3rd John: Encouraging the Faithful and Confronting Deceit - Puritan Reformed Church

We will have a council meeting.

We have a council meeting this evening following the fellowship meal. There will also be, during the public worship today, we'll be going through 3rd John. We will be receiving teaching by Deacon Schaffer on Psalm 119 Resh or T, 119 T.

We will be singing Psalm 119 S as well. I think that's everything. Alright, Mr. Nye, testing. Yeah, I took a hearing test recently, online. It was an internet hearing test, so it was totally real. And it was, I said I was 71, so my hearing is really good.

That's where things are. I'm doing very well. Okay, is that louder? Is that good enough?

Great.

I can hear me now. Alright, our call to worship is from Deuteronomy chapter 6. Let's stand for the reading of God's word. Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 -9. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your.

Eyes.

You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. You may be seated. Let's pray. Father, we are a weak and helpless people. We are incapable of saving ourselves. We are in need of your salvation.

We are guilty without the ability to bring our own righteousness before you. Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And so, Father, we ask that you would be merciful to us, we who are sinners, that you would forgive us for Christ's sake, and that you would see us as righteous for Christ's sake.

Father, we are miserable in our darkness and unbelief, and we ask that you would dispel that darkness, that you would remove it from us, that you would cause the light to shine. Father, we ask that you would cause us to possess life and to possess it abundantly.

Father, you have sent your Son to redeem a special people. And Father, you have caused him by his ordinances and by his Spirit to gather his people. Father, we ask that you would cause the reign of Christ in the earth to be more and more visible, that you would bless us with well-ordered and properly furnished church here and broadly, to have the joy of seeing good and orderly presbyteries and synods and general assembly, that you would cause the order of the church and the unity of the church to be visibly on display in the earth.

Father, we ask that you would help us to keep covenant with each other, that you'd help our doctrine to be right. Father, we know that we will speak error unless you cause us to speak truth. Father, we pray that you would help us to not neglect any truths, but to hold to your whole counsel.

Father, we ask that you would help us to know how to worship you properly, that you would help our attitudes to be right in the use of worship. Father, we ask that you would use the ordinances of worship to build us up, to edify us.

Lord, we pray that you would give us good government and help us to do things rightly and to judge justly. Father, we pray that you would cause us to bear fruits of love, to bear fruits of the spirit in abundance, that our vines would be heavy with fruit, our limbs heavy with fruit.

Father, we ask that you would teach us to be hospitable and generous and kind, to be courageous and bold and steady. I ask that you would give to us endurance and fortitude and all good virtues and that we would point them all to glorify you.

I ask that you would bless my lips to speak truth in the teaching tonight, that you would bless Deacon Schaeffer to speak right words. Father, we ask that you would help those who hear to discern and have wisdom to judge rightly, to search the scriptures to see if these things are so.

Lord, we pray that you would give to us good and godly magistrates. The wickedness around us is thick, the darkness is suffocating, and we ask that you would bless us with godly rulers to restrain the wickedness.

Father, we thank you for little ones and the new Rodriguez baby. We ask that you would give life to little ones in body and soul, that you would cause them to know you from their youth, that you would cause them to bear fruit at a young age, to give their parents joy from early days, seeing their children walk in the truth.

Father, we have no power to do any of these things. We cannot establish the work of our hands. We need you to do and to give. So we look to you as a servant looks to his master to provide. Father, we ask that you would help us to remember the glories of your gospel.

We pray this by the mighty name of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen. Deacon Schaffer, if you could please come forward, open your psalters to Psalm 119T.

Psalm 119T: Affliction, Salvation, and the Enduring Word

Please stand for the reading of God's word. It will be Psalm 119T from the psalter. Think on my affliction and save, for I do not forget your law. Defend my cause, deliver me, revive me according to your word.

Salvation's far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. How great your tender mercies, Lord, save according to your judgments. Many persecute me as foes, yet from your law I do not shrink.

I'm grieved by the transgressors because they do not keep your word. See how I love your precepts, Lord, save according to your mercy. Oh, the whole of your word is truth. All your righteous judgments will stand.

