Beloved, thou doest faithfully [in] whatever thou mayest have wrought towards the brethren and that strangers,
John has praised Gaius for walking in the truth. Now he praises what Gaius does: he opens his home to Christian workers he has never met.
John praises what Gaius believes before he praises what Gaius gives. One writer sees a fixed pattern in this.
It is remarkable in John that, while he speaks of love, he always guards it in the most definite way by what he calls "the truth." Real love is in God Himself. He is love, and wherever love is real, it must be guarded by the truth as it is in Jesus, or it is not of God. So before he commends Gaius for his love and hospitality to the brothers, he says, "I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth." This is the first thing he dwells on, before he even speaks of what Gaius does for the brothers and for strangers.
At first glance the verse names two sets of people: brothers, and then strangers. But that reading is disputed, and the better-attested one changes the force of the word "faithfully."
The end of verse 5 might lead us to suppose that there were two classes in question: (1) the brothers, and (2) strangers. The better attested reading, however, appears to be, "the brothers, and that strangers." It was right to serve the brothers who were well known to him. But to serve brothers who were complete strangers, just because they served the same Master — that was indeed to act "faithfully." The truth is that the saints are one. The Name of the Lord Jesus binds together all who serve in that Name, and love is the cementing power in the Christian circle. To this truth Gaius was faithful. It was in him, and he walked in it.
If these men were unknown to Gaius, then affection and acquaintance cannot explain why he took them in. Something else qualified them at his door.
Gaius did not receive and help these stranger-brothers because he knew them and liked them. He helped them because they were devoted to the Name of Christ, because they were separate from the world and took no help from it, and because they were publishing the truth.
The verse speaks of whatever Gaius does — his hospitality is treated as labour. It is also written to a man whose local situation was turning hostile, as the following verses about Diotrephes show.
Gaius had not only begun well, but was going on well in the face of evil. Still there was the need of cheering him on. Kindly, thoughtfully, generously or lovingly — these would have been the words most Christian men might have used. With Gaius it was first of all a matter of faith before God. Faith always brings in God in one way, as love does in another. Faith brings in the word of truth; love is the energy of the divine nature in gracious affection.
The people Gaius helped could report what his love was like. One writer traces the words behind such love.
His work was the fruit of his faith. Hebrews 13:1 speaks of "brotherly love," philadelphia, and 13:2 of not neglecting to "show hospitality to strangers." Those two words translate one Greek word — philoxenia, which literally means "love of strangers." Here in verses 5 and 6 we find love working in a similar way. The strangers were brothers so far unknown. The people Gaius had served could only witness to his love. Gaius did not live for himself, but was a brother who proved his kindness by caring for and serving others.
The same practice still decides whether a church is fed or goes without.
We know towns where hospitality is not available, or at least hard to arrange. There the assemblies of God's people suffer through lack of ministry. On the other hand, we know towns where believers compete with each other in showing hospitality. There this happy service shows itself in ministry that is plentiful and helpful among the saints. A servant of the Lord receives hospitality, and his ministry builds up and strengthens the saints. Then everyone owes a debt to the home that gave that gracious welcome.
- Truth first. John praises Gaius's walk in the truth before he mentions his kindness. Love that is not guarded by truth is not of God.
- Then love. Once truth is settled, love takes practical shape. John calls the work "faithful" because it springs from faith before God.
- Reaching strangers. The better reading joins the two terms. These were brothers Gaius had never met, and serving them proves that the saints are one.
- For the Name. They came with no introduction. What opened Gaius's door was devotion to the Name of Christ and the truth they carried.
- Result today. Where homes open, ministry is plentiful and all gain. Where they stay shut, the church goes hungry.
(who have witnessed of thy love before [the] assembly,) in setting forward whom on their journey worthily of God, thou wilt do well;
Gaius had opened his home to travelling preachers he had never met, and they went back and reported his love to the church. John now writes to tell him to keep going — and to set the measure for sending them on: God Himself.
The men who spoke up in the church were the travellers Gaius had helped. What John approves is his love for believers he did not know:
Many saints are drawn out in love for workers whom they know and admire, but they hold back from brothers they have never heard of. The love of Gaius for those unknown brothers had the apostle's marked approval. Before the church they "bore witness of your love."
Why does welcoming a stranger count for so much? Because of what ties believers together:
It was right to serve the brothers who were well known to him; but to serve brothers who were complete strangers, just because they served the same Master, was really to act "faithfully." The truth is that the saints are one. The Name of the Lord Jesus binds together all who serve in that Name, and love is the cementing power in the Christian circle.
