Three Simple Rules-Do Good
Who is my neighbor? What should I do to them, and why?
Interesting point of note, a useless bit, really. Today’s scripture is all of 3 John. It caused me a little pause in church because I do my personal studies in the King James Version. The bulletin listed the scripture as “3 John 1-15.” The KJV only has fourteen verses for 3 John. I find it mildly interesting that the words are all there in the King James Version; they just break it out differently. It caused me a moment of pause before the service. Also, as I read the first verse, I couldn’t help but wonder how Battlestar Galactic made it into scripture. If you’ve watched the series, you know the main antagonist is named Gaius Baltar.
1The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
2Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
3For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth.
4I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.
5Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers;
6and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.
7For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.
8Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.
9I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.
10For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church.
11Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
12Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true.
13I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink;
14but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face.
15Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
3 John 1–15 (NASB95)
Before we get into the message, here are some thoughts on the scripture. Take a look at verse 2. The author communicates a hope for good things to both earthly bodies and spiritual faiths. This reinforces the Bible’s idea that we have fleshly and spiritual concerns in life. We also get a focus on the truth, frequently in this book of scripture, mainly at the beginning, where the author wants to make sure the reader is in truth both from those who see him or her and the way that person lives their life (verses 3 and 4.)
Let’s get a bit into the Greek now. Verse 5 offers us the word “faithfully.” This refers to what we do, but it also focuses the doing on both people we know and don’t know. That last bit comes up more in the message. Let’s look at the Greek word behind faithfully.
Greek Strong’s Number: 4103
Greek Word: πιστός
Transliteration: pistos
Phonetic Pronunciation: pis-tos’
Root: from <G3982>
Cross Reference: TDNT - 6:174,849
Part of Speech: adj
Vine’s Words: Belief, Believe, Believers, Faithful, Faithfully, Faithless, Sure
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
faithful 53
believe 6
believing 2
true 2
faithfully 1
believer 1
sure 1
[Total Count: not tr 1
from <G3982> (peitho); object trustworthy; subject trustful:- believe (-ing, -r), faithful (-ly), sure, true.
James Strong, “Πιστός,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
The Greek adds to the idea of doing something “faithfully” as being trustful or trustworthy but also believing and, again, true. True to what? Scripture, of course.
Verse 6 uses a word in the Greek that gets translated as “charity” in the King James, but most other Bible translations use “love” for this word. Why is that? The Greek might hold some clue. Most people know the word behind this as “agape.” However, they might not know the root word of agape, which is agapao. Why is that important? Let’s look at them.
Greek Strong’s Number: 26
Greek Word: ἀγάπη
Transliteration: agapē
Phonetic Pronunciation: ag-ah’-pay
Root: from <G25>
Cross Reference: TDNT - 1:21,5
Part of Speech: n f
Vine’s Words: Feast, Love, Love feasts
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
love 86
charity 27
dear 1
charitably+ <G2596> 1
feast of charity 1
[Total Count: 116]
from <G25> (agapao); love, i.e. affection or benevolence; specially (plural) a love-feast:- (feast of) charity ([-ably]), dear, love.
James Strong, “Ἀγάπη,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
Greek Strong’s Number: 25
Greek Word: ἀγαπάω
Transliteration: agapaō
Phonetic Pronunciation: ag-ap-ah’-o
Root: perhaps from agan (much) [or cf <H5689> ]
Cross Reference: TDNT - 1:21,5
Part of Speech: v
Vine’s Words: Beloved, Love
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
love 135
beloved 7
[Total Count: 142]
perhaps from agan (much) [or compare <H5689> (`agab)]; to love (in a social or moral sense):- (be-) love (-ed). Compare <G5368> (phileo).
James Strong, “Ἀγαπάω,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
Agape is what you’d expect. However, its root is important because it is how to love “in a social or moral sense.” How do we love someone that way? We love them in a social or moral sense by not assisting, supporting, or condoning bad behavior. But who’s definition of “bad behavior” do we use? The one under which we are “doing faithfully,” as in verse five, the Bible, God’s Ways instead of Man’s ways.
Verses 9 and 10 seem to encapsulate the turmoil currently dividing the Methodist church. The name United Methodist Church is now a misnomer, considering the former members following a Traditionalist path in prior General Conferences have, by and large, departed for the new Global Methodist Church or other churches in their area. These two verses, as explained in Haley’s Bible Handbook, seem to cover that exact situation in the region where John’s letter was sent. Gaius appears to be the pastor of the church that accepted John and his teachings, while others would not talk to him. Here is what Haley’s Bible Handbook says about those two verses.
Diotrephes was one of the domineering false teachers who would have nothing to do with John. It seems that Diotrephes and Gaius were pastors of different congregations in the same city. Apparently some of John’s evangelists, on one of their recent tours, had been refused admission to the congregation over which Diotrephes presided, but Gaius had taken them in. On returning to Ephesus, they told the story in John’s home church. John was now sending another delegation to the same city with this short letter addressed to Gaius. Demetrius (v. 12) may have been the bearer of the letter.
Henry Hampton Halley, Halley’s Bible Handbook with the New International Version., Completely rev. and expanded. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 892.
That was all not contained in the sermon. That was all that occurred to me as I read through the scripture. The sermon commentary begins here.
