Third John – “Truth & Hospitality” (Part 1: Truth)

Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS on 24 Sept 2017

Truth (Intro)

After finishing First John, it might be natural to proceed to Second John this Lord’s Day, but I wanted to explore a verse in Second John next Sunday for the baptism of Thomas Valor, so I decided to just skip on to Third John this Sunday and come back to Second John next Sunday.

So as I started studying 3^rd John, I expected it to be all about hospitality and supporting missionaries, but much to my surprise, when it came time to make a sermon out of my notes, the most developed part was six applications about telling the truth, so that’s what I’m going to share today, and we’ll save the rest of Third John for a couple more weeks.

A) Rejoice in the truth

In verses 3-4, John speaks of “rejoicing/being excited/glad” and of something that gives him more joy than anything else.

• What is it that gets you off your feet and cheering – waving your arms and jumping up and down and whooping for joy?
• John writes, “I have no source of joy greater than these things, namely, [when] I hear of my children walking in [the] truth.

• The word “truth” occurs seven times in the 14 verses of 3^rd John (or 15 verses, depending on how your version counts them [see green highlights in the chart below]). Truth is clearly an important concept[1].
• The added use of the word “testify/bear witness/give a good reference/report” in verses 3, 6, and twice in v.12 further underscores that establishing the truth in the issue at hand is of great importance.
• What kind of change would it take for you to grow towards the example of John, whose chief joy was to find out that people he had shared the Gospel with are still living as Christians with faith in Jesus?
• 1 Cor. 13:6 “Love… does not rejoice upon unrighteousness, but rejoices together in the truth.” (NAW)
• The first application point then is to rejoice in what is true.

B) Use God’s Wisdom to Discern When to Tell Truth

John identifies himself in this letter merely as “the elder,” but Greek manuscripts dating all the way back to the earliest-known ones from the 300’s AD tag it as John’s, and it certainly matches his style of writing. He is probably pretty old at the writing of this letter, but his use of the term “elder” could refer to his Biblical office of church leadership. A clear purpose of the Apostle John in writing this letter is to straighten out some twisting of the truth that has been going on at a local church.

• Diotrephes is unjustly bad-mouthing good Christian ministers, and John is writing to get the truth straight in Gaius’ mind and others.
• Another function of this letter is to provide a good reference for Demetrius, who is mentioned towards the end of the letter. Probably Demetrius has been spoken evil of by Gaius’ fellow church-leader Diotrephes, and John is arguing for Gaius to untangle the lies from the truth and take a stand for good Demetrius by hosting him in his home in defiance of president Diotrephes.

There is, of course, a tension between broadcasting the truth and keeping the peace.

• Sometimes it is best not to make a big deal of the truth, such as
• when it is a genuinely-debatable issue,
• or when the parties concerned are already doing a good job of accepting accountability and repenting of sin and growing in righteousness,
• I’m not saying it’s appropriate to lie, I’m just saying that not everybody has to know everything; sometimes only the people that need to know should know,
• but other times a peace-keeping policy of never rocking the boat can lead to awful sins being tolerated and destroying a church. In the case of Third John, the apostle had discerned that it had come to this point in Gaius’ church. Something needed to be done to challenge falsehood in Diotrephes’ church.
• So a second application about speaking truth that comes from this epistle is to exercise wisdom in when to speak up and when to keep things confidential, and if you’re not sure, then ask God to give you wisdom because He tells us in James chapter 1 that He will give us wisdom when we ask for it.

C) Use References to Help Establish Truth

One of the strategies to which John, under divine inspiration, points us, in order to combat falsehood is the strategy of getting references. Now, there are limits to human testimony; you can’t establish absolute truth through human witnesses, but references are still a helpful strategy in sorting out truth from lies. With so much transience in the population around us, there are a lot of people whose history we don’t know. Anybody can show up and say anything about themselves, and it’s often hard to know whether what they said was true or false.

