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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - 3 John 1:5 - 1:8
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 3Jn_1:5-8
5Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; 6and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. 7For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers with the truth.
3Jn_1:5 "you are acting faithfully" These actions by Gaius are exactly opposite of Diotrephes' actions in 3Jn_1:9-10. See Special Topics: Believe, Trust, Faith, and Faithfulness at Joh_1:7 and Joh_1:14.
▣ "in whatever you accomplish" This is a relative pronoun with ean and an aorist middle subjunctive which expresses a condition with the prospect of being fulfilled. Gaius had helped traveling missionaries on every occasion and in every way possible.
▣ "especially when they are strangers" The church should have been welcoming and supporting these itinerant Christian missionaries, but because of the local situation, Gaius alone was helping these brethren of whom he knew nothing except that they also knew, served, and loved Jesus Christ.
3Jn_1:6 "they have testified to your love before the church" Obviously the early church in Ephesus had a missionary report time during their corporate worship.
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▣ "You will do well" This is a Greek idiom found in the Egyptian papyri (see Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament) for "please" (cf. Act_10:33).
▣ "to send them on their way" This is a technical idiom for equipping, praying for, and supplying the needs of traveling missionaries (cf. Act_15:3; Rom_15:24; 1Co_16:6; 2Co_1:16; Tit_3:13).
▣ "in a manner worthy of God" This means in a significant, loving, abundant way (cf. Col_1:10; 1Th_2:12). Believers are to treat gospel workers in a manner befitting who they serve (cf. Eph_4:1).
3Jn_1:7
NASB, REB "they went out"
NKJV "they went forth"
NRSV "they began their journey"
TEV, NJB "they set out"
This very common verb is used of
1. the false teachers leaving the church in 1Jn_2:19
2. false prophets going out into the world in 1Jn_4:1
3. many deceivers going out into the world in 2Jn_1:7
4. true Apostolic witnesses going out (into the world) in 3Jn_1:7
NASB "for the sake of the Name"
NKJV "for His name's sake"
NRSV "for the sake of Christ"
TEV "in the service of Christ"
NJB "entirely for the sake of the name"
This is an example of "the name" standing for the person and work of Jesus Christ. As believers believe in His name (cf. Joh_1:12; Joh_3:18; Rom_10:9; 1Co_12:3; Php_2:9-11), they are forgiven in His name (1Jn_2:13), they also act for His name (cf. Mat_10:22; Mat_24:9; Mar_13:13; Luk_21:12; Luk_21:17; Joh_15:21; Joh_20:31; Act_4:17; Act_5:41; Act_9:14; Rom_1:5; 1Pe_4:14; 1Pe_4:16; Rev_2:3).
NASB "accepting nothing from the Gentiles"
NKJV "taking nothing from the Gentiles"
NRSV "accepting no support from non-believers"
TEV "without accepting any help from unbelievers"
NJB "without depending on non-believers for anything"
This phrase refers to these witnesses trusting God for His provision, much like Jesus' words to the Twelve in Mat_10:5-15 and the Seventy in Luk_10:4-7.
This is the late first century use of "Gentiles" as an allusion to pagans or unbelievers (cf. Mat_5:47; 1Pe_2:12; 1Pe_4:3). Believers are to support gospel work! Who one helps reveals his heart.
In John's day many traveling teachers taught for money and reputation. God's teachers/preachers/evangelists were to be helped not for their words, but because of their Lord whose mission they were sacrificially involved in.
3Jn_1:8 "we ought" This is an oft repeated, moral admonition (cf. Joh_13:14; Joh_19:7; 1Jn_2:6; 1Jn_3:16; 1Jn_4:11). The term opheilô means literally to be in financial debt, but it came to be used figuratively to be obligated or to be indebted to someone.
▣ "to support such men" Hospitality was a crucial duty of the early church because of the deplorable moral conditions of most of the local inns (cf. Mat_25:35; Rom_12:13; 1Ti_3:2; 1Ti_5:10; Tit_1:8; Heb_13:2; 1Pe_4:9).
▣ "so that we may be fellow workers with the truth" As believers help missionaries, they are involved in their work of faith and truth. This is a gospel principle! The NT guidelines for Christian giving are found in 2 Corinthians 8-9.