Sermon Notes

3 John (NIV)
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.
⁵ Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. ⁶ They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. ⁷ It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. ⁸ We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.
⁹ I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. ¹⁰ So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
¹¹ Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. ¹² Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone — and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
¹³ I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. ¹⁴ I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
¹⁵ Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

John 13:34–35 NIV
³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

1 John 3:16–18 NIV
¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Philippians 2:3–4 NIV
³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Discussion Igniters

1. Have you ever met someone with the gift of hospitality? How did they make you feel?

2. Read the book of 3 John. How does the hospitality of Gaius and Diotrephes compare? Why do you think John feels the need to encourage Gaius to “not imitate what is evil but what is good”? 

3. Read 1 John 3:16–18. What is the standard of hospitality we are called to? 

4. Why is hospitality so important to God? 

5. Have you ever seen or experienced radical hospitality? What would it look like for you to imitate that kind of hospitality? 

Series Resources

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