EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/28/2025 9:04 PM
My Worship Tim Focus: “John’s
Counsel to Gaius”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 3 John 6b-8
Message of the verses: “You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.”
I
have to say that one of the reasons I use John MacArthur’s commentaries to help
me study the Bible is because he is deep in his study, but I can understand
what he is writing about, and the other reason is he doesn’t skip things as he
makes his sermons and commentaries long so you can get the most out of the Word
of God.
I
begin a new section in my study of 3 John this evening as I begin to look at
verses 6b-8 and this will take a few days to get through looking at these
verses. I suppose if I had a favorite
Apostle it would be John, and I guess one of the reasons is because he wrote
the book of Revelation, which actually was the first book of the Bible that I
read after I became a believer back in 1974.
Now I am not advising you to do this if you are a new believer, but that
is what the Lord led me to do and I have to say that I did not get a whole lot
out of it back then, but have studied that book at least 4 times and have
written Spiritual Diaries on it two times which are now among the over 11000
Spiritual Diaries that are on my blogs.
I suppose that I know the least about John’s writings would be 2nd
and 3rd John, and that is why I am enjoying my study in these two
short letters that John wrote, as they are kind of personal.
We
have learned that John was encouraging Gaius to continue to keep his generous
love when other preachers of the truth arrived in the future. Missionaries are very special people, and I
think, as MacArthur mentioned that we could describe these traveling preachers
of the Word of God as early missionaries, and Gaius was taking care of those
who came his way. My wife and I have had
the privilege of housing missionaries from time to time and it has been a great
joy to do so.
John
advised Gaius, You will do well to send them on their
way in a manner worthy of God. MacArthur
explains “You
will do well is an idiomatic Greek expression equivalent to the English word ‘please.’ John entreated him to send any missionary that
came to him on their way refreshed and fully supplied for the next stage of
their journey. John’s exhortation is
reminiscent of Paul’s command to Titus, ‘Diligently help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos
on their way so that nothing is lacking for them’ (Titus 3:13).
I
totally agree with what MacArthur writes next as he states “The standard is
high; Gaius was to treat them in a manner worthy of God. He was to give to them generously as God
would give. Three reasons are suggested
for supporting all faithful servants of Christ.”
I
will quote from MacArthur’s commentary the first of these three reasons to end
this SD, and Lord willing will perhaps be able to look at the final two reasons
in tomorrow’s SD.
“First,
they went out for the sake of the Name.
God’s name represents all that He is.
Their work is the work of God Himself for His own glory (1 Cor. 10:31;
Col. 3:17), the motive that underlies the church’s evangelistic efforts (cf.
Matt. 6:9; Luke 24:47; Acts 5:41; 9:15-16; 15:26; 21:13; Rom. 1:5). It is an affront to God when people do not
believe in the name of His Son, who is worthy to be loved, praised, honored,
and confessed as Lord. When believers
proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, people are saved, and as
a result, ‘the trace which is spreading to more and more people…cause[s] the
giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God’ (2 Cor. 4:15).”
5/28/2025 9:56 PM
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