• I once had a guy call me saying he was interested in our church and asking if we could we get together. So I met him at a coffee shop, and while we sipped our coffee, he mentioned how he had moved from my hometown in Alabama and had even attended my home church there. He mentioned names of people and places I knew and made me feel comfortable talking with him, and he also shared about the challenges he was facing in getting a job and a place to live here in Manhattan, and I felt sorry for him. The next day, as I was thinking through how to help this guy, I got an email from another pastor in town. The email contained a description of the very guy I had just met with, warning other pastors not to be taken in by him. It turns out that this man was wanted by the police because he was a notorious con artist! Thinking back on my conversation with the guy, I realized that everything he mentioned about my hometown was also on my bio on our church website. This guy had prepped himself for meeting with me by reading our church website, and had told me a total lie. Getting references from other people is Biblical and strategic.
• At an earlier point in my life, I flirted with the idea of joining a Brethren church network. My aunt married a guy who was really into the Brethren tradition of no pastors, no liturgy, no church organization, just the Bible (…and, of course, tracts written by their founder Mr. Darby). Now, there are a lot of different branches of Brethren, and my aunt’s network was a very exclusive one, so in order for me to find out where the local churches were and to worship with one of them, they sent one of their elders to visit me at my house and check me out (or maybe my aunt put them up to it, I don’t remember now). Anyway, after a day of intense conversations with this guy at my house, he left behind a letter of recommendation by which I could gain entry into a local Brethren assembly.
• Now, our church here is not that exclusive, but we do believe in the elders of a church communicating with the elders of other churches about members who transfer from one congregation to another.
• If you move to our church, I’m going to call the pastor of your former church,
• and if you move away to another church, I’m going to try to call the pastor of your next church. (Don’t worry; in most cases, it’s just been to tell them what a joy it was to have you in our church and to recommend you to them!)
• We also see that John marshals multiple witnesses (Deut. 19:15) to vouch for the good character of Demetrius at the end of this letter.
• So getting references from other people is a Biblical strategy to help with learning the truth.

D) Keep Truth Distinct From Speculation

Now, I’ve spent a lot of time this week trying to figure out who Gaius is, but he is hard to nail down:

• During Paul’s third missionary journey, probably 30 years before the writing of 3 John, Acts 19:29 mentions a man named Gaius as a travelling companion of Paul “from Macedonia” and “away from home” (as the Greek root ekdemew would imply), while Paul is in Ephesus.
• Now during that time that Paul was in Ephesus, Paul wrote the book of 1 Corinthians, in which he also references a Gaius whom he had baptized and who was part of the Corinthian church.
• In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul mentions being visited in Ephesus by folks from Corinth. The land route to Ephesus from Corinth would have taken them through Macedonia, perhaps making them “from Macedonia” – even though Corinth was actually not in Macedonia but in Achaia.
• But I don’t think Gaius was one of these visitors, because 1 Cor. says that they were “from Chloe’s household,” which would imply that they didn’t have houses of their own. Meanwhile, Paul, only a short time later, mentioned in Romans 16:4 that Gaius was hosting the entire church of Corinth, presumably in his own house, so probably the Corinthian Gaius wasn’t the same as the other Gaius (or Gaiuses) mentioned as being with Paul in Ephesus.
