How many of you just love to participate in fundraisers? Maybe you were that kid in school who always sold 200 pounds of chocolate for the band trip or the new basketball uniforms. I would guess that most people get pretty uncomfortable asking others for money, even if they’re raising money for a good cause that they really believe in. Many of us feel uncomfortable talking about money in any setting, let alone when we have to ask people for some kind of contribution (you can relax—we’re not starting a fundraising campaign!).
I want you to imagine yourself as a missionary, traveling around (quite often) to church after church after church, asking people to contribute to your ministry. That wouldn’t be a really fun process, would it? You might start to feel like you did when you were in school, knocking on door after door trying to sell cookie dough or frozen pizzas.
Well, I hope we will see today that we can make the support-raising side of missions so much easier if we will take to heart what John has to teach us in the first part of 3 John. I believe we will see that partnering with a missionary is about so much more than a financial transaction—its ultimately about the outworking of a relationship of Christian love. This morning we’ll focus on this lesson from John:
Loving others in truth involves rejoicing over those who walk in the truth and supporting those who proclaim the truth.
Follow along with me in your Bible as I read 3 John 1:1–8 [READ 1:1–8].
Now let’s think about our main idea in two parts.
I. Loving others in truth involves rejoicing over those who walk in the truth (vv. 1–4)
In a moment we’ll see that this kind of love should overflow into support for those who proclaim the truth, but we should note that we can have this kind of joy over anyone we know who is living for God, whether they are missionaries or not. Now in these first four verses, John makes two points to help us think about the way that we love other Christians.
a. We should be concerned about each other’s overall well-being (v. 2)
John is a model for us through his loving concern for Gaius’s entire life. In v. 2 he writes, [READ v. 2]. John had heard that Gaius was doing very well spiritually, and he expresses his prayer that the rest of Gaius’s life would prosper in the same way.
This verse is an important reminder for us that to love someone with Christian love means that we will be concerned about the entire person, not just their spiritual well-being. We are reminded many times in the New Testament that Christian love should lead us to meet the practical needs of our fellow Christians as they arise. John himself wrote in 1 John 3:17, “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” So we can’t say that we’re truly demonstrating the love of God if we are not concerned about a person’s physical needs and the other aspects of their life.
Then in vv. 3–4, John writes about a tremendous source of joy that we can have as Christians
b. We should rejoice as others live according to God’s truth (vv. 3–4)
John said in v. 3 that he “rejoiced greatly” when he heard some others believers report Gaius’s obedience to God’s truth. Then he states in v. 4 that there is nothing that makes him happier than to hear that his children are walking in the truth (by children he probably means spiritual children—those who came to believe through his ministry or those who were under his spiritual care).
As I thought about John’s words this week, I found his example here to be a very convicting one. As I thought about the things that bring me joy in life, I had to ask myself, “do I come very close to John’s example?” He said that he has no greater joy than hearing about the obedience of other believers—can I really say that that idea tops my list? Do you think you can say that in your own life?
I started to get a little convicted when I thought about the way that I rejoice when my favorite sports teams win. I know that’s not the same as hearing that someone is obeying God’s truth, but why am I so visibly joyful when my team wins, yet my joy isn’t always so noticeable when someone takes a step of obedience for God?
Friends, if you feel like you need more joy in your life, here’s the source right here! We can learn to celebrate when others take a step of obedience. I think we find it far too easy to obsess over the things that will steal our joy—like the weather or politics. Why don’t we ask God to help us obsess over encouraging each other to take steps of obedience, and then we can celebrate when we see those steps taken.
Now one reason in particular that John was rejoicing over the report about Gaius was that Gaius had been supporting those who were serving as Christian missionaries. This overflow of love is the second point in our main idea this morning.
II. Loving others in truth involves supporting those who proclaim the truth (vv. 5–8)
When we look at vv. 5–8, we find that Gaius had already been providing help to Christian missionaries, and now John is asking to keep up the good work. In fact, this letter was probably delivered to Gaius by a missionary named Demetrius—who we will meet in v. 12—and John is apparently asking Gaius to support Demetrius the same way that he had supported other missionaries.
Now in these verses, John points us toward two ideas that describe what our support for missionaries should look like.
a. We should meet their needs according to God’s example (v. 6–7)
In v. 5, John commends Gaius for supporting missionaries even though they were strangers to him. They weren’t personal acquaintances, but because of their bond of love in Christ, Gaius had supported them. Now, Gaius has another opportunity to do the same with the arrival of Demetrius, who apparently had some other companions with him. So John says at the end of v. 6, “You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God,” or in other words, in the same way that God would!
