I Don’t Wish to Write with Pen and Ink

from Google Images

In closing, the Elder told Gaius that he wanted to tell him many things, but he wouldn’t put it down in pen and ink (3John 1:13; cp. 2John 2:12). Paul wrote many epistles some very long (Romans, the letters to the Corinthians and Hebrews etc.) and some very short (Philemon, and his letters to the Thessalonians), but 2^nd and 3^rd John are the shortest in the Bible. It may appear that 3^rd John is larger than 2^nd John, but the additional 14^th verse of 3^rd John is deceiving. There are actually 249 Greek words in 2^nd John to only 219 Greek words in 3^rd John.[1] Philemon and Jude come in next with 339 words and 454 words respectively. While there is valid purposes for writing short letters (Philemon and Jude), I have to wonder why the Elder thought it necessary to keep from writing down all he would have liked to tell his recipients, the Elect Lady (2^nd John) and Gaius (3^rd John). Both Paul and Jude seem to have communicated all they wished to say to their recipients in their short letters, but not so John. Why might that be?

 

Diotrephes Who Loved to Be First

from Google Images

In 3John 1:9 the Elder mentions a man by the name of Diotrephes, and identifies him as a recognized authority figure in the local church where Gaius lived. Diotrephes seems to have been an elder of that church, and perhaps what we might call a pastor today. The Elder accused Diotrephes of loving to be the commander, or the first and in-charge person among the believers there. The Elder also wrote that he had written to the church where Gaius lived, but Diotrephes either wouldn’t read the letter to the congregation, or he did so and denounced its contents.

 

Fellowship in the Gospel of Christ

from Google Images

Notice that the Elder addresses Gaius as Beloved (3John 1:5)! He also does this in the beginning of his letter: “The Elder to the beloved Gaius…” (3John 1:1). Actually, this epistle can be divided into three sections, each beginning with Gaius being addressed as Beloved (3John 1:2, 5 and 11). So, this is the second section of the letter and it deals with acting faithfully in the midst of opposition. The Elder begins this section by commending the faithfulness of his beloved Gaius in encouraging his brethren, namely, the traveling evangelists, and, although they were strangers to him, he treated them as brethren by extending to them the hospitality of the Lord (3John 1:5, cp. John 13:20 and Matthew 25:34-40).

 

The Beloved Gaius

from Google Images

The Elder addressed his letter to a man named Gaius, whom he says is beloved (3John 1:1). The New Covenant text points to three men by that name, and John’s third epistle may point to a fourth, for Gaius was a common name among those living in the first century AD; it was even the name of one of the Caesars. The first Gaius mentioned is found in Acts 19:29, where he, together with Aristarchus, both of Macedonia, were seized by a fanatical mob, demonstrating for the goddess, Dianna of Asia. They were appointed to go with Paul on his final journey to Jerusalem. The second Gaius mentioned was also a man appointed to accompany Paul to Jerusalem, but he was a man from Derbe in Galatia. Still, a third man by this name is mentioned as a man Paul baptized in Corinth (1Corinthians 1:14), who was probably the same Gaius mentioned in Paul’s letter to Rome 16:23, as he was the host of those with Paul, whose letter to Rome was written from Corinth.

 

The Elder

from Google Images

What are John’s epistles about? Well, as I mentioned in my study on John’s second epistle, they are all about fellowship: fellowship with God (1John); the wrong kind of fellowship (2John); and the kind of fellowship Christians should have with one another (3John). John’s third epistle is about overcoming peer-pressure. We are presented with four characters: the Elder, the one who writes the letter; Gaius, the letter’s recipient and the one who has the reputation of acting contrary to peer-pressure; Diotrephes, the dangerous character who is applying the peer-pressure; and Demetrius, who is probably the letter-carrier and perhaps the answer to the peer-pressure problem, or, in other words, he may be Diotrephes’ replacement, but this, admittedly, is conjecture. Nonetheless, it does fit the context.

 

Neither Bid Him Godspeed!

from Google Images

In 2John 1:10 John warns the elect lady and her children against receiving anyone who comes to them and doesn’t bring this doctrine—which doctrine does John have in mind? It is the doctrine of Christ (2John 1:9), which is to love God, which is expressed in our trust in Christ (1John 5:3; cp. 3:23) and love the brethren, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us (1John 5:2; cp. 3:11, 14-18). John’s warning, then, was that folks who came to the elect lady and her children, preaching something else, something that did not express the nature of this doctrine, they were to neither let them into their houses nor bid them Godspeed (2John 1:10).

 

Going Beyond the Doctrine of Christ

from Google Images

In my previous study I mentioned that John was actually separating believers from unbelievers, or the good seed from the bad (cp. Matthew 13:30, 41-43). This separation is made through John’s words, paraphrasing, “whoever transgresses or goes beyond (G3845) the doctrine of Christ (i.e. the Gospel containing Christ’s words and deeds) does not have (echo; G2192) God, but he who abides in the doctrine of Christ has (G2192) both the Father and the Son.” But, what does John mean? The Greek word echo (G2192) can be understood in a number of senses, according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon. For example, it can simply mean ‘to hold’ or to ‘possess’ a thing or to ‘hold’ oneself to a position or teaching etc. It also carries with it the idea of a close relationship, such as the marriage bond, or the bond of family or friendship. I believe it is in this sense, the idea of a close relationship, that we should understand having God. In other words, the antichrists are not in a close relationship with God, according to John (2John 1:9).

