Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brothers and sisters, and especially when they are strangers; and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may prove to be fellow workers with the truth. – 3 John 1:5-8
In the late first century, men and women of God traveled from church to church sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and expanding His work into new frontiers. As they traveled, these people relied upon the gifts of local communities of believers to meet their needs in order that they might continually devote themselves to the work of the ministry. Though it appears that they were more than willing to do what was necessary to meet their own needs (“tentmaking”), the support of Christ followers eased the burden.
Things are no different today. There are still those who take the gospel into “dark” places around the world, missionaries (local and foreign) who need our support in order that they might continue to serve unhindered by the need to earn through secular employment. At the same time, many are able to use their vocation purposefully in an unreached place or among an unreached people, thereby providing for their own personal needs and, in some cases, even funding their own ministry.
No matter the situation, when we give to the work of God’s servants, we share in the fruit that effort bears. Let us continue to give in order that that they might go and go and go and go and keep going until the King of kings returns.
The Church must send, or the church will end. – Mendell Taylor
