3–John
Introduction to the book of
A major concern of 3 John, like 2 John, is hospitality. This time, instead of discouraging hospitality to false teachers (2 John 10), John wants to encourage hospitality for traveling missionaries who speak the truth (3 John 8). John contrasts one man’s inhospitable actions with another’s faithfulness—and in the process, John demonstrates the need for godly leadership like his own. Gaius and Demetrius were two men who remained faithful to the church and to the apostle John. Another man, Diotrephes, was improperly controlling the church and rejecting the apostle and his emissaries. This small personal letter provides a window into some issues of leadership and conflict in the early churches. The shortest book in the New Testament, 3 John is a letter with a kind but businesslike tone. “The Elder” sought to encourage Gaius, who was perhaps a pastor under his oversight. The epistle gives mostly positive counsel but also warns against a power-hungry leader named Diotrephes. Truth, love, and the goodness of God are predominate themes.Theme & Overview
John writes this letter to commend Gaius for supporting traveling teachers and to rebuke Diotrephes for refusing to welcome them. Read together, this letter and its companion, 2 John, present a balanced view of proper Christian hospitality. According to the "NIV Student Bible," 2 John warns against entertaining false teachers. But in his third letter, John praises a man named Gaius for warmly welcoming genuine Christian teachers. Gaius’s actions had been opposed by Diotrephes, a cantankerous church dictator, who was also gossiping against John. In a very condensed form, these two letters by John deal with heresy and church splits, two problems that have plagued the church in every age, in every place. To defend against those dangers, John urges love and discernment. Believers must know whom to accept and support, and whom to resist. Third John—like 1–2 John—highlights love and hospitality: Gaius is encouraged to give a warm welcome to the missionaries, who are strangers to him but who are doing good work. His actions should be the opposite of Diotrephes, who not only refuses to help the travelers, but also slanders and opposes those who disagree with him, including John. Another theme of 3 John is the nature of church leadership. Diotrephes wants to be in control. He rejects others’ authority and spreads lies about them. People like Diotrephes, who want to do battle with anyone who might challenge them, do not exhibit the self-sacrificial love that church leadership requires. John, on the other hand, provides a better model. He encourages Gaius to exercise hospitality and warns him to steer clear of Diotrephes and his arrogant ways. He clearly loves Gaius and gains joy from hearing that he is living out the truth (4). Like 1–2 John, 3 John connects intimacy with God to right actions. When people do evil, their claims about knowing God lose all merit. A genuine relationship with God always bears the fruit of right actions: loving others (1 John 4:7), remaining in Christ’s teachings (2 John 9), and doing good (3 John 11). This means getting out of our comfort zone for the sake of God’s work. As John encourages us, we should embrace the blessing of welcoming missionaries into our lives and homes; we must then empower them to continue their efforts elsewhere (5–8). We confirm that we know God by our deeds: love, hospitality, and walking in the truth. The theme of 3 John is steadfastness in the face of opposition. The recipient of the letter, Gaius, faces a troublemaker named Diotrephes. By “walking in the truth” (vv. 3, 4), Christians can embrace and live out the apostolic message that John conveys in all his letters.Author
The apostle John. The apostle John is the traditional author of this book. The letter does not specifically identify its author, other than calling him “the elder” (3 John 1:1). See Introductions to 1 John and 2 John. Like 2 John, 3 John claims to have been written by “the elder,” most likely the apostle John. In NT times and into the post-apostolic era, “elders” (Gk. presbyteroi) could refer to the pastoral leaders of local congregations. They appear by this title first in Acts 11:30, which speaks of church leaders (pastors) in Jerusalem in the mid-40s A.D. Paul and Barnabas appointed “elders” to be ministers in the churches they planted (Acts 14:23). “Elders” presided at the Jerusalem council (c. A.D. 49) alongside the apostles (Acts 15:2, 4, 6, 22, 23; 16:4). Nearly a decade later Paul addressed the “elders,” apparently the pastors of churches at and probably around Ephesus (Acts 20:17). “Elders” at Jerusalem were alongside head elder James when Paul reported back to the church at the end of his third missionary journey (Acts 21:18). This shows that the title “elder” for pastoral leaders at Ephesus had been in use 20 to 40 years by the time 2 and 3 John were written. It was widely employed in the early church, particularly around Jerusalem but also in distant areas like Ephesus. The fact that Peter understood himself to be a “fellow elder” of church leaders across a wide geographical area (1 Pet. 5:1) makes it plausible for John to have referred to himself in the same manner.Recipients
Third John was one of five New Testament books written by the apostle John, along with the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, and Revelation. This is the last of his three letters in the New Testament. It was written to a man called “the beloved Gaius,” an unknown believer who was an early church leader (3 John 1:1). Several themes are included in this brief letter. John encourages Gaius in his hospitality towards teachers traveling to share the gospel. In addition, he speaks against Diotrephes, a prideful leader of one of the churches in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). Third, John speaks positively of Demetrius and his good testimony.Date
See Introduction to 2 John. John probably writes from around Ephesus in the last quarter of the first century.Unknown, though probably written around the same time as John’s Gospel and the letters 1 John and 2 John. Likely composed between AD 80 and AD 95.