• Presumably, Acts 20:4 speaks of this same Gaius “from Macedonia” accompanying Paul through the rest of his third missionary journey from Ephesus into Macedonia and back into Turkey, but it adds the little detail that this Gaius was from Derbe, which was not in Macedonia (on the upper Grecian peninsula), but rather Derbe was one of the first churches Paul had planted back in the Galatian region of Turkey.
• Could the Gaius from Macedonia and the Gaius from Derbe be the same? I could imagine him being originally from Derbe and perhaps converted by Paul during his first missionary journey, then, in order to be a travelling companion of Paul from Macedonia, Paul could have taken him along to the Grecian peninsula on his second missionary journey (without the book of Acts mentioning Gaius in the account). From there, I imagine Paul could have dropped Gaius off at Corinth or Gaius could have made his way back to his hometown of Derbe and gotten picked up again on Paul’s third missionary journey as Paul was heading to Ephesus, or maybe he didn’t go back home, but stayed somewhere in Macedonia until Paul’s third missionary journey and then reconnoitered with Paul in Ephesus to travel together with him on the rest of the third missionary journey.
• If this explains the Gaiuses accurately, it seems likely then that the two Gaiuses would have actually met while Paul was in Corinth at the furthest point of his third missionary journey.
• It could also give some basis for narrowing down which Gaius was Paul writing to.
• The Gaius in 3 John was a Christian (but of whose ongoing faith John seemed uncertain) whose hospitality was well-known, but who wasn’t the foremost leader of his church.
• This seems to fit my Corinthian Gaius profile: an established citizen of Corinth who owned a house in which he hosted missionaries like Paul and in which he hosted church meetings.
• The book of Acts seems to indicate that Christians travelled pretty regularly back and forth to Ephesus from Corinth, so if John was writing from Ephesus, it seems natural that one of these travelers brought news of Gaius and of more problems at that troublesome church in Corinth and occasioned the writing of 3rd John. (And later, the post-apostolic church father Clement would write yet another letter to Corinth!)
• On the other hand, we must realize that it is entirely possible that this was yet another Gaius who was not the Gaius from Corinth or the Gaius from Macedonia or from Derbe, but someone of whom we have no further information outside of 3^rd John.
• Howard Marshall, in his 1978 commentary on 3^rd John noted that the name “Gaius” was just as common in that time and place as the name John is in our context – there’s somebody named John in practically every church in America!
• Classic commentators John Gill and Adam Clarke (and the NASB editors) weighed in against the Corinthian Gaius because:
• he and John would be perhaps in their 70’s which would be getting old for international travel in those days,
• and it would be an awful long trip between Ephesus and Corinth for John to say, “I hope to see you shortly,”
• and furthermore, how would John have friends in Corinth? There’s no record he had ever been there before.
• Albert Barnes and A.T. Robertson gave pitches for Gaius of Derbe in their commentaries because Derbe is located closer to Ephesus where John probably was.
• There’s no way of knowing for sure until we get to heaven and pull John aside and ask, “Now, did you write that third epistle to the Gaius from Macedonia or from Derbe or from Corinth, or were they all the same guy, or was it somebody totally different?” And he’ll say, “Man, why does everybody keep asking me about who I wrote my epistles to?”
• But anyway, I’m intrigued with this Corinth hypothesis, and, if I may drop names, Matthew Henry and John Wesley are also in my camp. But one principle we learn from this wild goose chase, is to be careful not to add speculation to the truth. Although I have mentioned a lot of information and speculation, I haven’t given you one iota of verifiable truth about Gaius, and it’s only right for me to tell you so.

