21 - Walking In Goodness
December 4, 2022 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • 3 John 9–15
Putting John's three epistles together, most commentators agree that there is one theme that emerges between them: John wants all Christians, everywhere, to walk in truth and love. It’s not enough just to walk in truth. That truth has to be governed by biblical love. And it’s not enough to walk in love. That love has to be rooted in biblical truth. And when the two are brought together in a Christian, he or she is walking in biblical completeness. To show what this type of behavior looks like in a Christian, John introduces a man by the name of Demetrius, whose love for truth is juxtaposed against a man named Diotrephes, who loved only himself.
20 - Walking In Hospitality
November 27, 2022 • Pastor Ronald H. Gann • 3 John 1–8
Truth is the theme 3 JOHN, just as it was the theme of 2 JOHN. But it’s also a call to show hospitality to others, especially to those who were faithful teachers of gospel truth. In 2 JOHN, the apostle John went to great lengths to warn the Elect Lady, to whom he was writing, that under no circumstances was she to show hospitality to travelling false teachers who didn’t pass the sniff test of doctrine. In 3 JOHN, the apostle goes to great lengths to warn Beloved Gaius, to whom he is writing, that under no circumstances was he to deny hospitality to traveling teachers who did in fact pass the sniff test of doctrine.