Letters of John, 3 John 9-15 Conflict in the Church

All right, so I thought, you know, to conclude this, the third epistle is pretty brief. So I think we'll just read the whole thing here today. My topic is conflict in the church versus 9 through 15. And by the way, some Bibles end with verse 14. They combine 15 and 14. So don't be confused. Maybe 9 to 14, based on what version you're particularly using.

All right, verse 1, the elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth, Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health just as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. Now, keep in mind, John has been about the truth as a major theme, particularly in the second and third epistles. And he brings that up again here in the third epistle. Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren. and for strangers who have borne witness of your love before the church. And if you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for his namesake, taking nothing from the Gentiles.

We therefore ought to receive such that we may become fellow workers for the truth." Verse 9, today's lesson. I wrote to the church, but Diophrates, who loves to have the preeminence among them, doesn't receive us. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does, prating against us with malicious words, and not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to putting them out of the church. Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, and he who does evil has not seen God.

Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true. I have many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink. But I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.

All right, so as usual, we'll begin with a summary of what was covered by Andrew last week. It could have been Roger, it could have been Roy, but it was Andrew actually. And the title of last week's lesson was Salutation and Missionary Support. First, I think 3 John teaches that fellowship and hospitality is absolutely encouraged if it's with truth. This theme of truth is something we see repeatedly emphasized by the Apostle John. Secondly, the missionary is one who is a true minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and not a deceiver, an apostate, or an antichrist. And the third point is warm hospitality to ministers of the gospel is encouraged. I think we all kind of can put ourselves in a position to think about our own hospitality to greet and inhabit and pray for our missionaries who service abroad or even locally. Not because I think our elders and our leaders here in the church. So let's dissect that verse by verse.

I wrote to the church, but Diophrates, who loves to have the preeminence among them, doesn't receive us. That doesn't sound very good, does it? And this guy, Diophrates, Diotrophes, I guess better pronunciation, He was apparently an elder or a self-appointed leader of an unnamed assembly. We're not quite sure where this church is at, but it clearly existed as a physical entity. And some commentators suggest this was where Gaius was. I mean, we don't have any solid evidence, but he's mentioned earlier in this epistle. And whether these two overlapped in any way at a particular location, we just don't know and don't have the detail. The Lord hasn't given us that.

Of interest, He loves to have a preeminence is one Greek verb. Philopoteo, which means the desire to be first. And this is the only use of this term in the New Testament. I find that kind of interesting. So loves to have preeminence is one Greek word. So you get the idea of some sort of an autocratic ministry that he's overseeing. All right.

And, you know, just to remind us, Philippians 2, 3, and 4, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But the lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves. Let each of you look, but not only for their own interests, but also the interests of others. I mean, you know, it's just a reminder of the leadership in the church is not someone who is preeminently have focused only on themselves.

And Paul gives us a good, good text on Philippians on that particular issue. All right. You know, perhaps an indication of this personality of the autocracies is what follows. And I think, you know, it indicates that he probably lacked hospitality. So it says he does not receive us Again, it's the only New Testament use of that term. He doesn't receive us, that verb form. So we're given some unique information about Diotrephes in terms of his inability to lead and his very self-serving kind of behavior without an atmosphere of hospitality in terms of those who may be sent to him as missionaries or other expositors of the gospel.

Matthew 10.40 seems like a good example here in terms of the Christ life we all have. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. I mean, you know, the idea of us having new creations in Christ Jesus, the ability to receive someone is based on the solid doctrine of the Christ life that we see in the individuals who the Lord brings through our path.

So I think that This is kind of, again, an example of his kind of aristotic kind of ways of going about things and not really running the ministry in a careful and God-fearing manner. Any thoughts about this leadership, Jim? I just said that, you know, the person that's unwilling to accept other people and is kind of trying to create his own little empire, so to speak, is a weak person.

And that person is not at peace with God, because if you're at peace with God, you feel good about yourself. And obviously that person does. That's important in a leadership role particularly, right? It's important for all of us. Well, what I was going to say is in the fact that it appears that he puts the ones, people who are willing to receive him out of the church, that's pretty severe for him to, you know, take on such a leadership role in that way that he would be putting other people out of the church who don't agree with them.

