“Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”
—3 John 1:8
The year 2025 marks the 500th anniversary of Tyndale’s “English Bible,” a precursor to dramatic Christian Reformation. In the context of Henry VIII’s England and a religious milieu dominated by Rome, scholar and linguist William Tyndale began to translate the New Testament from the original language. While leaders in the church should have been the presumptive supporters for such an endeavor, it would be an enterprising and wealthy businessman who helped change history. Humphrey Monmouth, an English merchant and supporter of Reformation in the church, became Tyndale’s “fellow worker.” Monmouth risked his status and freedom to support the translation of the Bible into the vernacular as the initiative’s key benefactor. Humphrey Monmouth, a pre-Reformation Gaius, exemplifies that in every era there are faithful fellow workers who send and support others for the sake of the gospel.
The early church is replete with biblical accounts of the partnership between those doing specific ministry and those enabling them. Perhaps no better example of this fundamental gospel ministry model is found in John’s third epistle. It is a letter addressed to Gaius, an early Christian patron of gospel heralds. It serves as a scriptural basis for this unique role in the church:
Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth. (3 John 1:5–8)
The language used by John is rich in meaning, both in the Greek and today’s English. The original Greek for “fellow worker” is synergoi. The root “syn” signifies a union (an English derivative is “synergy”). Synergoi is a particular union of the enabler and the enabled, the sender and the sent, in order that the gospel be advanced. Also compelling in the Apostle’s exhortation is that this “fellow working” is a matter of opheilo, the Greek for “ought.” Opheilo connotes an obligation “to support such as these.” As a merchant, even a man of magisterial notoriety (Monmouth was an alderman and sheriff of London for one year from 1535 to 1536), Monmouth provided necessary resources and support. Though his position was tenuous given the circumstances, Tyndale prevailed due to Monmouth’s commitment, which also extended to providing scholarships to study at Cambridge, a bastion for English Reformers of his time. This strategic generosity evidenced a life oriented to supporting Kingdom work beyond his osawn. Monmouth need not have been a scholar, pastor, or theologian to help catalyze the Reformation through sweeping biblical literacy in the English-speaking world. It is precisely the fruit of his vocation as a cloth merchant, and a godly understanding of his unique stewardship, that allowed the translation work to go forward with incalculable effect.
While William Tyndale is celebrated for his inestimable Kingdom-advancing contribution, Humphrey Monmouth is little known for his. Tyndale’s partnership with a Kingdom-minded benefactor should encourage all believers that they, too, can “support such as these.” Plainly stated, John’s exhortation is that there are those called to go, and those called to support in some fashion, from financial support to hospitality. All Christians can be, and indeed are privileged to be, either those going out for the sake of the name or those supporting them that go to bring Christ to a world that desperately needs him.