Choose Your Role Models Carefully

Introduction

Sometimes our experience in the Lord's service is spoiled by church conflict. Have you ever heard a conversation that went like this? Two brothers are engaged in a friendly conversation. We'll call them Mark and Luke.

Mark: "Have you heard about the trouble they're having over at Church X?"

Luke: "Yeah, I really hate to hear about that. Do you know what the fuss is all about?"

Mark: "Well, I think there's a clash between personalities."

Have you ever heard a conversation that went something like that? Most of us probably have. Usually we think personality conflicts shouldn't take place. If there's going to be disagreement, then it should be over something more substantial than two brothers who just don't seem to like each other.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have church conflict, but this isn't a perfect world. If we had our preferences, most of us would rather be in a church where there were no serious personality clashes. However clashes of peronalities frequently occur in the real world. Third John is largely about a personality clash in the church. We don't know which church, but we do know the names of three of the members. It's a letter written to a man who worshipped with a church that was dominated by a man whom psychologists would label a controller. It was written to a man of sterling character and reputation, whose lot in life was to live in a congregation ruled by a man whose motives were not pure. It was also written to recommend a third man who could be trusted and imitated.

Warren Wiersbe has written, "This little letter gives us a glimpse into the early assembly, its people and its problems. As you read this brief letter, you find yourself saying, 'Times have changed but not very much.'"

As we study the letter, we want to take a brief look at each of the three personalities John mentioned.

GAIUS

• John's Disposition.

  Three times John addressed Gaius as his "dear friend." The last verse indicates that he thought of the members of the church as "friends." We want to make sure we don't miss the significance of that point. The subject matter of this letter is church conflict. John had to say some hard things. He laid down some warnings. He had some negative things to say about one of the parties involved in the personality clash. When you do that, there's a temptation to show your impatience, to let the situation get under your skin. If a situation makes your blood boil, it takes a special measure of grace to keep from becoming so crabby that nobody can stand you.

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