8/02/19 

3 John 3-4

³ For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth.

 ⁴ I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

This short letter has always generated a number of questions. 

One is who is the “Elder” who writes.  There are well argued differences about who this is.

Second is what gives this very limited epistle a place in inspired writ.

But the church placed it in the canon and none has the authority to remove it.

There are three very important facts about the church found here.

First in vss 3-6 the church is doing well.  In spite of any criticism it is a church that satisfies the writer as to its purpose and concern for strangers.

Second, churches at this early stage in history had problems.  It is worth noting that with the oppression the church faced in the first century it is an internal problem that is noted here.

The third important feature is the authority that the “Elder” author assumed in vss 9-10.  The apostolic authority in these verses, and that which Paul assumes elsewhere, gives us reason to accept well written theories of Apostolic oversight.