E) Cut Through Deception With God’s Truth

At any rate, the truth needed to be told to encourage the good works of Gaius; the truth needed to be told to expose a church leader – perhaps Gaius’ pastor – who was being terribly uncharitable, and the truth needed to be told to introduce the good character of Demetrius. That’s the body of this letter.

• First, John told the truth about Gaius:
• He was sincere/truthful – “walking in the truth” v.3
• V.5 “You [Gaius] are doing faithfulness” i.e. “acting out faith” – what pertains to faith in Jesus by doing good “work” for brothers – even brothers who are “foreigners” (xenous)
• Gaius showed love/charity (v.6) and supported travelers with provisions for their journey
• That truth needed to be told in order to encourage Gaius to keep up the good work and to point Christians the world over to Gaius’ good example.
• Then John lays out the truth about Diotrephes in verse 9:
• He loved to be first (proud, selfish, spoiled);
• He had rejected John’s apostolic input;
• V.10 Prating/babbling/spouting nonsense – malicious/wicked words
• Rejecting itinerant brothers
• Hindering church members from exercising hospitality to itinerant ministers
• Excommunicating church members for supporting other gospel ministers.
• The ugly truth needed to be told in order to expose a sinner so that he could be held accountable to the Biblical standards of an elder and to serve as a warning for Christians for all time.
• Finally, John tells the truth about the Character of Demetrius (v.12)
• Everybody speaks well of him,
• His good character proves the truth that he is worthy of recommendation, and
• John and his friends also speak well of him
• Could Demetrius be the silversmith from Ephesus who persecuted Paul 30 years ago?
• That man had real leadership ability to get everybody in that big city excited and yelling “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians” for hours on end; such a leader would make for a powerful evangelist! Never underestimate the power of God to transform His enemies! If this is the same Demetrius (and we have no way of knowing for sure), he must have really repented and been truly converted in order for all the Christians in Ephesus to have such a good opinion of him. That, incidentally, could explain why Demetrius needed a good reference from John after getting such a bad reputation from what Luke wrote about him in the book of Acts!
• On the other hand, many commentators suggest this was the Demas (a contraction of the full name Demetrius), the same who abandoned Paul because he loved the world too much (2 Tim. 4:10). If he repented later on, he too would need extra commendation to overcome his bad reputation spread by Paul.
• Or it could have been another Demetrius; we can’t really know until we get to heaven and ask around.
• In v.9, John says he tried to let the truth be known in an earlier letter, but that Diotrephes would not “accept/acknowledge/receive/have anything to do with” it. I expect Diotrephes burned it or something. So after writing the president of the church, John now is writing to a different leader in the church to make the truth known.
• A couple of the commentaries I read (Fausset, Marshall) suggested that Gaius had been homebound by poor health and therefore was not up on the latest happenings at the nearest church pastored by Diotrephes, and that’s why John summarized the evil works of Diotrephes for him.
• On the other hand, I think that a concern for the truth on John’s part could just as well lead him to this brief summary of Diotrephes’ outrages, in the interest of ‘calling a spade a spade,’ helping Gaius, who could have gotten lost in the details and nuances of all the actual interpersonal interactions, to see in broad strokes, the bad from the good.
• I personally have struggled with situations like this where I got lost in the details and rationalized a long series of interpersonal interactions that were a little “off” but I never could put my finger on what was wrong until an outsider made an insightful remark about the big picture:
• One time, my wife Paula was with me when I had a face-to-face meeting with an acquaintance who claimed to be a missionary to an unreached people group and who I had been helping online for some time. Paula said, “Something’s not right about that guy; he’s a criminal.” Well, I didn’t believe her; I chalked down his weird communications to the fact that he was a foreigner. But a couple of years later, a defense attorney contacted me with proof that the guy was indeed a criminal. The truth needed to be told, because I needed to be spending my time helping legitimate missionaries, not crooks.
• Another time I rationalized a string of helpful activities for a guy because he was a church member and he needed help. However, after a conversation with another church elder, I began to put it together that this guy’s every action and communication was characterized by pride, rebellion, and deception. Then it dawned on me: pride, rebellion, and deception are the character of Satan. It changed the whole picture for me as to how to interact as a pastor with that person. I needed to know the truth in order to know how to shepherd.
• That’s the same kind of thing the Apostle John was doing in his letter.
• John tells Gaius in v.10 – here the evil and good examples are, laid out in black and white. Imitate the good; don’t imitate the bad example of Diotrephes!
• Next, Gaius had to pass on the truth. Diotrephes probably won’t let him stand up in the church and read John’s letter, so Gaius is going to have to meet with each family in the church individually, as John says in the close of his letter, greeting each one individually by name and calibrating their understanding to the truth. What they would do with that truth, we are not told, but John’s introduction of Demetrius makes me wonder if perhaps he was suggesting that they kick Diotrephes out of leadership and make Demetrius their new pastor.
• Eph. 4:14-15 “…that we might no longer be infants, tossed back-and-forth and carried about in every wind of teaching in the cunning of men in craftiness toward the deceit of straying, but by being truthful in love we might grow all things into Him, who is the head: Christ” (NAW)
• We need to share the truth with one another so that we can cut through webs of deception.

F) Don’t Leave The Truth Unsaid

Finally, let me close with one more thing about valuing truth. Here in the Midwest, we often leave the truth unspoken. We don’t want to say too much.

• Saying nothing is certainly better than spouting off evil words and lies like Diotrephes did, but sometimes we need to speak up for the truth.
• Don’t leave good things unsaid when they will encourage a brother or sister in Christ or build up their reputation.
• In the closing of his letter, John could have merely written, “I greet you,” but instead he wrote, “the friends greet you,” John has not kept his appreciation of Gaius to himself; John has talked with all his friends in Ephesus about how he’s going to write Gaius and commend him for what a great job he is doing, so much so that all the friends want to get in on the letter’s greeting!
• Let us follow John’s good example and not leave the truth unsaid! Give that word of encouragement; speak up for the truth if nobody else is.

Conclusion

So there we have our 6 principles of truth-telling from the Apostle’s example in 3^rd John:

