This episode of Through the Bible delves into the little book of 3 John, exploring themes of truth, love, and faithfulness among early Christians. As Dr. McGee guides us through this epistle, we learn about Gaius’s esteemed reputation for hospitality and dedication, contrasting with the problematic tendencies of Diotrephes. The discussion highlights the necessity of adhering to truth amidst false teachings, urging believers to support those who walk in the truth and avoid those who deceive. Immerse yourself in the vibrant tapestry of first-century Christian life and discover relevant lessons for today.
How firm a foundation, ye saints, of the Lord is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. I’m Steve Schwetz, your host on this five-year journey through the whole Word of God, and we’re in the tiny book of 3 John. Now, as you know, the Bible is a book about God’s work in people’s lives throughout history. And the Apostle John wrote this letter over 50 years after he walked with Jesus. And it highlights the lives of three different people, actually three of the earliest followers of Christ, and then gives us a snapshot of what it’s like for the church at the end of the first century. To prepare us for our study, Dr. McGee recorded an introduction on the nature of man, which is the same no matter what year we’re living in. Let’s listen now and then come back together to pray. Here’s Dr. McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
So let’s take a look in the Word of God. It’s the mirror that shows man who he is. And we have that picture, by the way, given of man. It’s in the little book of James. And I want to turn to the first chapter, verse 23, for just a moment. Will you notice this? He says, for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he’s like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and immediately forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whosoever looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth in it, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. Now, the word of God is a mirror. So let’s go to the mirror today and take a look. At man, what does the Word of God really say about man? Well, one of the things that I think is important is that man had a primitive revelation from God. Many tribes have that tradition, by the way, today. And in Romans 1.20, Paul put it down, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even as eternal power and Godhead. So they’re without excuse, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither were thankful. It became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.” That’s God’s picture of mankind, the way that he began. That’s real evolution, only that’s not evolution, that’s devolution, if you please. And now, what does he say? He says, well, all are under sin. And if you turn to Romans 3.12, he says, they, that’s the human race, they’re all gone out of the way. They’re all together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Now, that’s not those back of the iron curtain or a bamboo curtain. And that’s not those that are living in what we call heathenism today. That means the sophisticated sinners in this country of ours today, they’ve all come short of the glory of God, and there’s none that doeth good. Now, that’s God’s estimation. It may not be yours, but that happens to be God’s estimation. And we had that same thing given to us in the Old Testament when recently we were studying in the little book of Micah. And you remember, Micah began the last chapter by saying, woe is me. And what was his problem? Well, he found that he was surrounded by sinners. He says, the good man is perished out of the earth. and that they may do evil with both hands earnestly.” That was the picture of mankind. And he says, the best of them is a briar. And he says, trust not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide, keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. Well, you can’t trust anybody. May I say to you, the human heart is desperately wicked, and who can know it? Now, man’s unable to save himself. The law couldn’t even save him. Now, we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth might be stopped, and that the whole world might become guilty before God. Man is unable to keep the law, you see. Man is powerless. And religion is no good. Paul had religion up to his ears. He tells us that in the third chapter of Philippians. Religion will not save. It cannot. My friend, may I say to you, you just as well take a gallon of Chanel No. 5 perfume and pour it on a pile of manure in the barnyard and think you’re going to make it sweet as to give man religion or try to reform man. Man is an incurable sinner and the only thing that can wash away his sins is the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER 02 :
Let’s pray. Father, thank you for the honest truth that we’re sinners in need of a Savior. Thank you, Lord, for loving us so much that you gave your Son to die for us. Fill us with your wisdom and knowledge through your Spirit and your Word. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. Here’s our study of 3 John on Through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
SPEAKER 01 :
Now, we’ve come to what we rather facetiously call Three-Eyed John. We said that one of the ways of dividing these epistles is done by a very fine preacher in the South years ago. I heard him talk about One-Eyed John, Two-Eyed John, Three-Eyed John. And I don’t know of a better way of remembering the epistles than than remembering them like that. And you’ll never forget it if you keep that in mind. So that we have here now three-eyed John. Now we have seen that John wrote his first epistle, and it’s the belief of many expositors now, and I say many, I probably should say some expositors, that John wrote his epistles last, not the book of Revelation. And I’m rather inclined to that viewpoint. And that means that these epistles were written close to the close of the first century, somewhere in the 90s, 90 to 100 A.D. And that’d be very difficult, I think, to date them exactly. And he wrote all three epistles last, probably very close together. I don’t think that there’s very much difference between one and the other. Now, we have seen that he has emphasized the fact that The family of God is held together by love, and that the little children are to love one another. And John makes it very clear, if they don’t, then they’re not God’s children, because children have a love