It feels like just a few weeks ago I was writing about the difficulty of believing the calendar said January, 2026. And now here we are on the downward slope of 2026, quickly approaching the turning of the calendar to 2027. My parents always told me time would move faster as I aged and I never believed them. They could not have been more right. Even as time passes seemingly more quickly, though, I’m reminded of Spurgeon’s emphasis on gospel proclamation, an emphasis I’ve spoken of in the past. On the wall of his office where the office door was located, Spurgeon had a plaque that read simply, “Perhaps Today?” As he left his office each day he read the plaque and it reminded him of the urgency to proclaim the message of Christ, because, Spurgeon thought, perhaps today Christ will return. Though time may seem to pass more quickly for some than others, one thing remains constant: when an unbeliever dies, he hears “Depart from me you worker of iniquity” and inherits eternal conscious torment in hell facing the unadulterated wrath of God on sin forever. This is a sobering thought and reminds us, as time passes, so do the souls of those who have never placed faith and trust in Christ and Him alone. May we each be the light others need as they search for meaning in their lives and seek answers to difficult questions.
Having finished 1 and 2 John, this month we turn our attention to the third letter of John, a letter written to an individual. Although written to one person named Gaius, the letter nonetheless is helpful to us as modern readers for a number of reasons as we will see as we work through the book. Verse 1 begins with the author, the recipient, and the relationship between the two. The author identifies himself simply as “the elder,” the same way 2 John begins. Though anonymous, the writing style, information contained within, and connection to other writings make identification of “the elder” somewhat easily discernible. The overwhelming majority of New Testament scholars and commentators argue the apostle John is the author of this letter. This gives the letter apostolic weight for readers then as much as it does now. The person to whom the letter is addressed is Gaius. This is John’s only letter addressed to one individual so, in that way, it is somewhat like Philemon. Ultimately, scholars do not know the particular Gaius to whom John is writing because the name was common in the ancient world, but we do know some aspects about the life of Gaius. We know first, based on the relationship between John and Gaius described in verse 1, that Gaius was a Christian because we see John writes of his love for Gaius “in truth.” The truth expressed in verse 1 is the truth John discusses in John 14:6 as Jesus is described there as "the way, the truth, and the life.” So, John loves Gaius in Christ. We also know John had a close, personal connection with Gaius because of the way John’s love is expressed personally throughout the letter. In verse 2 John refers to Gaius as one who is “beloved” by John and he offers prayers for Gaius’s physical and spiritual health. Though some writers have argued Gaius must have been in poor health for John to offer well wishes of good health, this was nothing more than a common greeting in the ancient world, so this does not mean necessarily that Gaius was in poor health. It was simply a way for John to say, “I pray you are well.” In verse 3 John expresses his great joy in hearing a report from other believers, likely teachers or pastors, of Gaius’s spiritual health and that he is being discipled well by others. In our final verse for the month, John writes that he experiences no greater joy than to hear of the spiritual health of one of his “children.” This could mean John led Gaius to faith in Christ or it could be a more general thankfulness for the spiritual health of any believer. It seems more likely, based on the context, that John probably led Gaius to faith and so has a close, personal connection with him. How do these four introductory verses impact us; how can we apply this to our lives. First, we can show our love to all those who are fellow believers in Christ because, like John and Gaius, we should love one another “in truth,” in Christ. Second, we should offer our prayers and well wishes for other believers, both for their spiritual health and their physical health. Third, we should be filled with joy as we hear of other believers who are being discipled and who have a Kingdom mindset. Fourth, we should find our joy in Christ and what He has done rather in ourselves and what we have done. Although it can be easily tempting to look at other believers and wish we had what they have or look at other churches and wish our church has what others do, the biblical example set here in 3 John is quite the opposite. Here, John shows his willingness and excitement to pray for, send well wishes to, and express his deep and abiding joy over another believer who is not inside his own congregation. Brothers and sisters, may we each do the same.
As we have been doing, please continue praying for each other (1 Thess 5:17) and for the other churches in our Association. I want to encourage you strongly to pray for each other, other pastors, and sister congregations in our area as we work together to encourage pastors and equip churches to engage lostness for the sake of fulfilling our part of the Great Commission. Lift each of these pastors and congregations to the Father, asking for His providential care for them and for His mercy and grace to work mightily through them.
Double Springs, Taylors, Kevin Elders
Doxa, Spartanburg, Bryan Polin
Duncan First, Duncan, James Shetley
Ebenezer Welcome, Landrum, Vince Gainey
El Bethel, Greer, Jonathan “JoBal” Baldwin
Enoree, Travelers Rest, Dale McCoig
Fairview, Greer, Brad Lynch
First Korean, Greer, Sueng Heon Lee
Foothills, Travelers Rest, Tim Snyder
Forestville, Greenville, Todd Stewart
My prayer for you for September is the same as always. May the Lord grant each of us opportunities to share the message of Christ with unbelievers and disciple believers in the message of Christ. As an association of churches, we partner together for the sake of encouraging and equipping each other in order to engage lostness for the sake of fulfilling the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20).
