0827 OPENING AND CLOSING A CONVERSATION

AUGUST 27 - 3 JOHN

OPENING AND CLOSING A LETTER

Any time you write a letter, or make a phone call, for that matter, your opening and closing statements are important. Your opening statement establishes a certain tone, and your closing is a chance to summarize and seal whatever you just said. Even though 3 John is a short letter, his opening and closing statements are powerful studies in starting and ending well.

Here’s what John writes:

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. 

Dear friend. First, John says what’s translated here as “dear friend.” As they say, you only get one chance at making a first impression. It is good to open any conversation with a moment that details your relationship and your feelings about the one to whom you are communicating.

I pray. I love this just as a greeting. But especially this is helpful for any prayerful person. The apostle Paul also opened letters by telling how he was constantly thanking God for someone in his prayers, and I wish that I could honestly make such a claim. But at the very least, I am able to say that I am praying right now for you as I write this letter, that is a good idea.

Good health. John prays that you may enjoy good health. This is not specific about healing some malady, but it is still a good thing to pray that someone will be healthy, and that they will enjoy it! 

All may go well. Then John adds “and that all may go well with you.” This is a more general blessing that could include your business, your family, your church and ministry and neighbors and all aspects of your life.

Even as your soul. This is my favorite part of it. Just as I pray for your health and other aspects of your life, so I name your spiritual health equally. Assuming that you, my friend, are walking with the Lord an enjoying your soul’s getting along well.

I think this is such a good opening, that fairly often I will open a letter to a biblically literate friend with the simple greeting 3 John 2. 

It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Great joy is mentioned twice here. I heard a positive report about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it, and it brought me great joy. In fact, nothing brings me more joy than to know that my investment in someone’s spiritual life has continued to bear fruit. So many disciples fall away or become distracted that it is refreshing to hear of faithfulness.

Then we come to the end of the letter, and John does the same sort of thing as he did elsewhere. He leaves the closing open, if you will, by projecting to a time when they will meet in person. Here’s how he says it:

I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. 

There’s so much I want to say, but putting it in writing is not the best way to do so. So I am closing this letter to say I’m not closing because you don’t mean much to me, but because you mean so much to me that I will come to you and see you in person.

Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

Peace to you. I am convinced that there is no more powerful thing to say to someone as an opening or closing blessing than to say “peace of Christ to you.” Jesus is the prince of peace, and he came to bring us peace with God. So I say it as if I could give it to you by my words.

Send their greetings. It’s always nice when someone comes and says so and so sends their greetings or their love. You represent not just yourself, but in a sense you bear that other person along with you to the common friend.

Greet the friends. Likewise, you do the same as you love having done. If you see anyone there who knows me, tell them I send my greetings.

By name. It is a mark of honor and of love to use someone’s name. It is good for me to use the names of others as I speak to them, even if I am just greeting them for someone else. They are never just a face in a crowd. Remember Moses? God calls to him from the burning bush, specifically using his name, even though Moses is the only person there to hear it.

It turns out, God knows your name, too. Amen.