for those that are in their family. That’s the normal thing even in a natural relationship down here on the earth. Now, in the second epistle, though, he put up that tremendous warning that our apostates today There are many Antichrists abroad, and there are many deceivers. And that child of God is not to love them. They’re not to be concerned with their welfare in the sense of entertaining them in their home. They actually are to keep a very close account. and make sure that those they entertain and those they support are true to the word of God. That is, they believe in the deity of Christ. They believe that he was God manifest in the flesh. John says the Word became flesh. And he had already told us the Word is God. God manifests in the flesh. God dwelling, tabernacling in human flesh. And that is the thing that is essential. And until a person believes that, of course, you don’t have a Savior. If he’s just a man, and that’s all, as this thing Jesus Christ Superstar said, he’s just a man. May I say to you, if he’s just a man, we don’t have a Savior. And there’s no reason to remember his birth. There’s no reason to remember his death or his resurrection if he’s just a man. It’s all important that we recognize that he was God manifest in the flesh and that his work on the cross was a work. that has power to save us, and that there is power in the blood because of who he is and the fact that he died and rose again and that he rose bodily. And therefore, those who deny that They are not to be extended, the fellowship of the church or the support of the church. And John went so far in the last epistle, he says that if you even bid him Godspeed, that would mean you’d help him on his way, give him support. then you’re partaker of his evil deeds, that you are a partner with him. Therefore, it behooves the child of God to know who he supports. Now, we come to the third epistle, and there is a similarity. This letter is similar to John’s second epistle in some ways. First of all, in that it’s personal in character, very personal. And it carries the same theme of truth. Truth now, again, is all important. In fact, when truth and love come in conflict, truth must survive. That means the false teacher, you’re not to love him. And love means to have a concern and support. That’s the way love is expressed. It’s walking in love or walking in the truth. Well, walking in the truth is all important. Now, however this letter differs other ways, it deals with personalities. And we’re going to see that in just a moment. And in the second epistle, John says that truth is worth standing for. Now, in this third epistle, he’s going to say that truth is worth working for. Someone has put it like this, my life and God. My life in God, that’s salvation. My life with God, that is communion and fellowship. But my life for God is service. So that in this epistle, it is my life for God. And it has to do with walking and working in the truth. And that is all important. Love can become very sloppy. And it can become misdirected. And it can be certainly misunderstood. Now, the letter here is addressed, by the way, to a believer in the early church by the name of Gaius. And Gaius was a beloved brother in the church. In fact, the matter is, I think here about four times calls him Beloved, he is a beloved brother, the one that John knew and John loved him in the Lord. And he writes now the letter to this brother. And he apparently is in some local church. And here he commands Gaius and urges him to extend hospitality to the true teachers of the word. And Gaius had that reputation that he did that. In other words, he was not only walking in love, he’s walking in the truth because it was only the true teachers that he supported. Then we’re going to meet another brother here by the name of Diotrephes. And he was one in the same church with Gaius who loved to have the preeminence. You’ve probably met Diotrephes. There’s one in most churches, the fellow who likes to have the preeminence. And then there is the third brother here, Demetrius. And he is another wonderful Christian. He has good report of all men and of the truth itself. And you see, men here are judged in their relationship to the truth. And that is very important to see. Now, the thing that we have here that John… expresses to him here as we’re going to see a wish. He says, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth. And apparently Gaius was a brother that was not in good health. at all. But even with that handicap, why, he had entertained these itinerant Bible teachers in that day, and as we said last time, that there were going around many of them in that day teaching the Word of God and doing missionary work. And Gaius had entertained them, but he was not only a large-hearted man, not only did he walk in love, but he walked in truth, and he tested them and in spite of his bad health, why he was able to be very active in this. So that he’s the first man that we look at here, and I think if we’ll take a look at him, why it will tell us actually more about this very wonderful epistle. However, I took years ago in a sermon, I preached a sermon on the subject, you will find them in the yellow pages. And I took two men out of here. And the reason that I did take out of here Diotrephes and Demetrius, and I put with him Demas, by the way, that Paul spoke about in Colossians 4, 14. He had been a fellow laborer with Paul, but He had gone back. He loved the world. And he had departed from Paul. So that actually, you have mentioned here, and I put together in the sermon, of course, three that each one began with a D. Demas, Diotrephes, and Demetrius. Well, I probably should have put Gaius in there. And if it had been Gaius, I’m sure I would have put it in. But he’s the first one mentioned here. And you would have two wonderful saints in the church. And you’d have two that are not so wonderful. In fact, they’re the very opposite. And this shows you at the close of the first century how believers made out. How were they holding out? Did they all become martyrs? Were they all paragons of virtue? Were they all worthy followers of Christ? Were they in turn worthy examples of the faith? Now, the millions who turned to Christ in the first three centuries, how did the average believer turn out? Well, you would have two that are outstanding men of God. And you’d have two that were not outstanding, but they were not standing at all. They were doing anything but standing for the truth. And you find them, I would say, in