CARING FOR MISSIONARIES

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.

3 John 1:5-8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I have always had the greatest admiration and respect for missionaries, those amazing servant disciples who carry out the Great Commission of Jesus in the purest sense. I say this because Jesus commanded His followers to go and make disciples, the emphasis on the “go” part. He doesn’t specifically tell us where to go because He expects that we will be ready to head to wherever He leads us.

We find the earliest example of this selfless, sacrificial surrender to leave your comfort zone to go to an unknown place dictated by Jesus when we look at the calling of His first disciples. Let’s revisit that now as a lead in to today’s passage from John’s third letter:

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”

At once they left their nets and followed Him.

Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Matthew 4:18-22

Two sets of brothers, both with comfortable lives and vocations, one pair in partnership with their father who no doubt brought them up in the trade.

In both instances, the brothers answered Jesus’ call and abandoned everything they had to simply follow Him.

I think we often read this in a vacuum, having heard the story so many times that we simply move on in the Gospel to see what happens next. But if we pause for a moment and reflect, a question can quickly arise, one that makes us ponder our own willingness to submit to the call of Jesus and go as He calls us to. The question might go like this:

If Jesus comes and simply calls me to go with Him, promising that He would use me to “fish” for people, would I leave everything behind and just go?

If we’re honest, that’s a real challenge to a person because it’s easier said than done. That’s why I said I have the deepest respect for missionaries who do respond in deeply sacrificial ways and we have several families in my home church who do just that.

As we consider the blessed work of selfless missionaries, we come to our passage today where we are reminded that people have been going where Jesus sends them for well over 2,000 years now. Let’s look again at those verses here:

Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth. 3 John 1:5-8

Here John is commending his good friend and fellow Gospel worker Gaius for the hospitality he was extending to missionaries who passed through his church while carrying out the call of Jesus. These “brothers and sisters” were Christians who Gaius and his church helped even though they were “strangers”, and the report of the love shown them had made its way back to John. In response to this, we find him exhorting Gaius to “send them on their way in a manner that honors God” for they were going out “for the sake of the Name” (Jesus) and surely would receive nothing from the pagans, the ones who be rejecting them and the salvation offer they extended.

In the end, note where the church is to “show hospitality” to missionaries so to “work together” with them for the truth by sharing a mutual association and fellowship with Jesus, who is the Truth (John 14:6). My prayer is that we would answer this call from the scriptures and do what we can to support and nurture all who truly to go with reckless abandon to radically answer the Great Commission of Christ.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.