3 John 5-8, these are God's words. Loved 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. Amen. So far the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. The beloved here is singular. He's still talking just to Gaius. It's a little bit more intimate as a consequence. It's one thing when he refers to The church generally as his beloved, but he addresses it to this specific man It is a little closer and a little more intimate in that way And he wants to know, he wants Gaius to know from where his service of the brethren has come, from where his love for the brethren has come. And in fact, that service is referred to as love, because when he refers to it from verse six, he says that they have borne witness of your love before the church. And what was that love that these people from Gaius's home church have come and bore witness of before the church in which John is residing at the moment and from where he is writing? It is these things that he has done, not only for these brethren who have come and reported it, but even for strangers. And so these people from Gaius' church have come and John is now sending them back. He's got some mission for them to do. And he's asking Gaius to continue taking care of them, to be generous with them, not just hosting them when they come back to the home church, but especially sending them, supporting their ongoing mission. And so the first thing that the apostle does in this short passage is identify unto Gaius or remind Gaius from where these actions of love for the brethren and for the strangers have come. When he says, beloved, you do faithfully, Gaius, it is from your faith. It's the same root in Greek, just like we see the word in English, although I'm not sure we connect it as much in English as we ought to. Or at least as the Greek does that when someone is being faithful It's not just saying that he is the sort of person that you can trust But often this word is being used in this case also That what they are doing or what kind of person they are is a person that who has faith. And what they are doing is coming from faith. So the first thing he's doing is he's identifying for Gaius from whence his love and service have come. And this would be a great encouragement about his past. It's come by faith. It's come by Christ. It's come by union with Christ. Just as the apostle said in verse three, that the truth is in you. And when we remember that anything good that actually comes out of us, any love that we genuinely have for the brethren or for strangers, any love that issues forth in service, self-sacrifice and action for our brothers and sisters in the church, whom we love as Christ has loved us and for our neighbors, whom we are to love as we love ourselves, that any genuine good or love that comes from us comes through faith in Jesus Christ, comes from Christ himself by virtue of that union that we have with him through faith. So this is very encouraging to him that the past, this is one of the reasons why in the church service They would have had this testimony of these brethren because the church service is not about how good Gaius is from whatever city Gaius is from. The church service is unto the praise of Christ. They have borne witness of what Christ has done. And now he says, if you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well. And so not only is he saying, your love and your service comes from union with Christ, but also your love and your service to brethren, and particularly brethren is the ministry, is unto the glory of God. What a great motivation this is for us to do something if we know that the doing of it comes out of our union with Christ and, therefore, makes us to enjoy the fact that we are united to the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, by faith, and Jesus is glorified by it. That's a great motivation and it is another great motivation when we know that the thing that we do is in the service of God and unto God's glory and for God's kingdom. And so he doesn't say that he should send them forward in a manner worthy of the saints, although that would be an appropriate thing to say. The saints are due love and service and generosity and hospitality, or even a manner that is worthy of me. Although Gaius and John are beloved to one another, and John is both an apostle of Jesus Christ, one of the foundation stones, as it were, of the church. that Christ has appointed and an elder to the particular churches from which John is writing and to which John is sending this, of which Gaius is a member. He could have said that, send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of me, but he has something even higher and greater. If you send them forward in a manner worthy of God. So union with Christ is the source of his love and the service of God and the honoring of God, giving to God, glorifying God is the goal of his love. Because they went forth, verse 7, because they went forth for his namesake, receiving nothing from the Gentiles. from the nations. We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth. And so he's encouraging Gaius here, who has been given an opportunity in God's providence to support these brothers. They have apparently done much ministry outside of the church. They are missionaries, and yet the ones to whom they have ministered among the nations Have not supported them and they are needy and just like the Spirit by the Apostle Paul says to converted Believers let him who stole steal no longer, but let him work hard with his hands so that he may have something to give to a brother in time of need, neediness is an opportunity when it comes to any brother. But how much more neediness in the part of a missionary or a minister of the gospel, these workers for the truth. Gaius is not going out to the nations and yet these who are going out to the nations having neediness are an opportunity for Gaius to become, verse 8, fellow workers. a fellow worker for the truth. Even the Apostle John includes himself here, that when there are those who are being sent as missionaries, ministers of the gospel, the Apostle John, who himself has been a worker for the truth for decades. He's been an apostle, an evangelist, an elder, pastor. And yet he is still looking himself for opportunities to be joined in a ministry of the gospel, to become a fellow worker for the truth. And he has received them, and now he's sending them to Gaius and urging him to receive them. And so for us, A, we want to do good to the brethren, express the life of Christ and the love of Christ from within us. We want to do things not just for believers, but especially to support the ministry of the gospel in a manner that is worthy not merely of ministers, but of the God of the gospel. And we want to take our opportunities as we have them, when there is a needy minister, when there is a needy missionary, when there's an opportunity to support a work, a ministry that's being sent by the church, in this case by John and his office as elder, and so probably the session of their church and so forth, that when we have an opportunity to become a fellow worker, for the truth that we would take it. Amen, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we ask for the help of your spirit that we would be mindful of our union with Christ and therefore mindful of opportunities to express it, to live and to love from out of that union with him. We pray that you would keep us mindful of yourself and your glory, that everything we do would be unto your glory. We ask that you would give us opportunities and help us to recognize opportunities to participate in the work of the truth and supporting those who are workers for the truth. Thank you for this portion of your word. Please help us, forgive us for how easily we are unmindful of spiritual things but help us by your spirit we ask in jesus name amen