{"id":230,"date":"2011-09-21T10:30:21","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T16:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.consider.org\/blog\/?p=230"},"modified":"2011-09-21T10:30:21","modified_gmt":"2011-09-21T16:30:21","slug":"the-epistles-of-john-living-in-truth-and-love-3-john-1-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/the-epistles-of-john-living-in-truth-and-love-3-john-1-4\/","title":{"rendered":"The Epistles of John: Living in Truth and Love. 3 John 1-4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Week Two: Sept 18, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

3 John<\/h1>\n

Outline<\/p>\n

The structure of 3 John is very close to a typical 1st<\/sup> century letter, and thus there is pretty broad agreement on the outline by scholars.<\/p>\n

I.Opening<\/h3>\n

a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Address (1)
\nb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prayer (2)
\nc.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Personal Words for Gaius (3-4)<\/h4>\n

II.Body<\/h3>\n

a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Commendation of Gaius (5-8)
\nb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Criticism of Diotrephes (9,10)
\nc.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Commendation of Demetrius (11,12)<\/h4>\n

III. Conclusion<\/h3>\n

a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Final words (13-14)
\nb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Greetings (15)<\/h4>\n

Study<\/p>\n

I. Opening<\/h3>\n

a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Address (1)<\/h4>\n

1 – From:[1]<\/a> The Elder
\nTo: My dear friend Gaius, whom I genuinely love.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Elder<\/em><\/p>\n

The typical opening of a 1st<\/sup> Century letter contains 4 components: From, To, Greetings, and Prayer.\u00a0 John opens with the first two of these components.<\/p>\n

John does not use his Name but rather his title.\u00a0 This would indicate that he had a position of great respect.\u00a0 Elsewhere the plural (elders) is used to refer to the leaders in a local church, (Acts 11:30, 1 Tim 5:17).\u00a0 It does not have quite the same meaning here as The Elder is apparently writing to a church other than his home church.\u00a0 Thus it would appear that The Elder is someone who had authority over many churches<\/p>\n

The fact that John refers to himself as \u201cTHE\u201d elder could indicate that John was the last of the twelve.\u00a0 The term elders would also indicate that John was elderly, though for the 1st<\/sup> century that is not saying much.<\/p>\n

To: My dear friend Gaius<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaius was a very common name in the first century, and so we really do not know who this is.\u00a0 Detailed address information would have been given to the carrier of the letter, which was probably Demetrius (v11-2).\u00a0 From the rest of the letter we know that Gaius was a Christian, was probably a prominent member of his church and that this church was most likely one of those under the care of John.<\/p>\n

whom I genuinely love.<\/em><\/p>\n

A genuine statement of affection.<\/p>\n

For some reason John breaks with custom and does not include the formal greeting that would normally appear at this point.\u00a0 This also could be a sign of familiarity, i.e., to dispense with custom,\u00a0 or it could just be that John cared little for custom.\u00a0 He somewhat breaks with custom in 2 John and 1 John does not follow the format of a letter at all, though it is likely that 1 John is not actually a letter.<\/p>\n

b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prayer (2)<\/h4>\n

2* – Dear friend, I pray that you are doing well in every way and that you are healthy, just as your soul is doing well.<\/strong>[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear friend,<\/em><\/p>\n

Another statement of affection.\u00a0 As we will see, John seems to use this and similar statements as a means of dividing up his letters.\u00a0 Here he does this just before starting his prayer.<\/p>\n

I pray that you are doing well in every way<\/em><\/p>\n

While skipping the traditional greeting, He does include the customary prayer.<\/p>\n

The Greek word here (euodousthai) literally means \u201cto lead along a good path\u201d (Friberg) .\u00a0 In Romans 1:10 it is used literally \u2026 <\/em>by God\u2019s will I may at last succeed in coming to you. <\/em>Here it is being used metaphorically, with the meaning \u201cthat your journey through life is a good one.\u201d<\/em> Outside of the NT it was also used to refer to gain or profit in business (Louw).<\/p>\n

While spiritual welfare is important John does not limit his prayer just to that.\u00a0 He also prays that Gaius prosper and succeed.<\/p>\n

and that you are healthy<\/em><\/p>\n

Literally: To have well, an idiom for good health<\/p>\n

While this does not indicate that Gaius had health problems, it does not rule them out.\u00a0 When we get to verse v9 we will see that health problems might explain some difficulties there.<\/p>\n

just as your soul is doing well.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Greek word for doing well here is the same as earlier in the verse.\u00a0 Here it indicates that Gaius\u2019 soul is progressing well, so well that John prays that the rest of Gaius life is doing as well as his soul is doing.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: John is praying that Gaius do well both physically as well as spiritually, both are important to John.\u00a0 Getting the right balance between the physical and spiritual is tough.<\/p>\n

c.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Personal Words for Gaius (3-4)<\/h4>\n

