Today is my dear friend’s birthday. I will give her a call sometime today and tell her how much I love and appreciate her. A couple years ago she experienced a health crisis and we weren’t sure she would continue this journey with us, but she overcame that and even some subsequent issues and is with us. I thank God for His abundant mercy.
Friends. One of the most neglected letters in the New Testament is 3John. John, who now refers to himself as “the elder,” writes to “my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.” [vs 1]
John wrote these letters in his old age. Some scholars say perhaps as many as 50 years after the resurrection of Christ. In John’s old age, he may have found friendship even more important then he did when he was younger. And he, of course, had the example of Jesus who called the Twelve “my friends” on more than one occasion.
We don’t have a clear indication of just whom Gaius was, but at some point, he became John’s friend. And I would think a rather close one since he addresses Gaius that way not just in the salutation, but three more times in the body of the letter.
Today, as I think of my friend’s birthday, I will pray for her John’s prayer for his friend. “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” [3John 2-3]
