when he said husbands ought to love their
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wives. So it's in that category of
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moral imperatives. It is we ought to support
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missionaries and look at the reward.
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It's incredible we do this so that we may be fellow workers
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with the truth. The Greek is Synergos.
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I love that term Synergos. We get our word synergy from it.
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We do, we work together. The donor who makes the money in
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the marketplace and gives it to the missionary is essentially
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preaching the sermon alongside them.
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You are a Co laborer in the truth.
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The person in the mind cannot dig without the person on the
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rope. They are one unit doing one job.
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There's no hierarchy. That elevates the role of the
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donor so much. You aren't just a checkbook, you
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are a partner. You are in the trenches with
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them, just in a different way. But.
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And here's the pivot in the letter.
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Not everyone who claims to be in the church is a faithful rope
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holder. Right.
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We've seen the model Gaius. He's the hero of the story.
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But every good story has a villain.
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And three John has a distinct villain.
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It does a man named Diatrephes. And Diatrephes is a scary figure
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because he is inside the church. He is likely a leader, maybe an
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elder or a wealthy influential patron.
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But John warns Gaius about him. This brings us to the third
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requirement for rope holders B Discerning.
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You have to know who to support and who to watch out for.
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What was Diatrophy's problem? Was he just stingy?
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Was it a money thing? It was much deeper than that.
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Verse 9 gives us the root of the issue.
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He loves to be first. He loves to be first.
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He loved preeminence. Ah, the ego pride.
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It always comes back to pride, doesn't it?
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Gaius was serving others. Diatrophus was serving himself,
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and because he wanted to be the main character in his church, he
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saw the missionaries not as partners but as threats.
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Threats to his authority. Exactly.
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He didn't want outside influence, He didn't want anyone
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else getting attention or loyalty from the congregation.
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He wanted to be the man. The outline lists 4 specific
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charges against him. It's quite a rap sheet.
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It is a terrible one. First, he was a slanderer.
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He was spreading malicious gossip about John and the
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apostles, trying to undermine their authority to boost his his
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own. So he's attacking the
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messengers. Attacking the messengers.
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Second, he refused to receive the missionaries.
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He just shut the door in their faces.
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No hospitality, no support, total rejection.
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That is bad enough. I mean it.
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Just doing that is contrary to the gospel.
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But he didn't stop there, did he?
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No, this is where it gets even darker.
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Third, he actively prevented others in the church from
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supporting them. So if you were a faithful
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Christian in that church, a guy is type, and you wanted to bring
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a missionary home for dinner, diatrophies would stop you.
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He'd use his influence to block you.
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And 4th, the final nail in the coffin.
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Excommunication. He expelled those who defied
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him. He was kicking people out of the
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church, out of the fellowship of believers, just for trying to
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hold the rope. That is heavy.
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He is a rope cutter. That is the perfect term.
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Gaius is a rope holder. Diatrophies is a rope cutter.
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He's actively, maliciously obstructing the Great
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Commission. And notice the theological
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verdict John gives. He doesn't just say he's a
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difficult person, he goes much. Further, he does.
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He says in verse 11 the one who does good is of God.
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The one who does evil has not seen God.
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He is questioning dietrify salvation.
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He's saying his actions are evidence that he doesn't
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actually know God. Because his actions prove he
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doesn't care about the name. He cares about his name.
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Correct. If you love the name of Jesus,
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you love the people who go out for the name.
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If you block them, if you slander them, if you refuse
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them, you are showing that you don't really love the name.
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You are mining in a different trench, the trench of self
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glory. So the warning for us today is
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to discern who we are following and who we are becoming.
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Are we a Gaius or are we a diotrophes?
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And to look at our church leaders, it's a call to
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evaluate. Are they facilitating missions?
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Are they championing the cause? Are they encouraging the body to
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hold the rope, or are they maybe subtly blocking it to focus
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resources on their own little Kingdom?
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And John gives us a third character, Demetrius, in verse
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12. He's a counterexample to
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Diotrephes. He has a good witness from
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everyone. John just says imitate what is
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good, imitate him. It really simplifies things in a
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way. Imitate the good, watch out for
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the bad, support the truth. It sounds simple, but it
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requires constant vigilance. The church naturally drifts
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towards self preservation. It's the default mode.
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It drifts toward being a diotrophies, focusing on our
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building, our programs, our local reputation, our comfort.
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It takes a conscious spirit LED effort to be a Gaius, to look
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outward and say I will use my prosperity, my time, my home to
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fund the work out there. So bringing this all together,
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we have this picture of the mine, we have the goer, the
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missionary in the trench facing danger, totally dependent, and
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we have the sender, the rope holder.
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And the sender is not a second class citizen in the Kingdom.
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I think that's the big take away for me.
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The sender's role is not less spiritual or less important.
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Not at all. The sender is equipped by God
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with marketplace skills to generate the resources necessary
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for the work. It's a specific, vital spiritual
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calling. I think about the listeners
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right now. Maybe you're an accountant,
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maybe you own a small business, maybe you're climbing the
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corporate ladder. And sometimes you feel guilty
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that you aren't in ministry in the traditional sense.
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That's a common feeling. This text says you are in
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ministry. Your desk is your mission
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station. Your profit margin is your tool
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for the Great Commission. That's right, if you are praying
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for prosperity to give. If you are sustaining
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missionaries with excellence, not leftovers, and if you are
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discerning enough to ignore the rope cutters, you are holding
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the rope for William Carey. You are holding the rope for the
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Apostle Paul. You are a fellow worker with the
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truth. It's a high and holy calling.
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It creates A tremendous corporate responsibility.
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We can't let the rope slip. The church as a body has to grip
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it tightly. You can't.
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If we let go, we fail the name and that is what matters most.
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Everything is for the sake of the name.
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I want to leave us with a thought from the end of our
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outline. It's a bit of a provocative
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question to chew on. We read about diotrophies and he
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is loud. He is kicking people out, he is
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slandering. He's very obvious.
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But the text notes that we never hear his defense.
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He is just silenced by the truth of the epistle.
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But today, diotrophes might look different.
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He might be quieter. That's right, he might not be
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screaming and kicking people out of the building today.
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The spirit of zaiotrophies might look like a church that silently
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prioritizes its own empire over the global need.
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A church that spends millions on a new sanctuary or a
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state-of-the-art sound system, but cuts the missions budget.
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Or a church that is obsessed with its local reputation and
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with being first in the community, but ignores the
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strangers going out for the name because that work is messy and
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far away and doesn't get you good press at home.
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Exactly. The final question, then, is are
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we holding the rope or have we quietly, maybe without even
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realizing it, let it slip to focus on our own comfort?
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Are we building monuments to ourselves or supply lines for
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the gospel? That is the question 3 John
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forces us to ask, and the answer is found in your checkbook and
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your prayer list. Thank you for joining us on this
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deep dive into 3 John. It's a short letter, only a few
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verses, but man it packs a punch.
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It really does. I encourage you to open your
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Bible and read it again with this lens.
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Read it as a manual for rope holders.
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And ask God how He wants you to use your prosperity, your
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skills, your home for His name. Thanks for listening to Reformed
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Thinking. We will catch you next time.