Fellow helpers

Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well: Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth. – 3 John 1.6-8

We are not always going to be able to go out and do everything we see that needs to be done. Every time a missionary speaks in our church my heart is burdened and I feel the pull on my heartstrings to go and help.

It doesn’t look like Gaius was one of those called upon to go out and take the gospel elsewhere. It looks like he was called to stay where he was and to serve others.

I like this picture of team work and I like translation ‘fellow helpers.’

Sometimes we think that there is some kind of special status to missionaries or preachers or evangelists who leave home to take the gospel ‘into all the world.’ I have heard these folks referred to as ‘heroes’ or ‘God’s choicest servants’ or other similar terms.

The reality is that we all have our jobs to do. Not everyone is called to go out and those who do so could not do it without ‘fellow helpers’ to support them and send them on their way. Though I don’t agree with everything about the way we do missionary work today, there is a Bible principle that churches support those lay aside their employment and go out by faith to serve God. Without fellow helpers it could not be done.

So thank God for those who do go out by faith, and thank God for the fellow helpers like Gaius who make it possible.