3 John 1
1
Greeting
1 The Elder,
To Gaius, the beloved, whom I love in truth.
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in everything and enjoy good health, just as your soul prospers.* 3 For I rejoiced exceedingly when brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in truth. 4 I have no greater joy than these things, that I hear my children are walking in the truth.
Commendation of Gaius
5 Beloved, you are doing a faithful work* in whatever you do for the brothers—and this extends* to strangers. 6 They* have testified to your* love before the church; you will do well to provide for their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out on behalf of the Name,* accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore, we ought to support such people, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.
Diotrephes and Demetrius
9 I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, the one who loves to be first among them, does not welcome us. 10 Because of this, if I come, I will call attention to the deeds which he is doing, as he maligns us with evil words. And not being satisfied with these things, he himself does not receive the brothers, and those who want to do so* he prevents and throws out of the church.
11 Beloved, do not imitate the evil, but the good. The one who does good is from God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
12 Demetrius has been testified to by everyone, and by the truth itself. And we also testify, and you know that our testimony is true.
Farewell Greeting
13 I had much to write to you, but I do not want to write to you with ink and pen. 14 But I hope to see you soon, and we will speak face to face.*
15 Peace be to you. The friends extend their greetings to you. Greet the friends by name.*
Notes
2 Greek Beloved, I pray for you to prosper concerning everything and to be in good health, just as your soul prospers
5 The word work is supplied to the text based on context for the sake of clarity
5 The singular verb extends is supplied to the text based on context for the sake of clarity
6 Greek who
6 One ancient Greek manuscript inserts at this point truth and
7 One ancient Greek manuscript inserts at this point the genitive phrase of God
10 The pro-verb construction to do so is contextually supplied for the purpose of clarification
14 Greek mouth to mouth
15 Some ancient manuscripts insert Amen at the end of the verse
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3 John 1: AFINTLIT
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).