Stay Faithful (Study of 3 John- Part 1)

1 The elder, to my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth. 2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. (3 John 1:1-4)

We see that John the author is writing a letter to Gaius, who seems to be an elder and is healthy.

“I pray that you may enjoy good health“. V. 2

“The elder, to my dear friend Gaius,” V. 1

It seems also as if this man is getting to the age of death, from the since of the writing, so I could see how it was be something great to say that he is joyful. The one teaching we can get from this example, God doesn’t forget his people. When we are faithful, God blesses us.

We see Gaius is being thanked, or praised, as you could call it, for following the teaches of God and the way of God, for that is why God blesses the men to not get sick in old age, like many older people do.

We can see from V. 2, “as your soul is getting along well“. His soul or spirit is going well, or good, which can be define as he is doing or obeying the teachings of the Lord. We can see the teachings in the command since things, which Jesus teaches, not what the law teaches. Jesus turned the law around and those who follow what he said and what is TRUTH and believed in him are blessed, even to this day, therefore the reason behind the many verses on deeds and faith working together, because God wants to bless his people, but he will only do so, if we are faithful with our lives.

I feel I need to say, it’s not by faith alone that we are saved, we need to be willing to turn, 100% back around to Christ, even know it’s going to be hard, Jesus whom is God in human form, said, “I will never leave you”. God is not against, but for us.

In V. 3, “It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it.” We find that Gaius, is a men that walks in the truth of Jesus and he is faithful, meaning most likely, that he went throw a-lot of suffering and pain in his life and still stayed in the faith, that when the storm of life came, he hold on and did not walk away from Christ, therefore, God blessed this men with Good Health in old age. This man of God, “continue“, he never stopped. We as believers need to press on, never stopping, the devil wants us to stop, but God will bless us if we never stop, keep on going.

We should be faithful and living our lives for Jesus Christ, and not giving up, because this men had a testimony of Jesus in his own personal life, and other believers saw it and used it, maybe even some who needed help with their own faith, we don’t know.

The way we live, others will see how we live our lives, so we need to live as if we our-self’s are Jesus, though we are the church, we need to live faithful lives, so our light, who is Jesus, can shine bright, this will not only will testify to other about who Jesus and what Jesus is doing through you and how he changed your life, it will be an open door for God to bless you.

We can also learn of whom God himself is, he is a God of Blessings. We see how this men is living rightly with God, even know he could just have faith, and do some stuff, he continues on and God blesses him, because he don’t give up.

We need to remember, do we want God to pull us back up every day, or do we want that blessing, alone with people seeing Jesus in us? It is your choice.

Okay, in V. 4, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”. It says his children. Most likely this men Gaius is much older than John, so how is he his child? The answer is easy and clear. Since Gaius was lead to Christ and teach by John, than in the old days, a student was called the teachers child. You may see this in schools today, teachers calling their students, their kids, and it’s just a saying, so that none of you are lost on that. I know I was, but God showed me, when I reread it.

Above all, God wants us doing one thing pretty much, staying faithful to his way, and we will be blessed. Notice I said, STAYING faithful, not SAYING Faithful, lot’s of Christian’s are SAYING faithful. Let’s put the T back after that S.