3 John1chapter 1

3 John 1:1-2

The elder writes to the wellbeloved Gaius, agapetos four times in fourteen verses, a personal letter to a layman whose hospitality holds a church together. I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health is the standard health-wish of ancient letter openings, and its measure is the striking thing, even as thy soul prospereth, the body's welfare prayed up to the soul's level, a compliment no flatterer would risk. The verse blesses real prosperity and real health from a praying apostle, and its genre keeps it a greeting rather than a formula, which the exposition states plainly.

3 John 1:3-4

The elder's evidence is testimony brought by travelers, the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth, doctrine and walk agreeing, which is the Johannine test passed. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth is the aged apostle's own summary of a lifetime's ministry. The children are his converts and charges, and their walking, present tense, is the joy.

3 John 1:5-8

Gaius's faithfulness is hospitality to the brethren, and to strangers, traveling workers he had never met, and sending them forward after a godly sort, propempsas, the technical word for provisioning a missionary onward, is named a worthy work. The workers' own rule is given, for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles, no funding from the mission field itself, so the churches must carry them. We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth: support makes the supporter a fellow worker, the positive print of 2 John's refusal, one policy taught from both sides.

3 John 1:9-10

The letter to the church was intercepted or scorned, but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, philoproteuon, a word coined for this man, receiveth us not, an apostle refused by a church boss. His deeds run in four verbs, prating against us with malicious words, not receiving the brethren, forbidding them that would, and casting them out of the church, ambition graduating from slander to exclusion to expulsion. If I come, I will remember his deeds is apostolic discipline promised without a railing word, the letter itself modeling what Diotrephes lacks.

3 John 1:11-12

The moral is drawn for Gaius in the letter's one general sentence, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good, with the Johannine test beneath it, he that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Demetrius then stands as the good's exhibit, likely the letter's bearer, with a threefold commendation, good report of all men, of the truth itself, and we also bear record, the two-or-three witnesses standard met for a man's character. Between Diotrephes and Demetrius the little letter hangs its whole doctrine of leadership.

3 John 1:13-14

The close matches 2 John's nearly word for word, many things to write, but not with ink and pen, kalamos, the reed pen named this once in the New Testament, and the hope of speaking face to face. Peace be to thee is the Lord's own greeting bequeathed, and the friends salute thee, greet the friends by name closes the canon's most personal letter on the most personal note possible, hoi philoi, the friends, each one named. John 10's shepherd who calleth his own sheep by name stands audibly behind the last line.