The third book of John is a letter of his to a friend named Gaius. We don't know much about Gaius except what we learn from this letter. We don't even know if John met him more than one time, but John cared about him enough to call him "friend." He also thought enough of him to encourage him when it was learned he was blessing others in Jesus' name. Maybe we should take note of what John did and do the same thing.

I've found great encouragement from this little letter of John's. I especially like the part where he praises Gaius for ministering to Christians he's never seen before. The fact men were serving in the Name of Jesus was reason enough for Gaius to bless them. But don't you think it takes dedication to do such a thing when you'll likely never see a person again? Gaius must have done it for his love of Jesus and sought, nor likely received, any return benefit other than confidence he was being obedient to the Spirit of God.

Have you ever considered the way most Christians give today? Without question, any modern sermon on giving uses the word "receive" with the same, or even greater intensity than "give." In fact, it's highly unlikely you'll ever hear a sermon where the fact the giver wasn't blessed for his gift. I think of Gaius and tend to lower my head in shame for the way we've colored the act of giving to be somewhere between legality or obligation, and giving so you can get. Preachers might as well say, "the reason you don't have material blessings Christians is due to the fact you've never given material blessings to this church!"

I often wonder what God will say of us when we get to heaven and our giving record is revealed. For ninety-nine percent of Christians, their giving record is recorded with the Internal Revenue Service and the bookkeeping record of the local church. It seems a little smelly to me that we've turned giving to ministry into give as long as you receive credit from the church office and the government gives you a little tax relief. Something tells me the first century disciples would have avoided such a public display of giving.

Here's a thought: I wonder what would happen to the church today if its 501c3 not-for-profit classification were discontinued. One thing for sure, the sudden year-end generosity to the church would stop for there would be no more tax advantage to give before the end of the calendar. What would happen if Christians gave money in line with the Holy Spirit's prompting and not the expected percentage of income called the tithe? Who can say.

If John and Gaius were alive in this generation, I imagine they would be doing things a lot differently than us. First, their service toward others would be private and not for show. Secondly, their giving would be secret as would their tithing to the church. They would avoid public disclosure of their actions and they would probably shake their head in disbelief when someone else gave money to the church with one hand and held the other one out to the government for a tax break.

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( Hs. 6:1-9:17 3 Jn. 1:1-15 Ps. 126:1-6 Pr. 29:12-14 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

Copyright © 1998-2004 James R. Green and Prayertower Ministries
All Rights Reserved