Three Men And A Church – Now What Is The Result? – 3rd Letter Of John Series

THREE MEN AND A CHURCH – NOW WHAT IS THE RESULT? – 3rd LETTER OF JOHN

Here are three glimpses of a church that could be any church but it is specific to the little group where Gaius was fellowshipping. We are going to look at three men mentioned in John’s letter to that church synonymous to Gaius. The start of the letter to Gaius -

[A]. AN OLD FRIEND OF JOHN’S – GAIUS

{{3John 1:1-5 “The elder to the BELOVED Gaius, WHOM I LOVE IN TRUTH - Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers, for I was very glad when brethren came and bore witness to your TRUTH, that is, how you are WALKING IN TRUTH. I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children WALKING IN THE TRUTH. Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers”}}

{{3John 1:6-8 “and they bear witness to your love before the church, and you will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God, for they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such men, that we may be fellow workers with the truth.”}}

There was a loving relationship between John and Gaius. He calls him, “beloved”. He loves him in the truth, meaning each of them shares a common connection, and that is, the mutual connection with Christ. The truth is the word of God, for God’s Word is true, the inspired word of God. Also each man was indwelt by the Holy Spirit, for it is He who will lead us into all truth. This world is incredibly untruthful and is devious, and propagates and believes lies whether from religious organisations or politicians, or especially these days, the scientific community. The world is sadly very deluded because it has rejected the truth of the bible.

John and Gaius knew truth for they were founded in the One who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Truth must be taught and nurtured. How quickly the early church turned from the truth and to lies, and to what was false in both doctrine and practice. At the same time John was writing to Gaius, he was also writing to 7 churches in Asia and four of them had serious battles with the truth as the decay began to settle in.

John introduces himself as the elder for he was; and it is supposed, he was in his 90s. Gaius, it seems, was a resident of Derby at least when we first hear of him. Whether he was in Derby when John wrote to him, we can’t be certain, but we are looking at 35 to 40 years after the first instance of the mention of his name. Paul and Barnabas visited Iconium with the gospel resulting in a good number of believers, but trouble ensued from the agitating Jews and the apostles fled to Lyconia, Lystra and Derby. The Acts tell us they continued to preach the gospel in the places to which they fled. The first time we catch up with Gaius is in Acts 19:29. There he was described as one of Paul’s travelling companions along with Aristarchus, but these two had been set upon by the frenzied crowd at Ephesus to drag them into the theatre where there was an uproar instigated by the craftsmen. What are our conclusions about Gaius from Acts 14 and 19? We have just read where he was in company with Paul for the sake of the gospel, but where did he join the apostles?

Before we try to answer that, let us look at Acts 20:4. The uproar at Ephesus has ceased and Paul set out for Macedonia, then Greece, and had intended to return to Macedonia and he was accompanied by Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus and Trophimus. There we read Gaius was from Derby. I think we can conclude that Paul met Gaius in Derby when he fled there from Iconium. Was Gaius a convert in Derby, or a Christian who was already living there? We can’t be certain but I feel it might be the latter as he soon came into ministry with Paul. Having said that, we must note the verse in 1Corinthians 1:14 where Paul says he did not baptise anyone in Corinth except Crispus and Gaius. That would indicate that Gaius became a Christian under Paul. Corinthians suggests Gaius was a resident there, and this is confirmed from Romans 16:23 where Tertius the writer of the Romans letter was staying with Gaius in Corinth from where the Roman letter was written. As well verse 23 says Gaius was host to the whole church suggesting that the church at Corinth met in Gaius’s home.