A) Rejoice in the truth

B) Use God’s Wisdom to Discern When to Tell Truth

C) Use References to Help Establish Truth

D) Keep Truth Distinct From Speculation

E) Cut Through Deception With God’s Truth

F) Don’t Leave The Truth Unsaid

3 John Greek Edition and English Translation by Nate Wilson

Greek NT	NAW	KJV
1 ῾Ο πρεσβύτερος Γαΐῳ τῷ ἀγαπητῷ, ὃν ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ.	1. The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.	1 The elder [un]to the [well]-beloved Gaius, whom I love in [the] truth.
2 ᾿Αγαπητέ, περὶ πάντων εὔχομαί σε εὐοδοῦσθαι καὶ ὑγιαίνειν, καθὼς εὐοδοῦταί σου ἡ ψυχή.	2. Beloved, I’m hoping for you to have good progress regarding all things and to be healthy, just as your soul is making good progress!	2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
3 ἐχάρην γὰρ λίαν ἐρχομένων ἀδελφῶν καὶ μαρτυρούντων σου τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, καθὼς σὺ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ περιπατεῖς.	3. For I was so excited when brothers came and gave a good reference about you being in the truth, just that you yourself are continuing to walk in truth.	3 For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth [that is] in thee, even as thou walkest in [the] truth.
4 μειζοτέραν τούτων οὐκ ἔχω χαράν, ἵνα[i] ἀκούω τὰ ἐμὰ τέκνα ἐν [τῇ^-^א^,TR,Maj] ἀληθείᾳ περιπατοῦντα.	4. I have no source of joy greater than these things, namely, [when] I hear of my children walking in [the] truth.	4 I have no greater joy than X [to] hear that my children walk in truth.
5 ᾿Αγαπητέ, πιστὸν[ii] ποιεῖς ὃ ἐὰν ἐργάσῃ εἰς τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ τουτο[iii] ξένους,	5. Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever work you happen to do for the brothers - even this for outsiders -	5 Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to^TR strangers;
6 οἳ ἐμαρτύρησάν σου τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἐνώπιον ἐκκλησίας, οὓς καλῶς ποιήσεις προπέμψας ἀξίως τοῦ Θεοῦ.	6. who themselves gave a good reference concerning your love before the church, [and] whom you will do well to send forward in a manner worthy of God,	6 Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward [on their journey] after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:
7 ὑπὲρ γὰρ τοῦ ὀνόματος [iv]ἐξῆλθον, μηδὲν λαμβάνοντες ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνικῶν[v].	7. because they went abroad under [the auspices] of His Name, taking nothing from the pagans.	7 Because [that] for [his^TR] name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.
8 ἡμεῖς οὖν ὀφείλομεν ὑπολαμβάνειν[vi] τοὺς τοιούτους, ἵνα συνεργοὶ γινώμεθα τῇ ἀληθείᾳ.	8. Therefore, as for our part, we ought to support such men, in order that we may become co-workers in the truth.	8 We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth.
9 ῎Εγραψά [τι^-C,Maj,TR] τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ· ἀλλ᾿ ὁ φιλοπρωτεύων αὐτῶν Διοτρεφής οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται ἡμᾶς.	9. I wrote something to the church, but the guy who loves being their president - (yeah, Diotrephes) isn’t having anything to do with[vii] us.	9 I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
10 διὰ τοῦτο, ἐὰν ἔλθω, ὑπομνήσω αὐτοῦ τὰ ἔργα ἃ ποιεῖ, λόγοις πονηροῖς φλυαρῶν[viii] ἡμᾶς· καὶ μὴ ἀρκούμενος ἐπὶ τούτοις, οὔτε αὐτὸς ἐπιδέχεται τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ τοὺς βουλομένους κωλύει καὶ ἐκ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐκβάλλει[ix].	10. On account of this, if ever I come, I will remember his works[x] which he is doing: spouting off about us, using wicked words, and not even content with these, he himself both doesn’t have anything to do with the brothers, and he prevents those who desire to - and kicks them out of the church!	10 Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
11 ᾿Αγαπητέ, μὴ μιμοῦ τὸ κακὸν, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀγαθόν. ὁ ἀγαθοποιῶν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστιν· ὁ[xi] κακοποιῶν οὐχ ἑώρακε τὸν Θεόν.	11. Beloved, don’t be mimicking the evil, but rather the good. The one who is a doer of good is from God; the one who is a doer of bad hasn’t seen God.[xii]	11 Beloved, follow not that [which is] evil, but that [which is] good. He that doeth good is of God: [but^TR] he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
12 Δημητρίῳ[xiii] μεμαρτύρηται ὑπὸ πάντων καὶ ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς τῆς ἀληθείας[xiv]· καὶ ἡμεῖς δὲ μαρτυροῦμεν, καὶ οἶδας[xv] ὅτι ἡ μαρτυρία ἡμῶν ἀληθής ἐστι.	12. Demetrius has been well-referenced by all [concerned] - and by the truth itself, and also we ourselves are giving a good reference (and you know that our reference is a truthful one).	12 Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye^TR know that our record is true.
13 Πολλὰ εἶχον γράψαι [σοι^-TR,Pat], ἀλλ᾿ οὐ θέλω διὰ μέλανος καὶ καλάμου σοι γράφειν[xvi]·	13. I had many things to write to you, but I’m not wanting to write with pen and ink to you,	13 I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee:
14 ἐλπίζω δὲ εὐθέως σε ἰδεῖν σε, καὶ στόμα πρὸς στόμα λαλήσομεν. (15) ειρηνη σοι ασπαζονται σε οι φιλοι ασπαζου τους φιλους κατ ονομα[xvii]	14. instead I am hoping to see you shortly, and then we will talk face-to-face! 15. Peace be with you. Our friends greet you. Greet our friends by name!	14 But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name.

