Good morning,
Being a part of the organized church is always filled with growth opportunities. When the Apostle John was an old and honored leader he heard from his dear friend Gaius that there was trouble in the local church. One of the main church leaders there was earning a reputation as a mean, controlling, nasty man who demanded that everyone do things his way or they would be kicked out of the “his” church. At an earlier time this man had caused John some real pain and now he was attacking Gaius, one of John’s dear friends. John promised that when he came to this church he would confront this power hungry man. Then he gave Gaius some wonderful advice that can be a wonderful help to us as well as to his faithful friend.
He wrote, “Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you.” It’s been my experience over the years that anyone who is a godly individual in a local church will always collect challenging enemies. If you are one of the appointed leaders, it doesn’t take long for these self appointed people to question or oppose the work that the Lord is doing in that place. If per chance they have worked their way into a place of power in the church, anyone who questions their wisdom is in for trouble. Our Enemy does his best to get us to focus our energies on these problem people and forget why God planted us in the local church in the first place. Focusing on these negative people means that in reality they have become our leaders instead of following the leading of the Holy Spirit, who longs to show us the good works he has called us to do. John’s advice was that we focus on working together with those around us who are following God’s rules for living, as brothers and sisters who can be trusted to work with us for God’s glory. The fact that these evil people try to force us to follow their bad example is all the proof that we need that they really don’t know the God they claim to serve. They usually keep using God as their source of authority, but their real god is not the God of the Bible. Then John gave Gaius a model in the church to follow. Since Demetrius was God’s man, he was the man that should be the one to partner with in ministry. May the Lord help us to be like Demetrius, models of godliness instead of angry enemies of those who don’t know what they are doing.
III John 1: 11 Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God. 12 Everyone speaks highly of Demetrius, as does the truth itself. We ourselves can say the same for him, and you know we speak the truth.
Roy Wisner
