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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3Jn_1:2-4
2Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. 3For I was very glad when brethren came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth. 4I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.
3Jn_1:2 "I pray" This follows a typical Greek letter opening. It is a prayer/wish for the recipients' prosperity and health. It was a way to greet a loved one. This cannot be used as a proof text for the "health, wealth gospel," so popular in modern America. See Gordon Fee (a charismatic scholar), The Disease of the Health, Wealth Gospel. For my views on healing, please see my notes on James 5 online at hyperlink.
▣ "that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health" This is a typical opening prayer in the Greco-Roman world of the first century. It was never meant to be a proof-text for "health, wealth, and prosperity" preachers. Bible texts removed from context can be used to assert anything. The text cannot mean today what it never meant in its own day. The only inspired person is the original author. We must follow his thoughts, not interject our own!
▣ "soul" This term "psuche" (soul) is almost synonymous with "pneuma." They are used to refer to the essence of personhood or self. This does not refer to an isolated part of man (body, soul, spirit). Humans are a unity (cf. Gen_2:7). We are a soul; we do not have a soul.
3Jn_1:3 "I was very glad" (cf. 2Jn_1:4; Php_4:10).
▣ "came and testified" Both of these are present participles which imply that
1. members of this church traveled regularly to Ephesus and reported to John
2. that returning missionaries reported Gaius' generosity
Possibly John, an old man, could not travel easily, but he loved to hear the condition and growth of the churches.
▣ "walking in the truth" This phrase is theologically parallel to "walk in the light" (cf. 1Jn_1:7). Christianity is not primarily a creed, a ritual, or an institution to be joined, but a life to be lived in relationship with Jesus Christ. The early church was first called "The Way" (cf. Act_9:2; Act_19:9; Act_19:23; Act_24:22). Truth is not only intellectual (content), but also a relationship (first with God through Christ resulting in love for one another). See Special Topics on Truth at Joh_6:55; Joh_17:3.
3Jn_1:4 "my children" This is a common designation in John's letters (cf. 1Jn_2:12-13; 1Jn_2:18; 1Jn_2:28; 1Jn_3:7; 1Jn_3:18; 1Jn_4:4; 1Jn_5:21). The emphasis here is on (1) John's apostolic authority or (2) John's term of affection for the churches and Christians of the Roman Province of Asia Minor (western Turkey), where he spent his last days of ministry.