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[1] A highly-respected modern Biblical Greek grammarian, Robert Hanna, even goes so far as to suggest that the word “truth” in the epistle of 3^rd John actually refers to Christ (and other commentators suggest that the Holy Spirit is referred to in some of these instances in 3^rd John) – and while certainly God is the ultimate source of truth, and it could be accurately said that John is in Christ, Gaius is walking in the Spirit, and has become a co-worker with Christ, nevertheless, I think it is a stretch to go so far as to substitute the word “Christ” every time the word “truth” appears in this letter.

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[i] Nowhere else in the NT is hina related to a comparative as in “greater {meizon}...than {hina},” but this is not a statement of purpose (“I have no joy in order to hear of my children”), nor is it a statement of result (“I don’t have joy... in order to obtain the result that I hear of my children...”). The “identificational” meaning (Louw & Nida #91.15) seems to fit because there is an identity between toutwn and “my children walking in the truth,” the latter clause explaining what John meant by the pronoun.

[ii] The Accusative Neuter Singular forms match piston and touto together: “whatever you happen to perform for the brothers” = “you are doing faithfulness” = “and this for strangers.”

[iii] The Majority of Greek manuscripts read είς τοὺς “to the,” and so the Patristic and Textus Receptus editions read, followed by the KJV, but every one of the pre-6^th century manuscripts (א, A, B, C, 048) reads τουτο - literally “this” (rendered “especially/though/as” in other English translations) followed by all the oldest translations – Latin, Coptic, Syriac. The former would seem to indicate that the “strangers” are different from the “brothers” whereas the latter seems to identify them together. The following verses of 3^rd John make clear that they are the same, so I prefer the reading of the modern critical editions of the GNT here.

[iv] Five late Greek manuscripts add the word “his” to describe “the name,” and somehow this made it into Scrivner’s later edition (although it wasn’t in earlier editions) of the Textus Receptus – and thus into the KJV (and also into the Greek Orthodox Patristic edition of the GNT). The context of the word “God” ending the previous verse makes God the referent of the definite article here in Greek, justifying the translation of the definite article as the possessive pronoun “His.” So it can be accurately translated “His name” whether or not the Greek text has the pronoun explicitly there, so this variant makes no difference in translation. Even without the “His,” “the Name” denotes “the person and reputation of the one true God.” Adam Clarke makes a case for this meaning that they were persecuted and driven out of their homes instead of voluntarily embarking on itinerant ministry.

[v] The Majority of Greek manuscripts (and therefore the T.R.) have the contracted spelling ἐθνῶν which means more generally “nations/ethnicities,” and that seems to be the reading of the Vulgate translation, but the Patriarchal edition of the GNT as well as almost all of the pre-6^th century manuscripts (א, A, B, C) have the longer form ἐθνικῶν which has a stronger connotation of “heathen/pagan/Gentile,” and there is a string of Greek manuscripts through the centuries after which retained the longer spelling, plus the majority of the pre-Vulgate Latin translations are considered to be in the tradition of the longer form of the word too, so I kept the longer form. The idea is that of a contrast between being commissioned by the LORD (and provided for by Him – and His people) versus being just another religious huckster from among the pagans, making a living as a charlatan.