the Yellow Pages of the Roman Empire. That is, if you could get hold of the book of the first century, you’d probably find really these four men. I’m just bringing in Demas here, but Diotrephes and Demetrius are mentioned in this epistle. And in the Yellow Pages, you know, today, due to modern advertising methods, they Tell you, you can find it in the Yellow Pages. Doesn’t make any difference whether you want to purchase anything from an artvard to a zebra, from an atom splitter to a zemometer, or a bacchus to a zygote. You can find them in the Yellow Pages. Well, here in the Word of God, you can find two men that ought to be in the Yellow Pages because they were yellow. And you have one man or two men that really stood for the faith of God. Now, I’m not talking about Demas at all. Paul could say, he hath forsaken me. What a tragic note. What an awful thing to have to be said of Demas. He was a professing Christian, not a genuine Christian. But now we come here to this third epistle of John, and we’re talking about Gaius. And I’m reading now the first verse about Gaius. And we’re told the elder. And again, John adopts the term elder. And it could refer as to his age. And he was in his 90s at this time. And certainly, he was a presbyter, an elder in that sense as to age. He certainly was a senior citizen at this time. And also, it speaks of an officer that was in the early church. And certainly, he could claim that. He could have claimed more. He could have said, I’m an apostle. But he doesn’t do that. He’s a friend. You don’t write that way to your friend. At least the friends I write to that are very personal, I write to several fellas I was in school with. They’re old men now. I’m the only one that’s managed to stay young, but they’ve gotten old. I call each one of them by name. A first name. And when I sign my name, I don’t sign my name like I sign it to the letters I write to you. I don’t mention the word doctor at all to those fellows. They laugh at me. I sign my name Vernon or Mac. I was called Mac when I was in college and seminary. And I go by that appellation. And so I just sign that way. And John’s writing to some personal friends in these last two epistles that he wrote. And he just says, he’s the elder unto the well-beloved Gaius. And I love that. Here is a saint in the early church. He was well-beloved. loved him, whom I love in the truth. Now, immediately we’re told that Gaius was sound in doctrine. Gaius accepted the deity of Christ. Gaius is a man that stood for the truth. And he not only stood for the truth, but he worked for the truth. And that, of course… means that here is a man that walked and worked in love. He manifested that. You’ve got to think right if you’re going to act right. That’s true, I think, in any sphere today. Now we go on, and I come back to verse 2, which I mentioned before, and we read it again. Beloved, again, John… evidently thought a great deal of him. John was very close to him. John says to him, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. Now, very frankly, he makes it very clear that he wants him to prosper, not only financially, Not only materially, and this man apparently was a man of means, but he says, I want you to prosper in your health. Apparently he was not a well man. And that you might prosper also in his soul, that he might grow spiritually, you see. There are a lot of Christians today that they are actually sick spiritually, but they’ve got good health physically. But they have pretty bad health spiritually. And it’s certainly well for a child of God to have both. Good health physically is wonderful to have. And many of us didn’t appreciate it until we lost it. But good health spiritually. By the way, we called attention to this back in 1 Peter, that what health is to the body Holiness is to the spiritual life of the believer, healthy spiritually. That is holiness, growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. And so the graciousness of Gaius and his walk in the truth. And many of these traveling evangelists and missionaries of that day reported to John. They said, my, I tell you, when you go to the church where Gaius is one of the leaders in the church, very wonderful man. He’s not only a man of means, but very generous man. I was entertained in his home. Now, you see, in that day, they… Didn’t put them in a Howard Johnson or a Ramada Inn because there wasn’t any. Now, I believe if there’d been one, that’s where they would have put them. But the custom in that day was when a man came to town, generally the little inn was a flea-bitten place. Dirty and many times a very sinful place. And some of our motels and hotels have become that way today, as you well know. Now, he also can say something else concerning him. And I’m just going to read part of verse 3. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. Now, I can’t go into that today, but as we have seen, this was the testimony that other brethren gave concerning him. This was their judgment of him. This is a wonderful man. Now, we’re going to get into this epistle where actually John will really peel the skin off of us. He’s really going to peel the bark. And he may not touch you, but he’s sure going to touch me. But we’ll get to that next time. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 02 :
I don’t know about you, but I want to follow Gaius’ steps in the way that he loved God by loving people. We look into more first century lives as we continue in our study of 3 John. To go deeper, Dr. McGee’s notes and outlines for 3 John and all of the books of our five-year study are available in our app or in our digital book, Briefing the Bible. You can download it for free anytime at ttb.org. And while you’re there, be sure to check out Dr. McGee’s free booklet download, God So Loved. It’s based on John 3.16. This favorite booklet will challenge and stretch your understanding of the heights, depths, width, and length of God’s love for each one of us. Again, these great titles are some of the many free resources that we’ve got available anytime for you in our app or at ttb.org. Or call us, 1-800-65-BIBLE, if we can help you find them. And if you don’t already have our fantastic app, by the way, find it in your favorite app store. The Bible Bus continues our journey through 3 John. Next time, I’m Steve Schwartz, and I’ll be here saving a seat just for you.
SPEAKER 03 :
All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
SPEAKER 02 :
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