You may be seated. All right, Psalm 119T is broken into four metrical verses in our psalter. The first, which is the thesis, is about a desire to be treated as the righteous. The second is about salvation and external success not being the same.

The third is expressing grief at sin, and the fourth is about God's word enduring. So let's look at the first metrical verse. Think on my affliction and save, for I do not forget your law. Defend my cause, deliver me, revive me according to your word.

So this describes the condition of those committed to God's service. Though God does generally reward his servants in this life for their service, we must be committed to the battle when the rewards are not apparent.

So often to pursue righteousness requires sacrifice of things that we'd rather not give up. We're engaged in war, so we should not be surprised at adversity. And yet it's also not wrong to desire to be treated as righteous.

So we should want to be viewed as having desirable lives and relationships, thriving community, the city on the hill. And we do have the door of prayer open to us. But the psalmist here is calling upon God to plead his case in a different situation.

It would appear that justice is not being served. If you have to appeal to God to plead your case, that's a red flag. He asks for deliverance because this justice is not being served. And he's ending the verse with a plea for revival according to God's word.

So that's an important point to remember. What we can hope in, what we ought to pray for, it all starts with the scriptures. And the scriptures God has given us are where we learn what to do, what promises we can call upon, and what we can trust God to do.

So there's this first metrical verse is expressing his desire to be treated as the righteous are, and he's basing it on the scriptures. So moving into the second metrical verse, which is about the differences between salvation and external visible success.

Let's read that. Salvation's far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. How great your tender mercies, Lord, save according to your judgments. So on the other hand, the wicked don't have any of that foundation to draw on that the righteous do.

And the funny thing is that so often they might have outwardly successful lives and still end up in hell. They falsely believe they're secure, when in fact they're in the most horribly precarious position.

While the believer has the promise of eternal life, ultimate security. So he's appealing to God to save according to God's judgments, and he's basing it on the most secure thing there is, God's word. So the third metrical verse, grief at sin.

Many persecute me as foes, yet from your law I do not shrink. I'm grieved by the transgressors because they do not keep your word. So again, God's servants are engaged in warfare, active conflict. There will be temptations to go astray, even to use the enemy's weapons in sinful ways, to fight as they do, without regard for God's law.

There will be temptations to take shortcuts, to despair, to forget that God's providence. But he tells us, the psalmist tells us that he does not shrink from the law. He's facing these things, and he stays on target, on mission.

So in the short run, very easy to go astray. But the thing that he thinks most useful to indicate grief about is that the enemy isn't following God's law. So we're inclined to be primarily focused on the injustices against us, but he's expressing in this verse that greatest concern he has is really the injustices against the Lord.

So let's look at the fourth metrical verse. It's about how God's word endures. See how I love your precepts, Lord. Save according to your mercy. Oh, the whole of your word is truth. Your righteous judgments will stand.

Again, he appeals to be treated and saved according to God's mercy, based on his love for God's law. He wants to see God's deliverance of the righteous. We all do. God's word will endure. Whatever man thinks he can do, God has the final say, and whatever God decides endures forever.

Comments, questions, objections from.

Voting members or those with speaking rights? All right. Please stand.

Hmm.

Think on my affliction and save, for I do not forget your law. Defend my cause, deliver me, revive according to your salvation far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statues. How great your tender mercies, Lord, save according to your judgment.

Many persecute me as foes, yet from your law I do not shrink. I am grieved by the transgressors because they do not keep your word. See how I love your precepts, Lord, save according to your mercy. Oh, the whole of your word is true.

All your righteous judgments will stand.

3rd John: Gaius, Hospitality, and Discernment

Please remain standing now. Open your Bibles to 3rd John. 3rd John has 14 verses. As we read it, there is one majority text difference. In verse 11, the sentence, the second half of verse 11 says,. He who does good is of God.