3* – I have greatly rejoiced with every arrival of brothers that testified about your truthfulness [3]<\/a>and how you live according to the truth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was overjoyed with every arrival of brothers<\/em> that testified<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

John was not just happy but very happy.\u00a0 The Greek work for erchomenow is a present middle participle, and indicates repetition either by the same brothers many times, or by different groups of brothers.\u00a0 Either way, it is clear that John knew of Gaius, which is another indication that Gaius held a prominent position.<\/p>\n

about your truthfulness <\/em><\/p>\n

Literally \u201cyour truth.\u201d This is more than just honesty, but also includes an adherence to the true.\u00a0 A key feature of Gaius\u2019 faith was his adherence to the truth, i.e., to sound doctrine.\u00a0 This was so key that others would report on it.<\/p>\n

and how you live according to the truth.<\/em><\/p>\n

Gaius faith was more than just belief, he lived it as well.\u00a0 He put his beliefs into practice.<\/p>\n

What would other say about us?\u00a0 What would their report be?<\/p>\n

4 – Ihave no greater joy than to hear that my children are living according to the truth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

John stresses how much this pleased him.\u00a0 The word John uses for \u201cgreater\u201d is an interesting one.\u00a0 The Greek word is meizoteran.\u00a0 In Greek the word for great is megas, which is where we get the English prefix mega-. \u00a0Greek normally uses an ending (- teran ) to make a comparative, similar to the way English use the ending \u2013er as in great + er is greater.\u00a0 But instead of using the normal ending Greek as a special word for greater : meizon.\u00a0 John, however really wants to make sure his readers understand just how great his joy really is, so he takes the Greek word for greater, and then for emphasis adds the \u2013teran ending.\u00a0 In literal English, for him there is no \u201cgreaterer\u201d joy.<\/p>\n

my children<\/em><\/p>\n

This could mean John led Gaius to Christ, or it could just be that he had spiritual authority over him.<\/p>\n

What is our greatest joy?\u00a0 What is the greatest demand we put on our children?\u00a0 Is it School?\u00a0 Grades?\u00a0 Success?\u00a0 A particular career?\u00a0 If you were to ask parents today which was most important would it be that their children \u201clive according to the truth\u201d (or in secular terms that their children be good) ?\u00a0 Or would it be that their children get a good education and a career?\u00a0 More importantly, what would your children say was your greatest desire for them?<\/p>\n

Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

One question that came up in class concerned the relationship of truth and love.\u00a0 A key problem is that living truth and living in love are sometimes in conflict.\u00a0 Living in truth requires a strict adherence to the truth.\u00a0 If we are not careful, this can lead to division and we find ourselves splitting over even minor disagreements about what the Bible teaches.\u00a0 On the other hand, living in love leads us to overlook differences in favor of just loving one another.<\/p>\n

As with so many things this is a balancing act one of standing for the truth, but not in a cold doctrinal way, but one that stress Love, one where the focus is on reconciliation, not division.\u00a0 At the extremes it is pretty easy.\u00a0 We do not want to divide on minor issues such as whether the pre-mid-post tribulation rapture.\u00a0 On the other hand we do need stand firm on the deity of Christ.\u00a0 But as we get closer to the middle it gets harder to know exactly where the line is or just how we should respond.\u00a0 This is one of the main themes we will be looking at in this class.<\/p>\n

Next week we will start in 3 John 5<\/p>\n

If you have question about the class, feel free to send me an email at elgin@hushbeck.com<\/a> and be sure to put \u201cEpistles of John\u201d in the header.<\/p>\n

See here for background<\/a><\/p>\n

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible: International Standard Version\u00ae<\/sup>. Copyright \u00a9 1996-2008 by The ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission. www.isv.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Note: Some places I have modify the text from the version ISV. Passages that I have modified have been noted with and * by the verse number and the ISV text is included in a footnote.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> 1 The Gk.\u00a0 lacks From<\/em><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> ISV your soul is healthy<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> ISV: I was overjoyed when some brothers arrived and testified about your truthfulness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week Two: Sept 18, 2011 3 John Outline The structure of 3 John is very close to a typical 1st century letter, and thus there is pretty broad agreement on the outline by scholars. I.Opening a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Address (1) b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prayer (2) c.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Personal Words for Gaius (3-4) II.Body a.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Commendation of Gaius (5-8) b.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Criticism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,17],"tags":[31,233,264,341,435,550],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consider.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}