3rd Letter of John

1-4 John greets a man named Gaius

1 I, John, am a leader of the churches.

This letter is to Gaius.

I love you very much.

2 Your soul is already well.

That is why I ask God:

Give Gaius good health and bless everything in his life.

3 Some friends from your church came and told me:

Gaius obeys the truth, that is, the teachings of Jesus.

This made me very happy.

4 Nothing makes me happier than this:

Hearing that my spiritual children obey the teachings of Jesus.

5-8 Gaius helps some missionaries

Here John says that by helping the missionaries you are working with them as they preach the message of Jesus.

5 Gaius, you helped some missionaries.

You don’t even know those missionaries.

But it does not matter.

You helped them anyway.

This shows your faith in Jesus.

6 Those missionaries told the people of my church about your love.

Therefore, I tell you:

Those missionaries need more help to continue their journey.

Please help them and make God happy.

7 Those missionaries travel because they love Jesus.

They do not accept help from unbelievers.

8 So our responsibility as believers is to help those missionaries.

That is how we can work with them as they preach the true message of Jesus.

9-12 John talks about 2 men named Diotrephes and Demetrius

Here John says that we should not copy the actions of bad people, but only the actions of good people.

9 This letter is also for the people of your church.

Diotrephes wants to be the leader of the church and give orders.

That is why Diotrephes does not accept my authority.

10 Diotrephes tells terrible lies about me and other people.

But Diotrephes does other things even worse.

He

• does not help missionaries,
• does not allow other people to help missionaries, and
• kicks people out of the church who want to help missionaries.

One day I will visit you and we will talk about these things.

11 My dear friend Gaius, I have an important message for you.

Anyone who does bad things does not know God and has never even seen God.

Do not copy the actions of bad people.

Anyone who does good things is a child of God.

You must copy the actions of good people.

12 Everyone says that Demetrius is a good person.

His actions and we ourselves also say the same thing.

You know that our words are true.

13-15 John says “Goodbye”

13 Gaius, I wanted to tell you many more things.

But I don’t want to write all those things in this letter.

14 I want to go visit you soon and talk to you personally.

15 I pray for God to give you peace.

All the people in the church here greet you.

Please greet all my friends there.