He who does evil has not seen God. The but there is not in the majority text. It obviously doesn't change the meaning, but it is not in the majority text. Chapter 3rd John, verse 1. The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you. Just as you walk in the truth, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers. Who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well.

Because they went forth for his name's sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth. I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.

Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does. Pratting against us with malicious words and not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those. Forgive me, I'm going to read back from verse nine.

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does. Pratting against us with malicious words and not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to putting them out of the church.

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has a good testimony from all and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true.

I had many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink. But I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.

You may be seated. We have at the beginning of 3rd John the same title as in 2nd John. John refers to himself as the elder. He is also writing another private letter, a letter to an individual, Gaius.

We find a Gaius referred to in Acts in two places. We also find a Gaius referred to in Romans and a Gaius referred to in 1st Corinthians. Whether this is different or the same, I do not know. He writes to Gaius as a brother.

He calls him beloved, whom I love in truth. Love is such an emphasis of John. We must not allow the word to simply wash over us without understanding. We must think on its meaning. So what is it to love?

To love is to desire the well-being of the object. When you love someone, you want what is good for them. So to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved. Love in truth. Fellow believers ought to be objects of our love and to be dear to us.

They serve the same Father. They are under the same Christ. They are empowered by the same Holy Spirit. And so they ought to be dear to us. And to love in truth is to love not just in pretense, not just with hypocrisy, some outward statements of love, but to love with an actual desire for the well-being of the person.

In order to seek the well-being of a person, you must know what their well-being is, what's good for them. The good for man is to know God. To love in truth is to love, again, with sincerity or without hypocrisy, but also to love according to truth.

To love not based upon falsehood or with a false conception of love or good, but this idea of loving in a way where you're seeking the true good. And not just a worldly love, but a true love where you're seeking the other grow in the possession of God.

Verse 2, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health. This is a, reading the beginning of 2 John and 3 John, you might start to feel like John feels a little bit like a prosperity preacher or something.

There's all this health and wealth and peace. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things, that your work, in other words, that you'd have resources, that your work would be fruitful, and health, physical health.

How do we know he's talking about physical health and talking about physical prosperity? Because he says, just as your soul prospers. He's talking about both types. Just like in 2 John, praying for grace, mercy, and peace in terms of the outward things of spiritual powers, not necessarily salvation for grace.

Remember last time we talked about mercy as in being spared from temporal judgments? And then there was peace being spared from strife and poverty. Here, there was also then in truth, and so it was this idea of love being in truth back there, was the spiritual realities were connected.

Here we have the same thing, this idea of prospering in all things, being in health, just as your soul prospers. So he's affirming here that there's a prosperity of soul. What does it mean for your soul to prosper?

Your soul prospers when your soul is filled with treasures. What are treasures of the soul? Treasures of the soul are the things that Colossians says, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ.

The idea of them being hidden in Christ, being hidden in the Father. The treasures are wisdom themselves. The prosperity of the soul is the possession of the knowledge of God and to have it in abundance.

Verse 3, for I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you. So this is an argument to support the fact that John believes that Gaius's soul has prospered. Why does he believe his soul is prospered?

Because the overflow of the heart comes out of the mouth. I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that's in you. How would the brethren know about the truth that's in Gaius? Because they've talked to Gaius and what Gaius talks about is theology.

He's that guy. There's the conversations with Gaius are conversations about the prosperity that's in his soul and he's just not walking around going my soul is super prosperous. He's not just doing that.

He is taking the treasures of wisdom out and laying them on the table and telling people you can take these. They're yours. Any of the ones you want to take, you can just walk away with. When you share truth with people, you are taking treasures out of your heart and you are putting them on the table and asking them to take them away.

Here's the crazy thing. When they pick it up to put it in their bag, yours is still there. No matter how many people are there to pick up the treasure off the table, yours is still there. And in fact, what's funny is when you take the treasures out and put them on the table for other people to look at and consider taking, they grow.

I don't remember that being that big last time because as you teach a thing, you understand it more deeply. So you put the treasure out of the table and it gets a little bigger. So you put it away at the end and you got more treasure.

