Reading
3 JOHN 1:2-12
2 Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit. 3 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. 4 I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.
5 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. 6They have told the church here of your loving friendship. Please continue providing for such teachers in a manner that pleases God. 7 For they are traveling for the Lord, and they accept nothing from people who are not believers. 8 So we ourselves should support them so that we can be their partners as they teach the truth.
9 I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refuses to have anything to do with us. 10 When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the evil accusations he is making against us. Not only does he refuse to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church.
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.
12 Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, as does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we speak the truth.
Reflection
- Look back at the three people John speaks about in this passage.
- How does John describe/address Gaius (the friend)?
- How does John describe/address Diotrephes?
- How does John speak of Demetrius?
- John writes to encourage Gaius in the ministry he’s doing and the level of hospitality they show to Gentiles.
- What are characteristics of Christ-like hospitality?
- Think personal ministry—what are ways you can show hospitality to others?
- As you finish reading today, take a few minutes to pray.
- Pray and thank God for people like Gaius—someone who is steadfast in faith and selfless in how they lead people.
- Pray and thank God for John—for using John as a messenger to help us be holy, help us be accountable for our life we live, and show us a way we should live as brothers and sisters in Christ.
- Pray for God to work in you and through you—to help you be holy and communicate to others the gift of grace we have received.