[vi] The UBS and Patristic editions read hupolambanein, following 9 manuscripts, including all the oldest-known (א, A, B, C). The Textus Receptus followed the overall majority of manuscripts which read apolambanein, which means close to the same thing. Hupo- emphasizes “lifting up/supporting” as part of “receiving,” and the closest parallel to it in the NT is Acts 1:9, where the clouds “received” Jesus. Apo- emphasizes the movement “from” one place to another in the “receiving,” and the closest parallel to its use in the NT is in Luke 15:27, where the father speaks of receiving his prodigal son back. I prefer the former since this is talking about financial support.

[vii] The Greek word epidexomai behind this English word “receive/accept/have to do with/acknowledge” only occurs one other place in the Greek Bible, and that is in the very next verse, where English Bibles tend to give it a whole new meaning of “welcome;” only the KJV is consistent with rendering both “receive.” Epidexomai is a compound of the Greek verb that means “receive” and the Greek preposition that means “upon.” “Take on,” in the sense of “accepting the responsibility to take care of someone,” might be a more literal way to render it in English, except that “take on” has another meaning of “fighting against,” and that would be the opposite meaning. “Take in,” as in “to drink in their words and let them into your home;” would also work except that “take in” has an opposite meaning of being deceived.

[viii] This verb occurs nowhere else in the Greek Bible, but seems to have to do with a “bubbling up” sound.

[ix] It seems that this could mean, “what they [the brothers not accepted by Diotrephes] were planning to do, even [by?] kicking them out of the Church of Jesus Christ,” or it could mean, “the ones who meant [to accept the brothers rejected by Diotrepehes] even kicking them [the ones in Diotrephes’ congregation who wanted to welcome the brothers when Diotrephes didn’t] out of the congregation.”

Fausset passed on an interesting suggestion from Neander that the reason for Diotrephes’ antipathy was ethnic, in other words, that these itinerant evangelists were Jews whereas Diotrephes is a Greek name. He supports this theory by John’s reference to the itinerants taking nothing from Gentiles and from the beliefs of the Marcionites who rejected John and only followed Paul’s teachings. This is one of the more-plausible explanations I ran across.

[x] The erga “works” of Diotrephes listed here form a contrast with the erga of Gaius listed in v.5.

[xi] The converse relationship between the two clauses here is clear from the context, but only a couple of Greek texts (L & 1852, from the 9^th and 13^th centuries respectively) actually contain the word “but” here. Nevertheless, it was these manuscripts that made it into the Textus Receptus edition, and that’s why there is a “but” in the KJV.

[xii] 1 John 2:19 & 3:20

[xiii] The possibility of this indicating a backstory of the salvation of Demetrius the silversmith in Ephesus (Acts 19:24 – or perhaps Demas the turncoat from Paul’s ministry Col. 4:14; 2Ti. 4:10; Phm. 1:24.), as well as the possibility that Paul is pointing the way to the replacement of a presiding elder in a local church is tantalizing.

[xiv] Half the oldest-known Greek manuscripts (P⁷⁴, A, C) read “church” instead of “truth.” The church was mentioned in v.6, and in Greek, the two words share over half the same letters in the same order.

[xv] Although all five pre-6^th century Greek manuscripts (as well as the ancient Latin and Coptic translations) render this word singular, and although all of the other “you’s” in this letter are singular in this letter addressed to Gaius, the overall majority of Greek manuscripts (and therefore the Textus Receptus and Patriarchal editions) render it plural, as though John were aware that his letter would make it into the NT canon and, like an actor on stage speaking an aside to the audience, turns to all of us, his readers, to affirm his reliability.

[xvi] Although all five pre-6^th century Greek manuscripts render “to write” first in the Aorist tense, then in the Present tense in this verse, the overall majority of Greek manuscripts (and therefore the Textus Receptus and Patriarchal editions of the GNT) switch the tenses and do not include the first “to you” – (I find it curious that the NIV and ESV side against the critical text by including only one “you” in this verse.) It makes no difference in meaning, though. The context makes it obvious that John was writing to Gaius and addressing him as “you,” and the difference in meaning of the tenses of Greek infinitives is infinitesimal (which is why English doesn’t give tenses to infinitives, and why John could use both tenses to refer to basically the same action).

[xvii] John’s friends in Ephesus wanted to also greet Gaius and other friends at the church (in Corinth). The only other occurrence of this phrase in John 10:3 “…he calls his own sheep by name…” – Gaius wouldn’t be able to just get up in the pulpit and read John’s letter to everybody because Diotrephes wouldn’t allow it, so Gaius would have to make the contacts one by one with the church members.