William Carey (1761–1834) was born in Northamptonshire, England, where his father served as a parish clerk and village schoolmaster, and was raised in the Church of England. A talented student, the young William exhibited a natural gift for languages and taught himself Latin at an early age.

At the age of 14, Carey was apprenticed to a shoemaker and began to be influenced by a fellow apprentice who was a religious Dissenter. Through this influence Carey eventually left the Church of England and joined a Congregational church. In 1781 he married, and in the following years he taught himself Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Dutch, and French in his spare time and, it is said, while he was working on shoes.

Carey also became involved with a local Baptist congregation, and in 1783 he was baptized and began to preach in this congregation. In 1789 he became the full-time pastor of a Baptist church.  In 1792 he founded the  Baptist Missionary Society and also published what would become a revolutionary missionary manifesto:  An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. This book scripturally justified missionary activity and was responsible for overcoming much of the resistance toward it that was common at the time.

The following year Carey committed himself to missionary work in India; he and his wife arrived in Calcutta in November 1793.  In the next six years Carey worked full-time to support himself and his family, during which time he learned Bengali and translated the New Testament into that language. But life was far from easy. His son Peter died of dysentery, and his wife Dorothy suffered a nervous breakdown from which she never fully recovered. 

Carey’s personal situation was difficult at every turn, and he wrote “This is indeed the valley of the shadow of death to me. But I rejoice that I am here notwithstanding; and God is here.” His work was also often hindered by the British East India Company which was still hostile to missionaries, and in 1800 Carey moved his family to the Danish colony of Serampore.
 
In fact, it took seven years of labor before Carey saw the first conversion as a result of his work, but it was a significant conversion. In 1802, the daughter of that first convert married someone outside her social caste, and the wedding was a demonstration that Christianity rejected the castes that divided India.

Carey’s work now began to thrive. Over the next 20 years he translated the Bible into dozens of major Indian languages and dialects and also founded a college – the first in Serampore – to train indigenous ministers.  He also influenced the Governor-General of India to begin to put a stop to the infant sacrifice and the forced suicide of widows that were common practices in Indian society.

When he died in 1834, Carey had suffered much, but he died peacefully.  He had persevered through faith, and tremendous things had been accomplished through his service as a minister, Bible translator, social activist, and, as is often said, as the modern-day father of missions.

​Despite its diminutive size, the shortest book in the Bible – the Third Epistle of John – carries a powerful message.  On the surface, the epistle is a short exhortation from the apostle to the believer Gaius encouraging him to give hospitality to another believer, Demetrius (who may have carried this letter as an introduction), because a powerful local church leader, Diotrephes, was forcibly denying hospitality to members from outside his congregation.

This is perhaps all that we might expect to see in a “book” that is only 14 verses long, but John seems to have used the opportunity of this letter to convey a simple but profound truth regarding the interaction between the Christian qualities of love and truth – which are mentioned in combination, directly or indirectly, ten times in the letter’s 14 verses.

Beginning in the first verse, John salutes Gaius as someone “whom I love in the truth” (3 John 1:1), setting the theme of his message. In verse 3, and then again in verse 4, John juxtaposes joy with truth, and we should remember that joy is associated with love in many biblical passages – so that the pairing of joy and truth can be seen as an indirect expression of love and truth. In the following verses there are other indirect correlations between the qualities of love and truth, such as verse 8 where hospitality and truth are related.

John then uses the unhospitable Diotrephes as a negative example of the failed connection between love and truth by writing: “Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us” (3 John 1:9-10a). While it is easy to read over the connection here, we should read the statement in the context of John’s stress on love and truth throughout the letter.  Diotrephes’ failed love – his love of self and self-aggrandizement – is paired with his failed truth – his spreading of malicious lies.
   
This pattern is repeated when John then writes “…he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church” (3 John 1:10b), showing Diotrophes’ failure of love has a direct connection to his subsequent failure of truth in twisting doctrine so that true members of the faith are expelled.

Next, John says, “Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good” (3 John 1:11a), and then gives two corresponding examples using the faithful Demetrius who is to be imitated.  In this case, John says, “Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself” and “We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true” (3 John 1:12).  In other words, Demetrius is clearly liked and loved as a result of his behavior – his love – and the result is his right relationship with the truth.

So, in the course of his short letter, John repeatedly shows that we cannot express – or fail to express – love without it affecting the truth in our lives.  Conversely, he tells us, we cannot express – or fail to express – the truth without it relating to the love we show.  This is a principle that extends far beyond the particular circumstances in which this little letter was written – one that applies to all of us in every aspect of our lives.  John tells us that love and truth are interconnected:  we cannot weaken or strengthen one without the other being weakened or strengthened also.

​Christian Resources International (CRI) is a vibrant organization effectively carrying the Gospel into many nations around the world.  CRI’s Executive Director, Jason Woolford, kindly agreed to answer our questions about the good work this organization is accomplishing, and we think you will enjoy our interview with him.

To learn about this organization's unique approach to the work of faith, you can read the interview here. 

​Something to think about:  The central thought of 1 Corinthians 1:9 – "...God is faithful..." is an inspiring one, but it is often quoted out of its context, and we need to remember what that is.  In writing to the Corinthian Church Paul had to address a number of problems and to correct the Corinthians for certain things, yet his introduction to the letter is an encouraging one:

"He will ... keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:8-9).

​Paul knew the correction he soon had to deliver in this letter, yet he stressed his confidence in the ultimate outcome of the situation based not on the Corinthians'  righteousness or doctrinal understanding, but on the faithfulness of God. What he tells the Corinthian believers, and us, is that despite our problems God remains faithful to his purpose in us as long as  are willing to continue to listen, learn and change as necessary.

Perhaps one of the most amazing things about this part of Paul's message to the problem- prone Corinthians is that it is almost identical to the message he had for the Thessalonians – a church he praises highly:

"... May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23-4).

The encouraging thing about these messages is that no matter where we may be on the "curve" of spiritual growth, we need not worry that we will not succeed as long as we continue to persevere.  Paul's message to the Corinthians and Thessalonians is identical in this regard: Our faith need never waver, because God's faithfulness never does.