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Introduction to 3 John

OCCASION AND PURPOSE

Third John is the most personal of the three Johannine epistles. Like 2 John, it addresses the issue of believers’ duty to show love and hospitality within the bounds of faithfulness to the truth. Second John revealed the negative side: false teachers are not to be granted hospitality in the name of showing love. Third John expresses the positive counterpart to that principle: all who embrace the truth are to be loved and cared for.

Gaius, to whom this letter was written, was known to John personally. A powerful and influential man (Diotrephes) in Gaius’s church refused to show hospitality to itinerant teachers of whom John approved (vv. 5-8). Not only that, Diotrephes also excommunicated those who defied him and showed hospitality to the teachers (v. 10). He even went so far as to slander the apostle John and defy his apostolic authority (v. 10). John wrote to encourage Gaius to remain loyal to the truth by continuing to show hospitality to strangers, as he had done in the past (vv. 5-6). John also promised to deal personally with Diotrephes (v. 10) when he arrived (v. 14).

Further information concerning Gaius and Diotrephes may be found in the exposition of this epistle.

AUTHOR, DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING

Since 3 John’s style, structure, and vocabulary closely parallel 2 John (e.g., v. 1 and 2 John 1; v. 4 and 2 John 4; v. 13 and 2 John 12; v. 14 and 2 John 12), it too was penned by the apostle John. Third John was most likely written from Ephesus at about the same time as 1 and 2 John (c. A. D. 90-95).

OUTLINE

  1. The Commendation Regarding Christian Hospitality (1-8)

  2. The Condemnation Regarding Violating Christian Hospitality (9-11)

  3. The Conclusion Regarding Christian Hospitality (12-14)