Discovery Class · Clayton Valley Church
Session 4 homework
General principles and observation, part 2
Answer all three questions below in your own words. There is no grade and nothing is sent anywhere: everything stays on this page in your browser. After each answer, reveal the response guide and compare it honestly to what you wrote.
1Write twelve observation questions on the passage below, using who, what, where, when, why, and how. Do not answer the questions.
“The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” · 3 John 1-4, ESV
Response guide
A good observation question stays fixed on what the text itself says, its words, phrases, and their connections. A strong response includes questions like these: Who is “the elder,” and who is “the beloved Gaius”? What does the word “elder” tell us about how the writer identifies himself? The word “truth” appears in verse 1 and again in verses 3 and 4, is it doing the same job in all three places? Verse 2 links two wishes to “as it goes well with your soul” using the word “as,” what kind of comparison is that making? Verse 3 says the brothers “testified to your truth,” what does “testified” imply about how this information reached the writer?
“Walking in the truth” appears in both verse 3 and verse 4, is it describing the same thing both times? Verse 3 says “I rejoiced greatly” and verse 4 says “I have no greater joy,” what is the relationship between these two phrases? Who are “my children” in verse 4, literal or figurative? Why does verse 1 specify “in truth” rather than simply “whom I love”? What two things does the elder pray for in verse 2, and how are they connected by “as”? Does “beloved” describe Gaius the same way in verse 1 and verse 2? What does “hear” in verse 4 suggest about how the writer learned this, compared to firsthand experience? What do the surrounding words tell us about what “walking” refers to each time it appears?
2“A believer reads Genesis 12:1-3, God’s promise to bless Abraham and make his descendants a great nation, and concludes that America, as a Christian-founded country, has inherited that same promise of national blessing today.” Read this claim with discernment. What question should a careful reader ask before accepting it, and which principle of careful interpretation points toward a better reading?
Response guide
A discerning reader asks who this promise is actually addressed to in its own setting. Genesis 12 is a covenant promise to Abraham and his physical and spiritual descendants, addressed in its own context to Israel. The principle that guides a better reading is avoiding Nationalizing: seeing one’s own country as the recipient of a national promise God made to Israel specifically.
Discernment does not mean the promise has nothing to say to a reader today. It means locating what it actually says before drawing an application from it.
3You have now read 3 John in full several times. Using the “Look for structure” skill from the handout, find one place in verses 5 through 14 where a connecting word, “for,” “therefore,” “but,” or “and,” links two parts of a sentence. Write out the connection, then say what kind of relationship it shows: cause and effect, an if-then statement, two things alike, or two things contrasted.
Response guide
There is more than one good answer here. A few strong examples: verse 8 says, “For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these.” “Therefore” shows cause and effect: because they took nothing from outsiders, support from believers is owed.
Verse 11 says, “do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good.” “But” contrasts two opposite paths directly against each other. Verse 12 says Demetrius “has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself.” “And” links two sources of testimony as alike, both pointing the same direction.