They were able to testify of the truth that was in him because of what he spoke to them. And then here's the other thing. Just as you walk in the truth, they also got to witness Gaius applying the law.

So when they watched Gaius, Gaius was doing what God commanded. So they heard about the treasures of wisdom in his heart because he spoke them to them. And they witnessed his love for them. They witnessed his law-keeping toward them and toward the Lord.

So John's response on hearing this report, you know, Gaius, I love you. Like really man, I love you. I love you. I mean, this is the way he starts the letter, right? I mean, imagine you get an email from me.

It says, hello, beloved. I love you, beloved. How are you doing? Like, would you be a little creeped out? I mean, like just a little bit. This is John's letter. Beloved, I love you. Beloved, beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers.

Because I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and told me about all the theology you shared with them and how much you diligently applied the law of God I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

And the reformed standards about the fifth commandment, it talks about how the fifth commandment is addressed to this idea of honor your father and mother. And it applies not just to natural parents, but to all those who are in authority in house, church, and commonwealth, and also in giving honor to those who are older and who are more gifted.

This is one of many proof texts to that. Why? Because John is saying, you fellow churchmen who are of a lower rank than me, I have no greater joy than to hear that you, my child, walk in truth. Beloved.

Number five. We're on five. Right? Beloved Gaius, I love in truth. Beloved. No, maybe this is four. This is four. Forgive me. Five's down in verse eleven. Beloved, you do faithfully. You know what? I'm not done with verse four.

We're going back to verse four. Look at verse four. Look at it harder. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Do you want joy? Share the gospel. Do you want joy? Help others to walk in the truth.

Do you want joy? Raise your children to have wisdom. Do you want joy? Seek to serve so that you can see other souls prospered. Do you want joy? Because if you want joy, taking on increasing service so that you can have the joy of hearing that your children walk in the truth, that is the way to get the greatest joy in life.

The knowledge of God gets you joy. Applying that knowledge increases your joy, and spreading it gets you the most joy. Because it's all three. It's a hat trick. You get to grow in the knowledge of God.

You get to act according to it when you're teaching it, and you get to spread it when you're teaching it. You get all three. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth. I might come back to that one.

We'll just, we're going to go back down, but I just might come back anyways. Verse five. Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne witness of your love before the church.

Think about that sentence for just a second. Who has borne witness before the church? I mean, brethren makes total sense. Who's talking in the church? The brethren. The strangers? Where did they hear about him loving the strangers?

Who bore witness about this? It says they did. How? How could that work? The only two ways that I'm aware of to make that make sense. One. These strangers were strangers to the church, and because of his hospitality and love towards them, and evangelism towards them, they became not strangers to the church.

They became brethren. Evangelism. The other possibility is strangers to the local church. Believers from outside who came. Now, that doesn't seem like the easiest reading for me. The problem is, I'm actually kind of inclined to it, because when you keep going, it says, who have borne witness of your love before the church.

If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for his namesake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. So, this is a specific set of people he's talking about, and these people seem to be men who have been sent on mission.

So, the strangers, I don't think are just strangers in the general sense. These are strangers to that local church. And so, we have this duty. Remember, we have a duty to saints that aren't just in our local church.

There is a duty to saints that come amongst us for us to care for them as fellow saints, and to seek unity in the church. And so, this idea of acknowledging strangers. So, even though it may seem easier to believe that the strangers here being talked about are those who have been evangelized to, and therefore can bear witness to the church, I think this is actually a strong Presbyterian verse that helps us to see the idea of Presbyterian government, where there's an interconnectedness of the congregations, where there's strangers to the local congregation, but they're not strangers to the church broadly, and they're treated with hospitality.

So, remember in 2 John, there's all this about don't take bad teachers in for hospitality. 3 John is making sure we don't fall off the edge on the other side and say, I'm not going to give anybody any hospitality.

This is very convenient, because that way I won't be responsible for their sins. On the other side, you have a duty to receive some people. Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne witness of your love before the church.