Okay. It's my way or the highway. And Margaret's already read verse 10, but that's okay too. No, you're good. I'll talk privately a little bit later. All right, verse 10. Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds, which he does, prating against us with malicious words, and not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, forbids those who wish to putting them out of the church. So, yes. All right, so here I think John raises the uncertainty of a visit, first of all, and verse 14 really re-emphasizes that, that he's not sure he's ever going to come. We'll return to that as we close today's lesson. And he states that if he does come, he will call to mind, meaning remember, his, meaning Diotrephes, deeds, which he does. He's actively doing this. This is present active. He's actively doing these deeds. And how should we interpret prating against us? What's prating? Is that a word we typically use in the English language? Unjustly accusing. What did you say? Well, actually, the American Standard has a few different words for verse 10.

It says actually that he will call attention to his deans, which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words. So I'm trying to match up that with your Yeah, well, you know, Strong, I think, really gives us a lot of ways to interpret this. Yes, Callan. Oh, if my interest is gossiping, we'll look at that. So, OK, well, again, this term is not frequently used in scripture, but Strong says it's to utter nonsense, talk idly, bring forward idle accusations, make empty charges, accuse one falsely and hear In the text, it says with malicious words or evil words.

This guy is really an act of mistake. We're going to return to kind of maybe what the atmosphere was here in the subsequent verses in terms of why he may be acting this way. That doesn't justify it. It simply gives an explanation for it. This guy is not in the right place at the right time, and he's recorded in scripture. Why couldn't we have seen the better part of some of the ministries that are out there? But anyway, we're given this as an example of conflict in a church and how that can ensue. And we're glad that it's no longer happening. That's a narrow view, but this is good. I like it. And it says he's not being content with that. There are other signs of this misdirected leadership. He does not receive the brethren. Receive relates to hospitality, doesn't it?

I mean, I think that's the theme here. And really, Andrew covered that nicely last week. And the brethren are likely that what the commentators seem to say is these are likely missionaries on their journeys, that the brethren may not be in place there, but for whatever reason, they're interpreted as people who are coming into the church, ultimately with the gospel message. So I think that maybe is a little bit over-speculated. This could be the brethren who exist at this local body, but that seems to be an interpretation that several commentators seem to make. Now, I kind of like Neander's view here, and I'll read this slowly because there's a lot of text here, but I think this provides some understanding of maybe Neander thinks that the missionaries were Jews by birth. OK, get the idea here. So these people coming in were Jewish in heritage. And when it is said in their praise, they took nothing from the Gentiles.

So in contrast to other Jewish missionaries who have abused ministers right of maintenance elsewhere, as Paul described, Now in the Gentile churches there existed an ultra-pauline party of anti-Jewish tendency. The forerunners of Marcion, the theotrophies, possibly stood at the head of this party which fact as well as this deep, what is that? Domineering. Yeah, domineering spirit may account for his hostility to the missionaries and to the Apostle John, who had, by the power of love, need to harmonize the various elements in the Asiatic church.

So it's kind of an interesting perspective that maybe this was, if you will, a ultra-Pauline party that really was very supportive of the Gentile, you know, body of Christ, and that maybe that these Jewish missionaries were largely excluded because of that.

Again, that's one person's thought here. I think provides perhaps some historical basis for this opinion. Your thoughts about that? Does that seem like over-speculation based on what scripture tells us? I think it might be, but I thought it was kind of interesting, the idea of why you know, some might be excluded and others... So did the commentary say where he got that information?

No, it's simple. I'm just quoting what... I understand what you're saying. It sounds, you know, that sounds pretty... Specific, right? Very specific. I'm not asking you to buy it. I'm just giving you an example of maybe this is why Dioprates really was working in this manner, I think. It's kind of interesting.

I mean, remember, the church is one body, Jew and Gentile. They're no longer Jews. They're no longer Gentiles. They're members of the body of Christ. So men and women, black and white, Jew and Gentile, I mean, it goes on and on. We're one in Christ, right?