Some older versions soften this phrase to "after a godly sort." Commentators hold to the stronger wording:
Even if the love of Gaius had been taken advantage of, the apostle would not expect any pause. The word is, "send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God." The weaker phrase "after a godly sort" waters that force down. Undeniably "after a godly sort" is much and excellent in itself; but it is always safer and more reverent to hold to the actual words used by the Spirit of God. And nothing can be clearer than setting them forward, not by a man's idea of godliness, but "in a manner worthy of God." For God is love, and love is of God. It may be about a small thing here below; but it connects the soul in faith and love with what is unseen and eternal, with God who blesses for all eternity.
John asks for more than a warm welcome:
He would have Gaius not just receive them, but set them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, who loves such men and such ways.
In practice, this meant covering what the travellers needed for the road:
It is right that those who have gone out for "His Name's sake" should be supported and helped on. Paul expressed his confidence in the believers at Rome that they would send him on his way to Spain (Rom. 15:24. See also 1 Cor. 16:6; 2 Cor. 1:16 and Titus 3:13). The phrase "bring forward on their journey" suggests that the financial needs of the Lord's servants would be met by the saints.
In John's letters, love never stands on its own:
It is remarkable that in John, while he speaks of love, he always guards it in the most definite way by what he calls "the truth." Real love is in God Himself. He is love, and wherever love is real it must be guarded by the truth as it is in Jesus, or it is not of God.
The open door still comes with a condition:
This letter encourages the believer to practise hospitality, both towards brothers he knows and towards strangers. It encourages every kind of generous care in helping them on their way when they leave. The condition is that they come with the truth and for the truth's sake, without salary or provision.
The verse asks a lot, yet the wording stays gentle:
Yet the apostle, in suggesting it, says no more than "you will do well." This careful language of the Holy Spirit is simplicity as to Christ. It avoids anything like pressure or overstatement, though the matter was close to the apostle's heart. Something like it appears in Hebrews 13, where the apostle speaks of two kinds of sacrifice. One is "a sacrifice of praise to God." The other is to "do good and to share what you have." The first is of incomparable weight and value. The lower one is doing good and sharing here below, yet it flows from the same faith and love, "for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."
- Truth first. Love is real only when truth guards it. John praises the truth in Gaius first, then his hospitality.
- Strangers count. Helping workers he knew was good. Helping brothers he had never met, because they served the same Master, is what John calls faithful.
- Two actions. John asks Gaius to receive the travellers and then to send them off. The sending includes meeting their needs for the road.
- One standard. Not "after a godly sort," but in a manner worthy of God. The measure is God's own character, not human ideas of kindness.
- Quiet reward. John applies no pressure. He says only, "You will do well" — the doing good and sharing that pleases God.
for for the name have they gone forth, taking nothing of those of the nations.
John is explaining why a group of travelling preachers deserved a welcome. Two questions sit inside the verse: what sends a servant out, and who may pay for the work?
No human authority had sent these men out. One writer notes that opinions about that differed sharply.
This was their merit, not in the eyes of Diotrephes, who insisted on human authority, but in the eyes of the apostle. The Holy Spirit recorded it so for our learning. They "came," they were not "sent" — except by God.
What did that Name mean to the men who went out? One writer spells it out.
Now we understand why these devoted strangers "went forth." They had come under the spell of that name. It meant, first, their complete salvation. They were bought at a price beyond counting — His own precious blood. They were slaves no more; they were Christ's free men and servants. He was their Lord and Master, their leader and commander, their treasurer and source of supply.
Why would needy men turn down money from outsiders? One writer explains what their refusal protected.
Here is what especially endeared these labourers to the apostle. They kept themselves totally free from profiting by the resources of the world. They might be needy, but they kept the heavenly dignity of the gospel. They proved that they wanted the best for the Gentiles, not their own interests. What more degrades the gospel than to let its ministers or the church become beggars from the world? What so openly denies faith in the Lord's care for His work?
One writer sets those early days beside church practice now. An outsider noticed the difference at once.
How unlike this early state is so much that passes in Christendom today. Fund raising and asking for money are now such a large part of Christendom. Not asking for money seems strange to some. An unconverted friend visited our meeting room and searched in vain for a box to put his offering in. He was truly puzzled. "How does your church work?" he asked.
If they refused one source of support, they leaned on another. One writer finds the same pattern in the brothers Joseph sent out in his service.
Joseph's brothers set out on their path of service, and Joseph's provision sustained them until the day they returned. The people they were going to did not provide for them. The person they had come from did.
So what won these men a welcome in a strange place? One writer answers that, and adds a clue about who they were.
These preachers took nothing from the Gentiles when they went out. They left it to God to have them received by those who had the truth at heart. The truth was their only passport among Christians. It seems they were of the Jewish race. He says "receiving nothing of the Gentiles," and by this the apostle makes the distinction. I note this because, if it is so, the phrase "and not for ours only" (1 John 2:2) becomes simple and clear. Not everyone finds it so. Like Paul, the apostle marks the difference of us, Jews, though we are one in Christ.
