Walking in the Truth

3 John

Favoritism is regularly prohibited in the New Testament.  How strange, then, that in his third letter John commends one member of his congregation while condemning another.  Gaius, the recipient of the letter, gets top grades from John for welcoming and accommodating traveling Christians.  Then there’s Diotrophes.  According to John, Diotrophes:

“likes to be first”;

“spreads malicious nonsense”;

“refuses to welcome other believers”.

Not very charitable of John to parade Diotrephes’ faults - not only to Gaius, but to the whole church in perpetuity. 

But look: the point isn’t that Gaius is good and Diotrephes is bad.  Or even that John likes one and dislikes the other.  John’s goal in writing each of his letters is to establish what it means to have true faith in Jesus Christ, and what it looks like to have a life transformed by faith in Christ.  

In his address to Gaius John says,

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

For John, “walking in the truth” is most evident in love – not just for friends and family members, but also for neighbors and strangers.  In the early church, love was made concrete through the ethic of hospitality: feeding and clothing people in need; expanding one’s table to include visitors and newcomers; and providing accommodations for traveling Christians.  These were the indicators that the love of Jesus had really made its way into the heart of a believer and become the heart of a believing community.  John has to point out that some in his church have caught on, and some are still learning.  It’s his job as church leader to honestly assess how his students are progressing on the journey toward Christlikeness. 

Those of us aspiring to be followers of Jesus Christ need to evaluate our progress.  The best indication is not our knowledge of the Bible or our theological insight.  It’s how well our lives demonstrate the love of Jesus.  “Walking in the truth”, in our case as in John’s first century congregation, is this: embracing visitors and newcomers; feeding the hungry; befriending the friendless; making more space at our tables; making room for people who need a place to rest.  Not just opening our minds to the truth, but opening our lives to people who need to experience it.