Pastor Lee opened with a point of clarification about John Wesley’s third rule. Last week, I mentioned it as a somewhat watered-down version of Wesley’s rule. The one on the graphic in church was, “Stay in love with God.” She mentioned this was a modernized version of the third rule, which people could better grasp.
I disagree. I think it was modernized to get away from the idea that we should hold to God’s ordinances and rules in life. The Progressive wing of the United Methodist Church wants to focus on “love” and “love wins” while divorcing that from the idea that God really has an opinion on what is right and wrong. Why do I think they want to do that? If we are being charitable, they believe sugarcoating it will bring in more people. The problem with that is they never present the hard truth. They do that because people don’t want to be told something they are doing is bad. The problem is that fallen human beings do bad things. Sometimes we do it ourselves. Sometimes, people know they are doing something they shouldn’t and do it anyway. I believe the progressive wing of the church waters down the warnings of scripture because they believe it will draw more people in. It won’t.
Moving on, Pastor Lee provided a recap of last week’s sermon about the woman who was infirmed being healed. She elaborated on that and brought to mind that last week’s rule was really something not to do. This week, were are given something to do. Namely, we are to do good.
The scripture above was read at this point. Pastor Lee went into some background about 3 John. She said we don’t know who wrote first, second, and third John. I wondered about that, given the name of those books of the Bible. I went to my favorite sight for Bible book summaries, Biblehub.com, and saw that Jay Smith does not question the authorship in his summary. You can read what he has to say HERE. Then, I did a quick DuckDuckGo search and found Zondervan’s article on why. They said, rightly, that John’s name is never mentioned in any of the letters, but the author is referred to as “the Elder.” Zondervan’s point is that church tradition handed down to us from the early days of the church right after Christ’s death says these three books were written by John. They are included in the Bible because the early church clearly knew who wrote them and trusted them, so we can, too. You can read Zondervan’s article HERE. I choose to go with the early church tradition and do not dispute the author as John, but it is interesting to note that they call him the “elder” rather than by name, and I wonder about that.
Pastor Lee said she likes not knowing the author because it can be imputed to anyone who cares about God, the church, and the believers. The real author is God, so who held the quill and wrote the original Greek words is immaterial. The value of the books is in God communicating to us what He wants us to know, and that is helping us to learn how to make real in our lives what we believe.
To that end, the sermon branched into the idea that we are to “do unto others,” quoting the scripture about our neighbor.
12“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:12 (NASB95)
She read about John Wesley expanding on what “Do Good” meant to him. Wesley said to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison, and reprove evil. This is scriptural as well. This passage is long, but it is worth it. These commands are in context, in their entirety, along with the consequences for doing or not doing them. It is worth the time to read it through.
31“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
32“All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;
33and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
34“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;
36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
37“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?
38‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?
39‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
40“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
41“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;
42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;
43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
44“Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’
45“Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
46“These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:31–46 (NASB95)
Why is all that so important? Again, we have reinforcement of the flesh and spiritual lives we lead. Doing good in the first three, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting those in captivity, which I read as struggling with life, are all caring for the fleshly body on earth. The last one, reproving evil, deals with the spiritual part, ensuring our heart's position is right. We cannot do one without the other because if we do, we fix one thing but either leave the other undone or, worse, damage it while fixing the other.
Then, Pastor Lee connected it to today and made it real in a very concrete way. She asked a question that hit hard, given current events. “How do we do good for Israel from Marietta?” I live in Kennesaw, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, and next-door neighbor to Marietta. Her question is simple: how does what we do here help people over there?
The first and obvious answer is prayer, which is the spiritual component. The earthly, fleshly component is to turn to our neighbor right here and help them. I do not believe the earthly component to help Israel form Marietta involves money. I don’t. I agree with Pastor Lee that helping people right here resonates across the spiritual realm to help people over there. In this place, right here, with the resources we have at hand, helping the people that surround us, we help Israel. The Holy Spirit makes it so. Does our helping a child in Georgia somehow translate to physical help for a child in distress in Israel right now? I don’t think so, but God can do mighty things when His people who are called by His name come together humbly. This happens because while the world of the flesh is bound by geography, the Kingdom of God, the spiritual kingdom, is not.
The book this series was inspired by was mentioned. Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living by Ruben P. Job. You can find it on Amazon HERE.
Pastor Lee wrapped it up with a few questions and answers. She said that so much is out of our control in life, but choosing to do good is within our control. She asked, will we make that choice each and every day? When we do, she said, that provides us glimpses of the Kingdom of God. It is in those glimpses we grow closer to Him and begin to assemble some portion of His bigger picture.
The idea that we can become agents of those glimpses to other people is intriguing. If we start to do good for others, they snatch a glimpse of God in us and begin to assemble their portion of His Big Picture for themselves through us. When that person gathers enough “glimpses,” maybe they turn to Jesus if they are not followers. What an amazing idea and concept and a huge responsibility. We have to try and square ourselves away as much as we can. We have to, at the same time, understand we make mistakes, but God does not, and because of that, we should always seek His peace, His ways, and His justice rather than ours or Man’s. At that moment, when we humble ourselves to Him rather than earthly desires, we may be able to reflect God’s love for His children and move them closer to His ways. That’s how we make a difference both here and everywhere else. God bless and Godspeed.