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We are now to study the character of Gaius, the sincere and generous host of Demetrius, the quiet but sturdy opponent of the intolerance and tyranny of Diotrephes, and the study should be very welcome to us since, if he has not climbed so high as the fervent and zealous Evangelist, still less has he fallen so low as the prating lover of pre-eminence who would not defer even to the apostle himself. With his first touch St. John strikes the ground-note, or the keynote, of the whole music which went to make up the character of the man. Gaius was one who "walked in truth," and so walked in it that men "bore witness to his truth." The Greek word here rendered "truth" might, if the change were worth making, be rendered "reality." But if I say that Gaius was a true man, a genuine man, a real man, whose life was all of one piece, whose daily conduct was the practical outcome and inference from the truths he believed, I may perhaps help you to some conception of the apostle's meaning. Still he implies much more than he says, and we must try to recover his implications also. We may, and must, infer from his stress on the word "truth" that Gaius cared more for deeds than for words; that there was not that unhappy divorce between his professions and his actions, his creed and his conduct, which we may see in Diotrophes and recognise only too clearly in ourselves. He did not look one way and walk another. He did not say one thing and mean another. He did not approve the better, and follow the worse, course. There was no hypocrisy, no insincerity, in him. He, the whole man, was "in the truth." Come what may, no danger, no allurement, will draw or drive him from his steadfast and habitual round, or make him unfaithful to the faith and service of Christ. And we may also infer that Gaius was not one who would bring the spirit and methods of the world into the Church. Diotrephes might be as selfish, as opinionated, as ambitious, as subtle and scheming, as he was before he had entered the Christian fellowship. But that was not possible to a true man, a genuine Christian, such as Gaius, who really believed the truth as it is in Jesus. Nor, again, could a true man, in the apostle's sense, yield to that still more subtle and fatal temptation by which those are overcome in whom religion degenerates, as it seems to have done in Diotrephes, into mere ecclesiasticism or sectarianism. A too keen and exclusive interest in the outside of the cup and the platter is as dangerous in the Church as it is anywhere else. And the charity of Gaius was as conspicuous as his unworldliness. Not only had he received and entertained strangers, who were also brethren, setting forward Demetrius and other travelling evangelists on their journey; he continued to receive and serve them even when Diotrephes forbade him, and had persuaded the Church to excommunicate those who ventured to receive them. He could do no other, for he walked in truth. Nor was he to be talked out of his loyalty to truth, or threatened out of it. Truth in every form was welcome to him, let who would teach it, let who would prate against it. It was his duty to receive brethren even if they were strangers. A certain genuineness and wholeness, then, a certain staunchness and loyalty, combined with great breadth and tolerance, seems to have been characteristic of the hospitable and kindly Gaius. He was in the truth. He walked in truth. There was a clear accord, a fruitful harmony, between his principles and his practice which gave unity and force to his life. He could be true to truth, come whence it would. He could be true to men, even when they were reviled and thrust out of the Church. Now this large, steadfast, yet gentle loyalty to truth is as essential to a genuine, a real and strong, Christian character now as it was then: a loyalty which can not only stand against the narrow intolerance of a Diotrephes, and sympathise with the disinterested zeal of a Demetrius, but can also bring the large generous truths in which we believe to bear upon our daily life and practice, and constrain us to receive and set forward all who are serving the truth "that we may be fellow-workers with the truth" they teach. Before we can put ourselves even on the modest level of Gaius, we must ask ourselves, "What risks have we run, what sacrifices have we made, what pleasant fellowships have we put in jeopardy, that we might stand up for unpopular truths, or back up the men who were enforcing and defending them? There are men, no doubt, who have a terrible struggle to wage in the sacred precincts of their own soul before they can make religion the ruling inference and power of their lives; and of these, perhaps, we must not expect much public service until the issue of the inward conflict has been decided; though I believe that, even in this inward personal war, they would be greatly aided were they to make it more impersonal, and to care and contend for the salvation of other men instead of simply fighting for their own hand. And there are other men who are so engrossed and exhausted by the labours and cares, the occupations and irritations, of their daily business that they have as much as they can do in bringing the spirit of religion to bear on their daily task, and have neither leisure nor energy left for works of public usefulness. Remember, we are not told that Gaius talked Diotrephes down, or that he made a masterly defence of St. John, or even that he took a prominent part whether in managing the affairs or conducting the services of the Church. All we are told of him is that he showed much sympathy with the strangers whom John had commended to the Church, that his sympathy took very practical forms, and that he exercised it at the risk, and perhaps at the cost, of losing the sympathy of brethren who were not strangers, and with whom he habitually worshipped.

(S. Cox, D. D.)

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KJV: For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.

WEB: For I rejoiced greatly, when brothers came and testified about your truth, even as you walk in truth.