1.The test of public opinion. All men had a good word for Demetrius. But there are antipathies in the worldly mind; how, then, can we expect an unbiassed judgment? We answer that truth must vanquish error as the light does the darkness. Dishonesty can only obtain a temporary triumph over integrity (1Pe_2:12).
2. The test of the Word of God. The standard of character is the law of the Lord. We use the Bible for comparison as well as for instruction. It is a mirror in which to see our true condition.
3. The test of Church fellowship. Christians know each other intimately, and as such they know each other’s failings; yea, and they know the difficulties which beset a holy life. Tohave a good word from those who thus know us testifies to the genuineness of our character.
4. The test of the final judgment. (The Weekly Pulpit.)
Demetrius
An evangelist, possibly a prophet, animated by a most self-sacrificing and disinterested spirit, which sprang from an ardent love for Christ the Saviour of men, Demetrius won for himself a threefold testimony.
1. He won “the witness of all,” says St. John, i.e., the witness of all good men, of all who were capable of appreciating goodness. Even those who rejected his message had nothing to allege against the man, save the sublime folly of a perilous and unprofitable enthusiasm; while those who accepted it from him, or had already accepted it from other lips, could not but admire the fineness of his spirit and the fire of his zeal.
2. More, and better still, he won “the testimony of the truth itself.” For he who daily sets his life upon the die that he may be true to his convictions, he who, moved by the grace and love of Christ, seeks not his own things, but the things of others; he who devotes himself with burning zeal and all-enduring courage to the service of truth and the salvation of men--to him the truth itself, which has made him what he is, bears witness. Men do not despise ease and a sure provision for their daily wants; they do not daily affront every form of danger and loss, for truths, or beliefs, which have no real, no vital, hold upon them. “They who do such things as these declare plainly”; they “make it manifest“ that they are the servants of a truth, which they love more than they love them selves. It is the truth itself which speaks through them, and bears witness to them.
3. Last of all, St. John adds his own testimony to that of the previous witnesses: “We also bear witness.” And any man who has devoted himself to the service and spread of a truth which has not met with wide or general recognition will understand the special charm which this testimony would exert on Demetrius. A very noble character, on which, simply by describing it, St. John has pronounced a very noble eulogium. Let me also remind you that great as Demetrius looks to us--great in his disinterestedness, his devotion, his zeal--he was not a man of any great mark in the primitive Church. It is not some hero of distinction, some honoured and beloved man of spiritual genius, whom I have tried to place before you; but a man of whom we should never have heard but for the prating insubordination of Diotrephes. (S. Cox, D. D.)
A good name
There be two things which we ought all to procure--a good conscience in respect of God, and a good name in regard of men.
1. A good name is sweet and comfortable; it is preferred before the most precious things that men have in greatest estimation (Pro_22:3).
2. It is profitable. A good name maketh the bones fat. A good name maketh a man fat; he eats, he drinks, he sleeps the better for it.
3. It secures a man while he is alive; they that have a bad report for their injurious dealing are maligned; they go, in some sort, in danger of their lives; they that have a good report walk cheerfully and safely.
4. It is a consolation to a man, even on his deathbed; he hath the less, then, to vex and trouble his mind.
5. It leaves a sweet savour after us; when we be dead it is an odoriferous ointment; the house will smell of it a good while after. Therefore let us so live, that we may be well reported of, so far as it is possible of all men. I say, so far as it is possible; for in truth it is impossible; the best of us all must make account to pass through good report and ill report into the kingdom of heaven. (W. Jones, D. D.)
