Chapter 1

Exposition of the Third Epistle of St John

¹ Argument. This Epistle is about hospitality. First John commends Gaius, who is attested by everyone for his hospitality, and urges him to remain in the same resolve—to send the brethren on their way and to welcome them. Then, while he accepts Gaius’s generosity, he finds fault with Diotrephes, who not only fails to provide for the poor himself but even hinders others, and indulges in much idle talk. Such people, he says, are strangers to the truth and do not know God. Demetrius, however, he commends, bearing him the finest witness.

² Chapter-headings. 1. A prayer for Gaius’s perfection, and thanksgiving for his acknowledged hospitality to the brethren for Christ’s sake; in which there is also mention of the baseness and hatred of the brethren shown by Diotrephes. 2. Concerning Demetrius, to whom he bears the finest witness. 3. Concerning John’s coming to them speedily, for their benefit.

³ The elder, to Gaius the beloved, whom I love in truth. Beloved, in all things I pray that you may prosper and be in health. He loves in truth who loves according to the Lord. John writes this Epistle to commend certain brethren. He writes to Gaius, and bears witness to his great hospitality, for which he also counts him worthy of high praise; for he says that the one who does good is of God. And he rouses him still more by the very words in which he denounces Diotrephes, who had not learned to act in this way. He praises Demetrius too, who did the same, and furnishes a trustworthy testimony of his virtue.

⁴ Even as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified to your truth, even as you walk in truth. And the soul prospers in a manner of life lived according to the Gospel. He walks in truth who walks according to the simplicity of the Gospel. And “walks,” he means, not the movement of the legs—the kind of transition from place to place that is one and the same for every creature that has feet—but the well-ordered and temperate advance that follows the soul’s own impulses, which few attain, namely those who possess full knowledge.

⁵ I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in truth. Beloved, you act faithfully in whatever you do for the brethren and for the strangers, who have testified to your love before the Church; you will do well to send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they went out for the sake of the Name, taking nothing from the Gentiles. The word meizoteran (“greater”), by the strict standard of the Greek language, is improper, since it heaps one comparative upon another.[1]

⁶ We therefore ought to welcome such people, that we may become fellow workers for the truth. I wrote to the Church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not receive us. “To welcome” (apolambanein) stands here for “to take up, to receive as a guest,” as in the verse, They took me up like a lion ready for prey.[2] And by this he teaches us not to wait for the needy until they come to us, but to run out to them ourselves and seek them out, as Abraham and Lot did.

⁷ For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to the works he does, prating against us with evil words; and not satisfied with this, he refuses to welcome the brethren himself, and he hinders those who wish to, and casts them out of the Church. If it has been commanded not to render evil for evil, how is it that the Evangelist now threatens such things? We answer that the former—not to render evil for evil—is a commandment with respect to one who sins against himself; but if the sin is against us and also brings a hindrance to the faith, then requital is due to such a person, just as Paul also dealt with Elymas, who was perverting the ways of the Lord.[3] His prating against us with evil words is, as it were, reviling, speaking evil, and disparaging.[4]

⁸ Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God; but he who does evil has not seen God. Since there is no fellowship of light with darkness, nor any concord of Christ with Belial,[5] the one who has been enlightened by the knowledge of Christ must not be mingled with the darkness by imitating the ungodly—that is, by sharing in their works. For the good man, he says, who does good is of God; and having the noetic eye of his soul illumined by the light of the knowledge of Him, and thereby being wholly light, he both sees the true Light—God—and is seen by others as a luminary in the world, holding forth the word of life.[6] So too the one who does evil, journeying in darkness, can himself neither see God—that is, do the things of God—nor make himself a visible example to others; rather he is hateful to all and abominable, according to the verse, I have hated and abhorred the sinner.[7]

⁹ Demetrius has been attested by all, and by the truth itself; and we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true. I had many things to write to you, but I do not wish to write to you with ink and pen; rather I hope to see you soon, and we shall speak mouth to mouth. Peace to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name. Amen. “By all”—that is, by those who possess the truth; “and by the truth itself”—that is, by effective reality, not by mere repute. For there are some to whom virtue is attested, but falsely, resting on mere words with nothing to back them. Yet if anyone should take the phrase “by all” to extend even to the testimony of both believers and unbelievers—on account of the inclusive force of the word “all”—he would not be mistaken; for Paul says that the faithful are to be without offense to all—to Jews and to Greeks and to the Church of God—even as I myself please all men in all things.[8]

¹⁰ The end of the Third Epistle of the holy Apostle John: fifteen stichoi.[9]