About This Book

3 John is a personal letter from “the elder” to Gaius, a believer whose steady hospitality has strengthened travelling gospel workers. John writes with affection and clarity, encouraging what is good for the church’s mission, and confronting what is destructive for its fellowship. For preachers and leaders, it is a small book with unusually sharp relevance to church culture, especially around authority, welcome, and the way truth should shape relationships.

The flow is straightforward. John rejoices that Gaius is walking in the truth and commends his generous care for brothers who have gone out for the sake of the Name (vv.1 to 8). He then names a particular threat, Diotrephes loves to be first, rejects apostolic authority, refuses hospitality, and even puts faithful believers out of the church (vv.9 to 10). John calls Gaius to imitate good rather than evil, commends Demetrius as a trustworthy worker, and closes with the hope of soon speaking face to face (vv.11 to 15).

3 John trains the church to see that gospel partnership is protected by humble leadership and expressed through costly, truthful love.

Preach this letter as a window into real church life, apply it to hospitality and mission support, and let its warning about proud leadership land with sobriety, because John wants the church to be safe for faithful workers and ordinary believers.

Structure of the Book

This outline is intentionally high level. It is designed to keep sermon planning tethered to the flow of the book.

1. Greeting and prayerful affection
   John addresses Gaius with warmth and prays for his wellbeing, vv.1 to 2
2. Joy in truth walking and faithful hospitality
   John rejoices that Gaius walks in the truth and commends his practical love for visiting brothers, vv.3 to 8
3. A warning example of proud leadership
   Diotrephes rejects John’s authority, refuses welcome, spreads trouble, and harms the church’s fellowship, vv.9 to 10
4. A call to imitate good, not evil
   John urges Gaius to follow what is good, and ties moral imitation to knowing God, v.11
5. A commendation of a trustworthy worker
   Demetrius is commended by the truth itself and by the apostolic witness, v.12
6. Closing, peace, and face to face hope
   John prefers personal fellowship, sends greetings, and ends with peace, vv.13 to 15

Key Themes

• Walking in the truth, truth is not merely affirmed, it is lived, shaping priorities, relationships, and integrity.
• Hospitality as gospel partnership, welcoming and supporting workers is a tangible way the church becomes a fellow worker for the truth.
• Mission shaped by the Name, the church sends and supports those who go out for Christ’s sake, not for personal gain or recognition.
• Healthy authority and accountability, John assumes real spiritual authority, exercised for protection and encouragement, not control.
• The danger of pride in leadership, Diotrephes shows how self importance corrodes fellowship, silences truth, and weaponises influence.
• Church discipline abused, the threat here is not the existence of discipline, but its misuse to punish faithfulness and enforce a personal agenda.
• Imitation as discipleship, John calls believers to learn by patterns, to imitate what is good and refuse what is evil.
• Public reputation and credibility, Demetrius is commended as a trustworthy worker, reminding the church to weigh character and testimony carefully.
• Peaceful fellowship, John’s closing desire for face to face conversation shows that truth aims at joyful communion, not endless suspicion.

Recommended Commentaries

Recommendations are grouped to help you build a working shelf. A top choice aims to serve as your primary companion for preaching and teaching. A strong recommendation provides a second trusted voice that complements your main volume. A useful supplement helps with structure, background, or a particular angle, without demanding more time than it is worth.

A simple strategy, choose one main commentary you will actually consult weekly, then add a second voice only where the passage is especially dense or pastorally sensitive.

• The Message of John’s Lettersby David Jackman, Score: 8.9

  A clear, heart-searching guide that weds careful exegesis to searching application for those teaching John’s letters.

• The Epistles Of Johnby I. Howard Marshall, Score: 8.7

  A clear, faithful, and pastorally sensitive exposition of the Johannine Epistles.

• James, Epistles of John, Peter, and Judeby Simon J. Kistemaker, Score: 8.4

  A well-rounded and thoughtful volume that handles each letter with balance, clarity, and a steady pastoral instinct.

Browse all 3 John reviews

Additional help is often most valuable in vv.5 to 8 on gospel partnership and hospitality, and in vv.9 to 11 where church authority, exclusion, and the pattern of leadership need careful pastoral application.

Preaching and Teaching Helps

3 John is short enough for a single sermon, but it can also serve as a rich training text for church culture, membership, and mission support.

• Explain hospitality in its missionary setting, show why supporting travelling workers mattered, then translate that principle to modern sending, support, and platforming.
• Apply leadership warnings without sensationalism, name the danger of pride plainly, but keep the goal restorative, protective, and Christ centred.
• Distinguish authority from domination, highlight the difference between shepherding for the flock’s good and controlling for personal status.
• Make discipleship concrete, use v.11 to show how imitation works, people become like the patterns they follow.
• Handle personal names wisely, John names both harmful and helpful examples, so you can address real dynamics without turning the sermon into gossip.
• Connect peace to truth, John seeks peace and personal fellowship without compromising truth, a needed model for church conflict resolution.

This Book in the Story of Scripture

3 John sits within the wider apostolic work of establishing and protecting churches in the aftermath of Christ’s resurrection and ascension. The risen Lord continues to gather and keep his people through the truth preached by the apostles, and through the ordinary means of Christian fellowship, hospitality, and faithful leadership. This letter shows that the advance of the gospel is carried not only by preaching, but also by a church culture that welcomes what is true and refuses what is proud and destructive.

The book shapes the church by strengthening assurance that truth can be known and lived, and by forming habits of love that serve mission. It calls congregations to support faithful workers, to recognise that character matters, and to guard against leadership that turns the church inward and unsafe. In doing so it encourages a steady, outward facing life of obedience, where Christ is honoured and the weak are protected.

Because Christ gathers his people by the truth, the church can practise costly love, support gospel work with joy, and resist proud patterns that suffocate obedience and hope.