“For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, just as you are living according to the truth.” 3 John 3 NET

The word rejoice implies an outward expression of our internally felt joy. In fact the definition is to feel or show great joy or delight. Perhaps you can remember when you last rejoiced greatly.

John spends a lot of time talking about truth (aletheia) in his letter to Gaius. In fact, in this short text he mentions “truth” a total of 6 times! But this isn’t Johns first book…

“Truth” occurs 25 times in the Gospel of John, 9 times in 1 John, 5 times in 2 John, and 6 times in 3 John. Johns first use is his prologue:

¹⁴ Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father. ¹⁵ John testified about him and shouted out, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.’” ¹⁶ For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another.¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

(John 1:14-17 NET)

More on grace and truth later. For now, lets unpack this truth. The Ultimate Truth for John was the incarnate Christ. Every second of history since the dawn of creation was leading up to this realization. Jesus was there in the beginning; in and through him all things were created. He is the totality of life and light, and always has been. Every prophecy, every event, every twist and turn of time… it all was leading up to Jesus, the God-Man, becoming known in the flesh.

The angels rejoiced at his birth. We rejoice at his resurrection.

In Mathew 12:38-42, Jesus answers back to a group of religious leaders who demanded a sign and he said his resurrection would be a sign like Jonahs. Later, in Romans 1 Paul argues that the resurrection is the proof that Jesus was who he said he was.

Jesus was Truth embodied, and if that doesn’t change your perspective on everything – it should. Because the creator of everything, who hung stars and planets in the heavens, who spoke life into existence, who saved Noah, called Abraham, wrestled Jacob, lead Moses, called the 12, and gave sight to Paul…. is the same God who died and rose again, giving salvation to sinners, and the gift of faith to us that believe.

But not everyone believes. And this isn’t new.

In Mathew 28:11 we read about a conspiracy by the leading Jews to cover up the truth of His resurrection. Yet the faithful pushed back, and by the power of the Holy Spirit the church grew as the Gospel spread.

Truth began changing lives.

We don’t know much about Gaius but we do know he was a dear friend of John, whom John loved in truth.

Gaius wasn’t born a christian. We can assume his name is Latin, and that he was probably a Roman gentile before he came to know the truth. In fact the name Gaius was very common, and we also know it means “to rejoice” (fitting, good move John).

Gaius was probably a convert, or even a disciple of John, as he is referred to as one of his “children”. John was far removed from him, and John was encouraged to find out that Gaius was standing firm in the truth, as evidence by his life. This made John rejoice greatly.

There is so much joy when you see the gospel impacting another person. When you see them grow in their faith, and deepen their relationship with Christ. We should become ecstatic when we see chains broken, and dead hearts made alive. We should praise God when we see His Truth transforming lives because it is cause for much celebration, and we should rejoice greatly too!

Who are you leading? Praying for? Discipling?

Peace be with you.