Background
Third John, the shortest letter in the New Testament, concerns four individuals: John, Gaius, Diotrephes, and Demetrius. The author introduces himself as John and is likely the same person responsible for 2 John. (For a discussion of authorship and dating, see the “Introduction to 2 John.”) Third John is written to a man named Gaius to encourage him to continue in faithfulness. There are multiple people named Gaius in the New Testament (Acts 19:29; 1 Cor 1:14), but it was a common name, and the Gaius of 3 John cannot clearly be identified with any of them. If the Apostle John wrote the letter, it is likely that Gaius was part of a church community in Asia Minor, where John lived in his later life. Unlike 1–2 John, it is not clear that the primary issue behind this letter is false teachers. Instead, there seems to be some kind of power struggle in the church. A man named Diotrephes has tried to take control, while others such as Gaius are walking in the truth (3 John 4). John, who clearly has some kind of authority over this community, is attempting to straighten out the issue from afar. John also rebukes Diotrephes for refusing to acknowledge his authority or to welcome his fellow ministers (9–10). In response to this situation, John has sent a man named Demetrius to represent him (12), but the letter says that he might come himself (10).The Purpose & Audience (Reasons for the letter)
It is clear from the less polemical tone of 3 John that truth and love were two of the fundamental terms in [John’s] theology, and it would not be difficult to write a summary of his thought centered on these two terms.— (I. Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John, p. 52).
John’s third letter is concerned with a problem introduced in 1 John: Some church leaders followed false teaching and ignored the authority of the apostles. Diotrephes is a clear example of one who falsely claimed to know the truth. By rejecting those sent by John, Diotrephes was destroying the unity of the church. He did not love other Christians and he rejected those who truly knew Jesus Christ. We cannot claim to love God and the truth if we don’t love apostolic teaching and if we don’t join in fellowship with God’s church, the members of the Father’s family. Third John is a personal letter that revolves around three individuals: (1) Gaius, the recipient of the letter; (2) Diotrephes, the one causing trouble; and (3) Demetrius, who was probably the bearer of the letter. The purpose was to give a word of exhortation to Gaius and encourage him not to imitate the bad example of Diotrephes. Instead, Gaius was to continue the good work he was doing in receiving and supporting the traveling teachers or missionaries.Key Verses (ESV)
3 John 1:4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” 3 John 1:11: “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”Key Passages (NLT)
Structure
Third John follows the standard format of a Graeco-Roman letter: introduction (1–4), body (5–12), and conclusion (13–14). The body includes John’s instructions for Gaius to welcome missionaries visiting the community (5–8); John’s criticism of Diotrephes, whose selfishness and desire for control implicate him in evil (9–11); and John’s recommendation of Demetrius, who probably was the letter’s carrier (12). John closes by expressing his hope that he and Gaius can soon speak face-to-face (13–14).Outline 1
• Greeting (1–4) • Gaius is instructed (5–8) • Diotrephes is criticized (9–11) • Demetrius is recommended (12) • Conclusion (13–15)Outline 2
This brief letter of 15 verses (divided into just 14 in some translations) includes only one chapter. This is the second shortest book in the New Testament after 2 John. Other one-chapter books in the New Testament include Philemon, 2 John, and Jude. Third John begins with a one-verse introduction to Gaius from “the elder,” traditionally believed to be the apostle John. This elder states that he loves Gaius “in truth,” a key theme in the letter.Verses 2–8 then develop the positive traits of Gaius. He treats “the brethren,” traveling Christian teachers, well (3 John 1:5). They speak highly of him among the churches (3 John 1:6). Such traveling teachers serve “for the sake of the Name” and receive no monetary support from Gentiles (3 John 1:7). They are to be supported by “us” as missionaries or messengers of the truth (3 John 1:8).Verses 9–10 speak of the evil committed by Diotrephes, a proud church leader who disregarded the authority of Gaius and John (3 John 1:9). John hoped to rebuke him and his actions against God’s people (3 John 1:10).Verse 11 emphasizes that believers are to imitate good, not evil (3 John 1:11). Verse 12 shifts focus to a third person, named Demetrius, who has a good reputation with everyone (3 John 1:12).Verses 13–15 offer a brief conclusion. John wants to meet in person (3 John 1:13–14) and offers a blessing. He passes on greetings from others, and asks readers to greet their common friends by name.