Address by the Rev. D. P. Morris given at the TBS Auxiliaries Conference on 23 June 2017.

‘The elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth’ (3 John 1).

‘For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth’ (3 John 3).

‘I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not’ (3 John 9).

In the third epistle of John we read that the apostle loves Gaius (verse 1) but condemns Diotrephes (verse 9). There’s something very sweet in the first part of this. The reason I’ve chosen to say just a brief word is because of the frequent references to ‘the truth’ in this book. As a Christian society, obviously we are concerned with the Word of God. This Word is referred to as the oracles of God, the Holy Scriptures, the truth. It is not my truth nor your truth. Instead it is an absolute: the truth.

Now it is a great matter to be concerned with the truth. It is a great honour to be involved in any way whatsoever with the truth. In a world full of lies, it is remarkable to be concerned with the truth. Mention of this is here in verse 1: ‘To the elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth’. Their fellowship—the fellowship of John with Gaius—was in the realm of the truth. They had come into association with each other because of the truth. 

Indeed the Lord begets His own with the Word of truth. That truth brings us into fellowship. Think of John being a Jew, and Gaius who was probably, according to his name, a Gentile. They come into fellowship with each other, Jew and Gentile, in the truth. This is true of supporters of the Trinitarian Bible Society as well: there is diversity, belonging to different denominations, with slightly different emphases, and so forth, and yet again there is fellowship in the truth. We love the truth and we love those who love the truth. And that is what we have here, first of all: the reference to the truth.

Then in verse 3 John writes, ‘For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth’. I love to come to the Society’s London headquarters building for many reasons. It has been a wonderful provision of the Lord. And I love to think of a building full of Bibles. Regardless of what is in the other buildings on this estate, we have the Word of truth here. It is a building full of Bibles; there on the shelves in the warehouse are Scriptures in many languages, and that is wonderful.

But it is another matter to have the truth in the heart. This the Word of God commends: that we are to hide the Word of God in our hearts and have the Word dwelling richly in us with all wisdom (see Colossians 3.16). Remember how the Lord Jesus Christ refers in John 15.7 to having His words abiding in us. That Word is formulating prayer in us, forming petitions for us to pray back to the Lord.

To have the Word of God on railway posters always raises my spirits when I see them. The Word of God anywhere in a public place in these days is an encouragement. But I think of one man in particular, a committed Christian who frequently goes into Saudi Arabia. He would have difficulty taking a hard copy of the Scriptures into the country. I frequently remind him that they cannot stop the Word of God getting into Saudi Arabia because it is in his heart. It should also be in us, doing its work in us, and we trust that it is. This man walks in the truth. It informs his life, his behaviour, his attitude; the Scriptures are his pathway. 

There is another reference to the truth in verse 8; John is writing about those who took the Gospel to the Gentiles and says, ‘We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth’. This is very apposite for us here considering the work of the auxiliaries. We ought to receive such people so that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth. That describes very well what our auxiliaries are to be about. 

There are many things, many activities, many ways in which we can seek to promote the Scriptures, but the main one is to be fellowhelpers. I have been thinking about that word ‘helper’. It does not betoken a position of great status. When you think of a helper you would not think of someone being a manager or a director or a leader. Helper is a very modest position. It implies being unsung. It is a lowly position to be a helper.

And yet the Lord has dignified the office of being a helper in the Covenant of Grace. The Father chooses the Son and says My people are going to be helped by Him. We think of the help that we needed because we were absolutely helpless as sinners. We were absolutely helpless in that we were dead in sins and trespasses. A corpse cannot raise itself: how much more helpless can one be! It was not the fact that we were in the prison, or in the hospital; we were in the mortuary. We were in the grave, and the Lord Jesus Christ came.

I love to think of Him there in Jairus’s home (Mark 5.22–43). People had laughed Him to scorn, and yet He stretched forth that hand of His and raised the daughter of Jairus off her deathbed. He became her helper, and He has done that with us. He has been our help in raising us from the dead; and He has been our help ever since. He has been a very present help, an ever-present help, in trouble (Psalm 46.1). 

I think of the Apostle Paul saying that he continued having received help from God (see Acts 26.22). We would never be able to recount all the help we have received. Think of all the help we have received individually from the Lord ever since we came to faith, ever since we came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. How could we put the sum of it together, of what He has done for us? There have been those strengthenings; there have been those deliverances; there have been those words in season; there have been those love visits occasionally; there have been those heart-warmings; there have been those liftings-ups for the downcast. In all of these and more the Lord has come in for us and has been our help. 

He has dignified the office of helper, and it is our greatest privilege to be fellowhelpers to the truth, and to do whatever we can. The Trinitarian Bible Society exists to provide faithful versions of the Scriptures in many different languages. The auxiliaries can help in this work of placing the Word of God in the hands of as many people as possible in the world. We can work to see it translated accurately and faithfully from the reliable texts; to see it printed, distributed, read, believed, loved, preached from, lived, and commended to perishing sinners across the world by helping fund the publishing and circulating of faithful copies of the Word of God. It is our great, great privilege in the auxiliaries to be fellowhelpers to the truth.

First published in Quarterly Record 623. Edited for online publication 27 January 2025.