This coming Sunday, Lord willing, we’ll be exploring the tiny New Testament book of 3 John. We meet 2 characters in this short book: Diotrephes and Gaius. I think the way Mark Dever concludes this book (from his book The Message of the New Testament helps us):
“There are Diotrepheses in the church and there will always be. It has been so since the beginning. But there are also Gaiuses. They are the ones who leave vivid, lasting, and inspiring examples for us. And by his love, God keeps those examples fresh in our minds’ eyes. The Gaiuses are the ones who fire up and propel us forward by the example of their love for Christ. In his grace, God gives us Gaiuses.
“Now I ask you, why go to all the trouble of being in a church? For God and his gospel, or for yourself? Dear friend, I give you the warning of the elder: ‘Do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God’.
(taken from p.511)
Hope to see you this coming Lord’s Day as Matthew Ellison and I unpack this amazingly powerful book.