 

Separating the Good Seed from Antichrist

from Google Images

John tells us that the antichrists were ‘deceivers’ who had gone out into the world. This could mean they were Jewish missionaries who had gone out into the world to bring folks to believe in Judaism. Saul, before he became Paul, was one such Jewish missionary, as was Apollos, for the Jewish missionary system was quite prominent during the first century AD (cp. Matthew 23:15). Such were the “men from James” (or so they claimed, cp. Acts 15:22-27), and they were responsible for undoing Paul’s work among the Galatians (Galatians 2:11-14; 4:21-26), which prompted the need of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. On the other hand, 2John 1:7 may mean the antichrists were once among believers, but they left, showing they were never really believers at all (cp. 1John 2:18-19). Such an understanding would fit into Paul’s opinion that they were spies sent into the Church by the Jewish authorities to bring believers under the bondage of the Law and the authority of the high priest at Jerusalem (Galatians 2:4; cp. Acts 5:1-11, 13)!

 

Context and the Antichrists!

from Google Images

It seems to me that the reason John mentioned the commandment of the Father to the elect lady was because she and her children weren’t completely obedient to that commandment, and this offered an advantage to those John termed the antichrists (2John 1:7), but understanding what John meant by antichrists involves understanding his times. Context is extremely important! This is especially so, when it comes to understanding when John wrote his Gospel and his epistles, because, if John didn’t write toward the end of the first century AD, then it would be impossible to identify the antichrists with the Gnostics, which don’t appear until the 2^nd century AD. Nevertheless, most commentaries want to place John’s words of warning at the end of the first century AD or the beginning of the second.

 

Loving According to His Commandment

from Google Images

John said he had rejoiced when he found “of your children walking in the truth” (2John 1:4). Clearly, a word in the English is needed to clarify what is probably obvious in the Greek. A word needs to be supplied, like “certain” or “some” as was done in John 16:17. One may understand John in one of two different ways. First, all he could be saying is that he was really glad when he found some of the lady’s children walking in truth, or behaving as one would expect a child of God to behave, who had journeyed far from home and away from the eyes of those who knew them. On the other hand, John might, instead, be implying he knew that not all of the lady’s children behaved as they ought, when away from their hometown, but he was glad to see some did! Which one of these ideas is probably true?

 

The Truth and Walking in Truth

from Google Images

John tells the elect lady that he loves her and her children in truth, and not he alone, but all they who have known the truth love the ‘elect lady’ and her children (2John 1:1). John isn’t speaking of emotion; he isn’t saying he had fond feelings for the ‘elect lady’ and her children. Rather, he claimed he loved them in truth. But, what does this mean?

 

The Elder to the Elect Lady

from Google Images

All three of John’s epistles seem to be simply dealing with fellowship. First John, which doesn’t appear to be a letter at all but may have been a cover document sent with his Gospel narrative, is about fellowship with God and how to maintain it. Second and Third John are true letters written in the format of letters of the first century AD.[1] Second John is about wrong fellowship, fellowship that should be avoided and, in fact, stopped, if it is presently going on. Specifically, it is about the danger of fellowship with false teachers or antichrists, as John refers to them, because in one way or another they deny that Christ is truly able to save anyone. Third John is all about the fellowship with one’s brethren.

 

Keep Yourselves from Idols!

from Google Images

In 1John 5:18 John sums up his final remarks by saying, “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not continue to sin, but the one born of God guards himself, and the evil one does not touch him” (1John 5:18). I have access to about forty translations of the Bible in my Bible suite, and nearly every one of them translate 1John 5:18 similar to what I’ve quoted above. Nevertheless, I found two that were faithful enough to God’s word that they didn’t add the word “one” after the word evil in this verse. By adding to the word of God, one often gets a completely different picture than what one was intended to receive. To many in the Church of God, the “devil” is an ominous figure. Some have built their entire ministry around “casting him out” of everyone and everything. I think sometimes unbelievers get the idea we are more afraid of this imaginary figure than we love Jesus.

 

A Sin that Leads to Death

from Google Images

In my opinion, the Church by and large has greatly misunderstood John’s final words in his epistle. Some of what he claimed here has even been used in the Prosperity Gospel by the name-it-and-claim-it (sometimes referred to as the “blab-it-and-grab-it”) charlatans of our day. Nevertheless, their idea of the Gospel cannot be supported by John in his epistle. John told his readers that the confidence we have in God proves evident, in that, whatever we ask according to the will of God, he will hear us, and, if we know that he hears us, we have already received what we have asked for (1John 5:14-15). That is, the Lord has agreed to give us what we have requested of him. Nevertheless, John wasn’t referring to having a successful business, buying a car, a home or the latest electronic device we believe is so necessary in today’s environment. Such preaching abuses the word of God that we find in our Bibles.

 

You May Know You Have Eternal Life

from Google Images

At this point John began his final remarks for his readers to consider. He ends his letter as he had begun, with the phrase “These things I have written onto you…” (1John 5:13), which corresponds to “These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete” (1John 1:5). In other words, this epistle was written in order that “our” joy (i.e. the joy of the Apostle and of the reader who believes on the name of the Son of God) would be fulfilled, namely in the believer’s knowing with certainty that he has eternal life.