
Table of Contents
3 John
The Third Epistle of John is a personal note from “the elder unto the wellbeloved Gaius,” a faithful believer who had opened his home to the travelling preachers of the gospel. John has “no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth,” and he thanks Gaius for his generous hospitality to brethren and strangers who went out “for his name’s sake.”
This study reads the whole letter in one article, following this site’s study of 2 John. Where 2 John warned against receiving false teachers, 3 John urges receiving true ones, “that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.” It also names a problem as old as the church: Diotrephes, “who loveth to have the preeminence,” and who shut the door on John’s messengers. And it holds a verse dear to everyone who cares for body and soul together: “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”