These brethren that are local brethren to him, and these strangers in terms of being strangers of that local church, they're strangers to it, but they're not outside of the church altogether, they have borne witness before the church of the faithful work of Gaius.

If you then send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for his name's sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. So, these men, these teachers sent by John, church planters, missionaries, you know, men sent forth to teach, if you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well.

Sending them forward, right, you take them in, you're hospitable to them, the church can receive them, but this is about Gaius. This is about Gaius, and Gaius does not appear to be an officer. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well.

This is about hospitality to true teachers. It applies to believers broadly. Faithfulness towards the brethren and strangers. Those are the broad categories. And then, these specific men who have been sent forth from John as teachers, if you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well.

A manner worthy of God. What's that about? A manner worthy of God. It's offering this service to send them on in a manner that's worthy as though you were doing the work for God. Hospitality can be done to angels unaware.

Hospitality was done by Abraham and Sarah to a theophany. Hospitality, when done to the littlest believer, is done to Christ. What kind of hospitality would you give to Christ? If you send them forward on their journey in a manner that's worthy of the kind of hospitality you would have given to Jesus, you will do well.

Because they went forth for his names, for God's name's sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. John was an apostle to the Jews. But there are 12 apostles that are apostles to the Jews, and there are 70 apostles that are apostles to the Gentiles.

The 70 elders were sent out two by two. Paul is one of those. John is one of the ones to the Jews. John is dealing with churches and church planting and evangelism, and he's got some guys that have been sent out.

They're in a place with those Gentiles, and they didn't get anything from the Gentiles as they go forward, so they're leaving without that help. And that's the kind of thing that happened to Paul in Corinth.

The Corinthians didn't give him anything. That typically happened when you were dealing with ministering to a people who were stingy, and they went, we don't want to make a stumbling block. So even though we have a right to get help here, we're not going to ask for it.

They took nothing on. When they get to Gaius, John is saying, if you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for his name's sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles.

That means, give them a place to rest. Give them something to eat. Engage with them. Encourage them in the truth and in righteousness. But it also means, Gaius, could you help them on their way? Could you give them something, since the Gentiles didn't?

There's an encouragement to generosity there. We, therefore, ought to receive such. You're going to find that word receive also down at verse 9, with an example of not receiving. And you're going to find the same thing in verse 10.

There's a duty to receive. We ought, ought. What does ought mean? Ought doesn't mean is. Ought means you should. It means you should. It's your duty. We, therefore, ought to receive such, the type that go forth for the glory of God's name, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.

Now, there's a couple of things there in verse 8. If we receive them and send them off in a manner worthy of commissioning off Christ, we help them in the work. We're fellow workers. But you know what happens when you're a fellow worker?

You partake in the blessings or the curses of the work that's done. That's the communion of the saints. We have giftings we're supposed to use. We use them towards a common goal. We use them for each other's good.

And in supporting each other, what happens is we also participate in each other's blessings. Little gifts, little help, little support, you participate in each other's blessings. Giving to the church, you participate in the work of the church.

Giving to others in need, you participate in the good works that they're able to do with those resources. We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth. Now, Gaius is being commended here.

He's being commended because he had a good testimony, and he's being commended for his hospitality and generosity, and he's being exhorted to carry on in accordance with his reputation and reminded of a duty.

Hospitality is so important. John is reminding of the duty of private homes, the private ministry that you have. You all have this. You all have this domain. You all have the duty, and you all have the power to exercise the ministry of hospitality and to be the theology talker like Gaius and to give a good example of godly behavior like Gaius and to encourage each other on and to share in your resources and to be generous to fill needs like Gaius.

I wrote to the church. It seems to be Gaius's church. I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, apparently the moderator of the session at Gaius's church, I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us, doesn't receive other Christians, doesn't receive the Apostle John, doesn't receive other elders, doesn't receive missionaries that are sent on.

Why? Well, the Apostle John is higher than Diotrephes. His people he sends are people that take from Diotrephes's glory in his sight, his own assessment of things. He loves to have the preeminence. Notice John here is teaching Gaius to disobey Diotrephes.