So if people take this position, but whatever position he was taking was one of self-centeredness and the domination with exclusion of those who, in fact, perhaps had a different view. All right. And then he who forbids those who wish to putting them out of the church. So he, in fact, as Margaret alluded to, got rid of them. I mean, basically, they were not welcome there. Well, it's bad enough to have, you know, to be doing things with the wrong motive. But then if you take your opinion of that and impose it on other people and they don't follow your example, then you say, well, and you have the power to put them out.

I mean, that sounds pretty Well, right. And, you know, I want to maybe have us think out loud here a little bit. How might we imagine this occurring today? I think it does. Well, you could have an elder or somebody in your church that didn't like certain people and, you know, he has influence and ask them to leave.

I don't know. You know, this body has a history of a lot of people visiting here, but not being comfortable enough to stay. And I don't think that's an act of ours to try to have them leave. But we have that in our own Bible study where people come a few times and we never see them again because they they're either put off by the truth or it's so different from what they've grown up with or they studied that they aren't comfortable.

I mean, we've seen that a lot. One of the criticisms might be that you think you have the corner on the truth, right? And I think here we believe that we are rightly here, but that doesn't exclude people who want to come. We need to be hospitable to people with different backgrounds, different views, and be open to them being included.

Jim? I'm always afraid of In the Bible it says, if you make one of my believers stumble and fall, then you're going to pay for it. And I think kicking somebody out of the church for something that shouldn't happen, that's causing someone to stumble and fall. Well, Wayne, you have a history here at Holly Hills.

Has there ever been people who we've asked to leave? And what were the circumstances related? That was not before any counseling or, you know, I mean, it was to, well, it was a form of pastor, but the teaching was okay. But, you know, people were leaving because, you know, and so he would work with, for quite a while, with the elders. The elders spoke to him, and they would We'd come back and chastise the elders from the pulpit. So, yeah. Oh, we had an organist that was involved in some things, too. But they were always counseled with first before they were... Yeah, okay, that's scriptural.

You're not welcome. But in my 25 years here, I've seen nothing but hospitality. I haven't seen anyone that's really been asked to not come back. I'm going to Carol first, and then you, Jim. This kind of stuff wasn't made public. I mean, it was behind the scenes, and it wasn't to run anybody down. It was just to say, hey, this is not right. Carol?

Yeah, I think, I mean, there's a balance there where you want people who are speaking in the church to be speaking truth. But there's, you know, there's church discipline, but there's also, you know, not having people that are causing other people to stumble or, you know, so there's a balance there. And I think, you know, in leadership, it's kind of one of their jobs to kind of keep that balance. Well, the church body stumbling is something we shouldn't be about. That really relates more to individual interactions, doesn't it, more so?

But I guess it could at a church level. But doctrinal issues that are really important to the, you know, ultimately the bylaws, if you will, the scripturally based, you know, kind of rules of the church really would be a reason. I heard of a church who had a pastor who was very authoritative.

He was offensive to some people. And I guess this is more common in law-based teachings than it is in grace-based. The pastor can just be so authoritative that it's either my way or the highway. That could be a very dangerous position. Yeah, the law of grace thing is an important dividing line, isn't it? I think I agree with Carolyn that it's degrees how much that person is doing to be disruptive.

If it's a doctrinal thing and they're preaching you know, something that's anti, you know, God. Well, there's no choice there. You have to, but I was going to say, well, I guess I forgot what my second point was. I'm 71 and it's too late. You've got a few more years to go here.

You know, Paul points out very carefully in Galatians in the first chapter that law for the believer is another gospel. It's not grace. And I think the law of grace... Yeah, I was just trying to not butt in on anybody. My only comment was, I feel like this verse is really pointing to a leader who is self-serving, not following the truth.

And he was putting people out of the church indiscriminately because they're not following him. Right. And I don't think he's really talking about putting someone out of the church for the wrong reason. It's for the right reason. So this guy's a bad guy, and he's throwing good people away. So that's how I looked at it. But he could be saved, right? Yeah. I mean, that's the issue, too. But salvation is a three verb process, right? I was saved. I'm being saved. And I will say, we're all experiencing being safe day in and day out.

