The Thursday after the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 23, 2025 by under
Scripture: 3 John 2-8 (NKJV)
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
5 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, 6 who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, 7 because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. 8 We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.
Devotion
The Formula of Concord teaches that believers do good works “voluntarily and freely, as if they had received no command, heard no threat, and expected no reward” (Article VI). Renewed by the Spirit, Christians serve willingly because Christ has made them new.
This is why John commends Gaius. The hospitality shown was not an attempt to earn righteousness, but evidence that faith bears fruit. Good works flow naturally from faith, even though they remain imperfect. Jesus Himself reminds His disciples that even after fulfilling their duty, they are still “unworthy servants” (Luke 17:10). Our works cannot earn us anything before God.
Yet we take comfort that God accepts and commends our efforts for Christ’s sake. He causes our works and counts them as good, not because of their worth, but because of Christ’s righteousness covering us. Our good works serve the neighbor, confess the Savior, and show forth the Gospel that has redeemed us. They are not our boast, but God’s testimony to His grace. Thus we learn to rejoice not in ourselves, but in the Spirit’s work. What God begins in us He will bring to completion in the day of Christ.
Collect: O God, forasmuch as without Thee we are not able to please Thee: Mercifully grant that Thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