Any Romanist or any high-handed Presbyterian or whatever who wants to tell you that officers are lords of your conscience, they should do more reading about Diotrephes and less imitating of him. Diotrephes is an imperious officer that demands honors not due to him, obedience not owed to him, and rejects legitimate officers and legitimate teachers, legitimate brothers without cause.

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. John is teaching Gaius disobedience to a church officer based upon an appeal to the truth as having authority higher than the officer.

The officer exists to serve the truth. The truth does not exist to serve the officer, which is why you must judge what is taught. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does, pratting against us with malicious words.

This nonsensical, hateful speech, bad arguments put hatefully. If John comes, he's going to call to mind his deeds. In other words, he's going to bring charges. Then he interrupts himself, right? Because John says, you know, if I come, I'm going to call to mind his deeds, which he does.

What are those deeds? Pratting against us with malicious words. Also, he's not content with that. He himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.

This tyranny, diatrophies, is not content to say malicious, nonsensical things against true officers and against a true apostle. But he himself does not receive the brethren, doesn't receive men who are legitimate brethren, does not accept men with a credible profession of faith, men who speak the truth and walk according to the truth.

And he forbids those who wish to receive them. Those that want to obey God rather than diatrophies, diatrophies forbids them. And then guess what? Some of them, some of those brave souls went against diatrophies and did what their duty was in the sight of God and received true brethren.

And then what happens? Diatrophies kicks them out of the church. He puts them out of the church. Putting out of the church is what we normally call excommunication, right? There's four types of discipline in the church.

There's rebuke, there's admonition, which is essentially harsher and second rebuke. There's suspension from the Lord's table and there's being cast out from the midst of the church. Diatrophies is casting people out from the midst of the church.

He's putting them out of the church, calling for curse on them from Satan when they receive brothers that they have a duty to receive. That calling of curse is not just any illegitimate calling of curse by a church rebounds onto that church and is ineffectual.

On the other side, legitimate calling of curse by a church and the putting out of a person with just cause calls legitimate curse. These are very serious matters. The putting out of a person out of the church must be dealt with with all sobriety and seriousness and be judged in the truth.

And there is no excuse of saying, I was just following orders. It's your duty to disobey diatrophies and it's your duty to obey lawful commands from legitimate officers and to agree in legitimate judgments.

Verse 11, Beloved. Right, we have Beloved Gaius, verse 1, whom I love in truth. Verse 1, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. Verse 2, verse 5, Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers.

Verse 11, Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. Custom is the excuse of many who do evil. I witnessed this example. Others did this before me. I was imitating what I saw. Beloved, we must examine things before we imitate them.

Following an example is not sufficient. Traditions by themselves are of no authority. The apostolic tradition captured for us in scripture alone is the only authoritative tradition and we ought to imitate the apostolic tradition of approved examples, but we must discern between good and evil, between ought and ought not.

Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. What does that mean, but what is good? But imitate what's good. Imitate what's good. When you see a good example, take note of it. We often see bad examples that we don't like and we can complain about it.

We can say, oh, it's bad, whatever. Taking note of good examples, being inspired by it and following after it. Bad examples we should take note of and principally use them to help ourselves to avoid following them.

Good examples we should take note of, praise God for, honor the person for and seek to follow the good example. Verse 11, the second part here continues on with the theme from 1 and 2 John that you can use works as a way of judging a confession.

He who does good is from God. He who does evil has not seen God. The profession of theology that people make and the works that they display. How do you know who you should be hospitable to? What teachers should you help on their way?

Whose works do you want to participate in? Those who profess the true religion and have works that testify to their teaching as right. Verse 12, Demetrius has a good testimony from all. We have John who wrote this letter.

We have Gaius who received it. We have Diotrephes, the tyrant and we have Demetrius, the godly officer commended to Gaius by John. Demetrius has a good testimony from all and from the truth itself. Now, good testimony from all, in other words, he has a reputation such that others say he speaks the truth and he walks with piety.