Now friends, when we think about how God has provided for our needs, what one word would best describe the way that God provides for us? I think that word would have to be “generously.” Don’t start comparing yourself to others—just think about your basic needs. There isn’t a person here who couldn’t say that God has meet their basic needs generously.
So what John is saying is that we should support missionaries in the same way that God provides for us—with generosity. That, of course, flows out of a relationship of love, because that’s where true generosity flows from. Generosity is love’s echo when someone cries out in need.
So we must strive to support our missionaries generously. They should never have to feel like they are begging for the crumbs that fall from our tables—we must show them that they have a seat at our tables, that we are willing to share with them the good things that God has generously shared with us.
Then in v. 8, John describes another idea that should characterize our support for missionaries.
b. We owe it to them to partner together for the sake of the truth (v. 8)
John wrote in v. 8 [READ v. 8]. Let me focus on just a few words of this verse for a moment. First, John says we “ought” to support people like these. The Greek word that he uses tells us that we need to read the word “ought” in its strongest sense, not just as a suggestion, but as an obligation. We often hear about things that we “ought” to do, and many of them are just helpful suggestions, like “you ought to floss every day,” or “you ought to chew your food 20 times before you swallow it.”
Well, John isn’t giving us a suggestion here; he is really saying that we have an obligation to support our missionaries. We owe it to them! They have a right to count on our generous support, and we ought not withhold it from them.
John describes this partnership as becoming “fellow workers for the truth.” His wording describes us as co-workers, laboring side-by-side for the sake of God’s truth. We may not think of ourselves very often as co-workers with our missionaries because many of them live in foreign countries, and we’re not able to see them very often. But even though we may not be physically present with them, we have a very real stake in their ministry.
You can think of it like a company that you might invest in on the stock market. If you invest in a company like Microsoft, for instance, you don’t move to one of their factories and start building computers. So you may not be on site, but nevertheless, you do have a real stake in what goes on there, don’t you? You literally have some ownership in what happens with that corporation.
Well, our relationship with our missionaries is similar to that. We may not be physically present with them, but spiritually, we have a stake in their ministry, and we are co-workers with them through our support. When Paul talked about his relationship with the Philippians in Philippians 1, he described it as a “partnership in the gospel” because they had financially supported him. So in Paul’s mind, his ministry was their ministry; his ministry was just an extension of what their church was doing to spread the gospel.
So this morning as we reflect on these lessons from 3 John, I want to issue a very specific challenge to you to ask you to respond to this message. You know that I don’t often ask you to do one specific thing in response to my sermons, but sometimes I think such a challenge is good. As we have seen today, we have an obligation to generously support those whom we partner with as missionaries, so the challenge that I want to issue to you is this: decide to do one thing to deliberately lower your standard of living, then give the money you save to our missions account.
For some of you, you might be able to lower a monthly bill. Maybe you will decide that you really don’t need the super-duper cable package with 10 channels in Spanish, so maybe you can downgrade that plan and give an extra monthly donation to our missions account.
Or perhaps you can do something on a seasonal basis or an annual basis. Maybe you could decide to shorten your vacation by a day or two, or stay closer to home on your vacation, and you could give the money you save to the missions account. Or perhaps you could have a garage sale and donate that money.
Teenagers and kids, you can get in on this act, too. Teens, perhaps you will decide to limit your clothing purchases, or to limit the number of times that you run to Dodge to see a movie. Kids, maybe you could do some extra chores and earn some money that you could donate.
Now I know so many of us feel a little squeezed right now in our current economy, and it may seem like a daunting task to give another $20. But my challenge to you today really isn’t about your money—its really about your attitude. Do you remember what Jesus said about the widow who offered a very small amount of money at the Temple? He said she gave more than anyone because she gave the money that she was living on. The amount we give is irrelevant; it’s the attitude behind our giving that really matters. We need to learn the blessedness of giving not just from our surplus, but of deliberately lowering our standard of living as an act of generosity to those whom we send out as missionaries. If we send them out in the name of God, then we should provide for them in the manner of God, which is very generous indeed. So I pray that you will take my challenge to heart today and consider how you can take an extra step of generosity.
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