And one other thing here too, Bob. Speak up Roy a little bit if you could. Yeah, the context here is, do we love God? Is it in an environment of love of Him that we're doing this? Or is it something that is self-focused? I think that's the contrast here. Yeah, and you've opened up the door to the next verse, and it's good because it's a good lead-in. Beloved, do not imitate or follow what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, and he who does evil has not seen God. Kind of an interesting verse in many ways.

Let's drill down. It's typical John, right? It's black and white. We're going to get to black and white in a second. It's in the text. Have you looked at my handout already? No, I haven't. Oh, OK. All right. The verse speaks for itself. Let's look at it and drill down here a little bit.

Imitate or follow not or imitate not or follow not is an imperative. I mean, John is strongly stating don't do evil, do good. OK, so, you know, the different Greek words have a kind of a similar root. So imitate is mementes or mementes and is translated here as follow. But can they be interpreted the same? What do you think? To imitate, follow, or do you think of those as the same word? It's interesting because in my New King James Version, it's imitate, but in most other translations, it's follow. What do most of you think?

It's imitate. All right. So is our life one of imitation or following? Well, let's boil it down here. It's indwelling. Okay, 1 Corinthians 11, I think Ephesians the first chapter has a similar rank. Imitate me just as I also have Christ. Now what's Paul saying here? Imitate Christ in me. Is that walking in his shoes or his steps? Are we trying to be more like him? Is that the What you're looking at is emulating like a model. You've got a model in front of you. All right, Paul is a human model.

The reason we turn to Paul so often is because we really identify with what the Christian walk really looks like, don't we? And that's the new life we have in Christ Jesus. So that imitation is of Paul's existence as a new creation in Christ Jesus. The imitation is not to be like Paul. The point is to be indwelled, positionally founded, and our walk conditionally is consistent with our new creation in Christ Jesus.

That's the way I interpret, imitate. So, and then in 2 Thessalonians 2, 7 or 9, for you yourselves know how you ought to follow, again, follow now in the second Greek definition, how to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. So again, Back to the question, is imitation and follow the same thing?

Or in fact, are we being too particular here? Margaret says no. Let me hear Margaret first, Jim. No, because follow is a whole different concept than to recognize, as you pointed out, Christ being in Paul or the person. So following would be totally different.

That would mean that you actually put some kind of, you put that person on some kind of a pedestal of some kind to do what, it's sort of like, you know, do what Jesus does or whatever. No, it's about being enthralled and having that in you, that whole, All right, I'm going to challenge you.

Paul wrote both 1 Corinthians 11, 1 and 2 Thessalonians 2, 7 and 9. Jim, make a point. Margaret's pondering this. Okay. Well, I agree with Margaret. I follow Christ. I will imitate Paul. In other words, the suffering that Paul was experiencing because of his faith. But I do not follow Paul. I only follow Christ. Well, following Christ, is that, is that a work of the flesh? No. The work of the Spirit. So that's the fruit of the Spirit and our new creations in Christ Jesus. Karen?

I think like, I mean, the way I'm thinking about it, imitating is like doing a mini-me kind of thing. Is this like doing what? Like a mini-me kind of thing where you're just, you're just, what this looks like is what this looks like. Whereas to me, following is, you know, having the same values and living in the same principles. And, you know, in trying to, you know, it's kind of a, you know, it involves the whole person rather than just how things look to the outside world. All right. That's interesting.

Now, let's turn back to First Corinthians 11.1. Again, in context, we're talking about imitating. We're starting not to imitate evil, but doing good. Paul says, imitate me just as also I Christ. He's not trying to imitate. He's not trying to be Christ.

He, in fact, is a new creation in Christ Jesus. So I think that's what Paul's saying. This is the new life that he's now living. You know, the road to Damascus, he was often then three years of teaching by the Lord himself. This is a transformed man as a new creation in Christ Jesus. All old things are passed away.

And I think that's what Paul's, but following does seem to have a somewhat of a different connotation, doesn't it? Paul uses that same word for you yourselves know how you ought to follow. Again, it's a different Greek term there, suggesting that slightly different meanings of the two.

