2 and 3 John
2 and 3 John
It is widely agreed that these two short epistles bear the form of letters. Ostensibly written to "the chosen lady and her children,” 2 John is directed to another congregation—whether to a house-church within the same city or to the church of another city is unclear—to warn against the dangers inherent in traveling preachers, some of whom are "deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh” (7). But even here, John insists that true believers walk not only in the truth but in transparent love for one another, in line with the command "you have heard from the beginning” (6). This message occupies the central section (2 John 4-11) between the introduction (2 John 1-3) and the conclusion (2 John 12-13).
By contrast with 2 John, which mentions no one by name except Jesus Christ, 3 John is addressed to Gaius about the activities of Diotrephes, who not only "loves to be first” (3 John 9) but has become so powerful that he is even refusing the emissaries of the writer, ejecting from the church those who take a softer line. John encourages Gaius (who may have belonged to the church where Diotrephes held court) to follow instead the example of Demetrius and warns that he is coming to expose Diotrephes.