III John 1:1-14
So if I come… (v. 10a). Scholars have suggested that John was the leader of the church at Ephesus and very probably in a position not unlike our bishops today, also overseeing other churches in Asia Minor. This character, Diotrephes stands out in today’s reading – harsh, autocratic, dictatorial – yet seemingly the leader of a congregation not too far away from Ephesus in Asia Minor. Reading the whole letter in context, it seems that John’s friend and supporter, Gaius, is a member of Diotrephes’ congregation, and that John is hopeful of making an apostolic visit to that church to straighten things out there.
All this is timely, in that we just had a visit from our ADOTS Bishop and ACNA Archbishop Foley Beach. Although he had come for the installation service on Sunday, he had made it a point to have dinner with the Vestry and our new Rector on Saturday evening the night before. In essence he was making his own apostolic visit, “taking the temperature” of our congregation by seeking out our church leadership, doing exactly what bishops are supposed to do. His words to us on Sunday morning told us that he was pleased with what he saw, that we were moving forward just as he had expected, in God’s good grace. What a blessing it is to have someone like Foley Beach as our apostolic covering. Our congregation is blessed in so many ways; this is just one more!
Today is our last day reading through the epistles. Tomorrow we begin the book of Revelation where we will spend the final two weeks of 2021. That may be a new experience for some of you. Revelation is very different from all the other books in the New Testament. But we move on!
See also: December 30 / III John 1:1-8; December 31 / III John 1:9-14