They're both positional in terms of our salvation. I mean, because Apollo is like, well, here's an example, and this is how we're saved by grace. And to follow is also sort of, here's an example of positioning where you're just, where you're placed. See, our condition is to be impacted by our position.

And that's a spirit-led life. And I think even in Second Thessalonians, he said, for you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly. So there's an example that's being provided, but that's new nature stuff. When we live out the truth of the word of God, that in fact is truth, as John has emphasized it repeatedly in his epistles.

So anyway, we don't want to get too bogged down here, but evil versus good. Is this specific to the example here, or is it worthy of more generalization? Well. I think you can generalize this, right? It's not specific to this example. As John so often portrays this contrast, there you are, Roger, this black and white stuff, so evil and good.

You know, the thing is, if we walk kind of analyzing everything we do, whether it was evil or good, we're going to get bonged down, right? We have a life to live, and we've been transformed as we have been made to conform to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ultimately, we don't need to examine everything we do. We fall short of times. But ultimately, we confess that, get back in fellowship and move on.

You know, Romans 12, 21, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So again, you know that even Paul goes there in chapter 12 of Romans, evil and good are black and white. And John's a black and white guy. First John 3, 6, whosoever abides in him doesn't sin.

And we covered that. How are we doing there? Does anybody have their sin nature totally eliminated in their day to day existence? I wish we could say that positionally. That's where positional truth becomes so critically important. Before God, he hath made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We are positionally secure. And now, conditionally, when we work and live in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit enacted, we, in fact, do not abide in sin. 1 John 3, 9, whosoever has been born of God doesn't sin again, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. So if that's not positional truth, I mean, John's saying this is what the new life looks like. This is good. This is the new life.

God only sees us. That's my point. We're righteous. He only sees us in Christ. So he doesn't even see all of that sin. We may still have it and we might think we're terrible sinners, but if we're saved, he doesn't even see that sin. It's totally It's already paid for by Christ. It's totally gone, as far as God is concerned.

That doesn't mean any of us live a perfect life. One of the important truths of the Word of God is the sin nature never changes. It doesn't get better over time. We're not talking about buffing up or removing the rust that we bring to this earth when we're born.

Unfortunately, And I think that's one of the struggles for a law-based Christian, that he or she is never feeling like they're pleasing God enough, that ultimately, positionally, they don't feel secure, even though they believe they have eternal life. And I think we're paraphrasing a lot of what John's saying here, but evil and good relates to natures. Our new nature versus our sin nature, doesn't it?

And John views this as totally white. We are, in fact, without sin because we've been saved. And John implies positional truth. Not only is this a different in nature, but it's a new creation. The old creation is still under havoc. It hasn't been changed. It's going to be fixed up. It's a new creation. And I don't know about you, but sometimes you look at your own behavior and say, gee, where'd that come from? Because that sin nature doesn't go away. It's always still there.

But we need to live positionally. That we're fully secure and blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. This is the one that when you get up in the morning you get hurt. Okay, we got to get moving now because we're having a lot of good discussion today.

He who does good is of God. He who does evil does not see God. What's it mean to have haven't seen God? How many humans have seen God? Or we saw the living God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Go ahead, Roger. I was going to say there's more in the sense of knowing God or So seeing God, you know, know God. Yeah, this is spiritually, not physically or literally. Okay. So seeing God means seeing who he is, is scripturally based and understanding his nature. So don't neglect our position and putting what we do or who we are into perspective. And that's really what we've been talking about, that particular aspect of our Christian life.

All right, in verse 12, Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from all the truth itself. We also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true. So what does Demetrius really exemplify to us here? It's a good testimony. And by the way, it's interesting that this good testimony that he exemplifies is passive indicative. That means it's factual, and it's a testimony that's been perceived by others that goes back to Demetrius to God's glory.

Isn't that interesting? It's Christ's life in him, basically. I think that's what it is, Roger. We're reading between the lines, but that's got to be what it is. Now, all means many witnesses were witnessing Demetrius. And by the way, I'm going to come to this in a second. And the truth is the basis of this. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they may have been done in God. And we also bear witness and you know, which is factual, that our testimony is true.

