The Mark we Leave

If the people who know you had to sum you up in a single word, what would it be? Not your job title, not your achievements , but the trait that shows up every time someone interacts with you.

In one of the shortest letters in the New Testament, the apostle John answers exactly that question about a man most of us have never heard of. His name was Gaius, and the trait that made it into Scripture was generosity.

In his third letter, John opens by saying he had heard of Gaius's testimony to the truth, and how he “walked in the truth.”

I found myself reflecting on how testimony has to do with what we actually live out. To walk in the truth means a person knows, believes, and lives accordingly. This also reminded me of another passage of Scripture, in James, which says we should not merely be hearers of the word, but doers of it. Someone who walks in the truth is an integrated, whole believer. There's no dichotomy, inside them there is a perfect correspondence between what they believe and how they live.

Now we might ask: why does John praise Gaius so highly? What made John say that his testimony matched the truth? It's interesting to notice that John doesn't praise Gaius for his great accomplishments. He doesn't praise him for being well-known or having “networking” in Christian circles, for being the most charismatic leader who draws crowds, or for the number of positions and ministries he leads at once, and for having a church calendar always packed.

Gaius's great example consists, simply, in loving others. The word says:

“Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brothers, and especially for strangers, who have testified to your love before the church...”

Gaius was a generous and hospitable brother. He offered sacrificial love to others. Yes, sacrificial: he received strangers into his home , those called to proclaim the word of truth, who refused to be funded by pagans. And that carries real weight. So much weight that in verse 8, John says we ought to support such people so that we may become fellow workers for the truth. That tells us that you may not be on the mission field or in pastoral ministry, but your care for the saints makes you a fellow worker for the truth.

Now pay close attention to this, it will open your eyes for something you might have not noticed before. Right after praising Gaius, John contrasts him with Diotrephes who, in the Greek text, “loved to be first” (philoprōteuōn, from prōteuō): he shows self-interest, gossips, doesn't welcome the brothers, and even stops those who want to welcome them.

It's worth noticing that this same Greek word behind Diotrephes's desire, prōteuō, also appears in Colossians 1:18,  but there it's applied to Christ: “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might have the preeminence.” Preeminence, the place of “being first,” belongs to Him alone. So when preeminence shows up in our own hearts, we can recognize it for what it is: a desire trying to occupy a throne that already has an occupant.

That's why John's next instruction matters so much. John gives us a clear instruction: imitate what is good, not what is evil. That's the word of encouragement and exhortation for us today. Don't try to gain prominence. That is evil.

Our first model to imitate is Christ Himself. Yet, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:1: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”  we need earthly examples to follow, but pay attention to who you follow, and place this question “who is this person following?”

And remember that all of us are examples to someone too.

That kind of generosity, when it's genuine, doesn't happen by accident. It's born in someone who already knows, deep down, that they are a beloved child as we become in Christ. As John says in his first letter: “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Whoever has already been loved like that, freely, learns to love like that too.

What about you? When people think of you, what mark do they notice? Maybe the right question isn't “how can I be more generous,” but “have I been living aware that I am already deeply loved?” Because that's where true generosity is born.

May our prayer be the same as John's for Gaius: that we would prosper in all things, just as our soul prospers. A soul that already knows, with certainty, that it is loved.