One writer blames the worst damage done to Christianity on dropping this practice. He then recalls a question the Lord asked His first disciples.
Nothing has so corrupted Christianity as accepting the world's help to further its aims. Before He was crucified, the Lord said to His disciples: "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." Is He less tender in His care over His servants now that He is glorified at the right hand of God? A great army of devoted servants all over the world will gladly testify that they too have lacked nothing. They have no guaranteed support from man, and they refuse help from the world.
- The Name sends. These men went out under no human commission — they came, they were not sent, except by God.
- The Name motivates. It stood for their salvation, bought with Christ's blood. It made Him their Master, commander and treasurer at once.
- The Name is guarded. Refusing the world's money kept the dignity of the gospel. It proved they wanted their hearers' good, not their goods.
- The Name provides. Like Joseph's brothers, a servant lives on supplies from the One who sent him, not from the people he goes to.
- The Name still tests us. Nothing has corrupted Christianity more than taking the world's help to do God's work. And the Lord's care for His servants has not grown colder.
*We* therefore ought to receive such, that we may be fellow-workers with the truth.
These travelling preachers went out for the sake of the Name, and they took no money from unbelievers. So verse 8 draws its conclusion: welcome them — and that welcome makes the host a partner in the work itself.
The verse does not offer a suggestion. One writer weighs the single word "ought" and finds a duty in it, owed to one sort of visitor only. (The writers quote an older wording, "receive such," where the ESV has "support people like these.")
Scripture keeps the example of Gaius before us not merely so that we may admire it, but so that we may follow it. It is something we must do if we would be walking in the truth. Note that in verse 8 the word "ought" is used. It is not, "We therefore may receive such," but, "We therefore OUGHT to receive such." The word "ought" expresses obligation, not a choice. It is "such" that we ought to receive — that is, those who truly come in His Name.
These men had one clear mark: they took no money from the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people they preached to. One writer says this is what won John's heart.
"For they went out for the sake of the Name, taking nothing of the Gentiles." Here is what especially endeared these labourers to the apostle. They kept themselves completely free from profiting by the resources of the world. They may have been in need, yet they kept the heavenly dignity of the gospel. They proved that they wanted the best for the Gentiles, and not their own gain. What more degrades the gospel than to let its ministers or the church become beggars from the world? What so openly denies faith in the Lord's care for His work?
John had just told another reader to shut the door on certain visitors. Commentators read these two letters as one rule applied in opposite directions.
This is the reverse of the instruction contained in the second Epistle. There, the believer must not let the man who does not bring the truth into his house, and must have no part with him at all. Here the brother is to be welcomed, even though he is a stranger, because he is diligently carrying the truth for the sake of the Name. We are glad to be identified with him because of the truth he brings. In either case the truth is the test, and personal feelings do not come into it.
The verse does not say we become fellow workers with the men. It names the truth, and that changes what the help aims at.
By doing this, notice, we become "fellow-helpers to the truth." We look not at the men we may help, but at the truth they carry and so far represent. Gaius may indeed be a fellow-helper to them, and this was good. But he helped them because they stood for the truth, and he aimed at helping that forward.
This honour can sound like something for gifted workers only. One writer answers with two plain questions any believer can act on.
He goes so far as to say, "That we may be fellow-workers with the truth." What an honour! Here the truth is spoken of as a person, hated by the devil and by the world. Through the world he works in a thousand ways to thwart Christ and all who stand with the witness to Him. ... It is open and right for all Christians to be fellow-workers with the truth. Some cannot preach; but we may and ought truly and practically to sympathise with those who do the work. Do we pray for them regularly? Do we watch for any way to serve them? If so, "we are fellow-helpers," not merely to them but "with the truth." ... All can help acceptably to the Lord in some way, which makes them by His grace fellow-helpers with the truth.
Partnership is not only a title for today. The host who opens his door has a stake in what the work yields later.
Those who receive these men and help them on their journey, as Gaius did, are fellow helpers to the truth. They are going to share in that coming day in the fruit of their labours. This is the true fellowship in the truth.
- Truth goes out. Men left home for the sake of the Name and refused money from the world. That kept the dignity of the gospel and proved their trust in the Lord's care.
- Truth needs a home. Receiving such men is a duty. "Ought" means obligation, not permission, and turning them away is a failure to walk in the truth.
- Truth is the test. The second letter bars the man who does not bring the truth; the third opens the door to the man who does. The same standard, applied both ways, rules out personal likes and dislikes.
- Truth makes partners. The help aims at the message, not the messenger. Gaius helped these men because they stood for the truth, and so he helped the truth forward.
- Truth pays out. Prayer and practical service put any believer into this partnership. Those who receive the workers share in the fruit of their labour in the coming day.