And by the way, are we not always put in a position of kind of judging testimonies and their source? I mean, welcome to life, right? The thing is, we're not called to look horizontally. We're called to be vertically based, looking down from our position on our earthly experience. But when we see our believers, our fellow believers do good or do evil, we kind of recognize that, don't we? So we're put in a position to be kind of judgmental, even though sometimes that judgment really is flesh-based and not spiritually based. But Karen, back to your point within the body, there can be ultimately a discipline in the body that relates to ultimately judging others' performance or their lives, or how they're falling short from the word of God.

All right, I'm combining 13 through 15 very quickly to end up. I had many things to write, but I don't wish to write to you with pen and ink, but I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you. Our friends greet you. Greet the friends by name. So in the New King James Version, the chapter ends the same with verse 15 collapsed into verse 14, but other versions have verse 15 still as verse 15.

So that's not a big deal. And in his first epistle, John had many things to write and didn't really want to write them with ink and pen. And there's a verse that really exemplifies that. I believe that I taught this particular verse. He's got lots of things to say. He didn't say them all. He'd rather come in person to be with them. And that really relates to this. And then there's this parting testimony. in the gospel.

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which is they were written in detail. I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. So, you know, John's always got something more to say or more that he'd like to express. But ultimately, scripture has limited him to what the Lord has included in the word of God.

But I hope to see you shortly. And we also speak face to face, literally mouth to mouth is really the literal translation. And, you know, it makes us think of our fellowship today. And I know Roger and Mike have been talking about maybe getting us all more together here personally. So here's the thought for the group here. Written letters are fine. Email is another way to transmit information. Video conferencing, we're doing that today with Zoom. face-to-face or mouth-to-mouth, which is best here? Face-to-face.

And I think our elders have felt that getting back together personally is really what's best. And I would agree with that sentiment. But the fact that during the COVID-19 pandemic, we've been able to reach out to people who are not capable of coming for one reason or another, or at a distance, Kathy, for instance, you, It's great to have you involved every week. And that wouldn't be possible without videoconferencing. But I think for the local body, being in person is so critically important. Carolyn, your thoughts?

Well, much when I'm at home, I mean, I get it, but then I got to deal with Jake. And I mean, you know, I'm being funny, but there's other distractions, you know, whether it's kids or, you know, whatever. So face to face, it's easier to not be distracted. Well, we have our fellowship meal to follow. Today's a good example of being able to talk and share and encourage.

Yes, Jim? Yeah, I think a video conference is good, but it's sterile. And being person to person, you're going to be more intolerant. You know what I mean? Well, I think you get to know people better. You see their facial expressions, their hand movements. I mean, things that are often lost.

But I will say that I've talked to some missionaries who have said, during the pandemic, they were able to reach hundreds and hundreds of people that would have never heard the gospel for the first time because they were videoing from country to country and neighborhood to neighborhood and all those things. So, you know, it's interesting how the Lord even use that to spread his message. I mean, it's pretty amazing. Well, some people think the age in which we live is where scripture becomes fulfilled in terms of reaching out to the entire world.

What John's talking about here is the local Bible. Well, you can't bug by Zoom. You can't what? Bug. Bug. Maybe that's verse 16 that I didn't see. I can't give you a holy kiss, Bob. Yeah. Well, let's be careful with that one, too. So John adds peace to you, which is it's like the it's kind of like the Jewish greeting. Shalom is what it is. And may peace be with you. And that's often a terminus to many of the epistles of the Bible. Any closing thoughts before we pray and dismiss here as well?

Remind them next week is we'll start James. Yeah, we're beginning the Epistle of James next week. And who's teaching next week? Oh, surprise. Well, let's hope I'm Demetrius and not Theophilus. Anyway, so. All right, let's close in prayer. Roger, please close us if you're here. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time today, Lord. Thank you for the blessings we have. Thank you for our study and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. We just pray for your will to be done in this body and we pray for this day. In Christ's name, Amen. Amen.