II & III John

LeRoy Eims

John's second and third letters were personal letters to friends whom he expected to visit. His second letter was to a Christian woman whom John called "the elect lady." John 's objective in writing this brief letter was to pass along a personal warning to her to beware of the false teachers which he wrote about in his first letter. She was apparently well known for her hospitality.

John cautioned her not to extend it to those whose teachings were harmful to the Christian church. (II John 7‑11) Like most of the false teachers of that day, these men were well known for their impure lives. John therefore cautioned her to safeguard both the faith and the lives, and the spiritual welfare of her children. As in any age, young people are easily led astray by high sounding words that promise much and produce little.

In our day we have seen thousands of young people led astray into the occult or into the religious teachings of Eastern religions by false teachers. False prophets abound in our day just as they did when John wrote to this lady. They even look the same today as they did then.

The prophets of God had both prophetic messages and godly lives. Peter said, "For the prophecy came not at any time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." (II Peter 1:21)

The prophets of God did more than just predict the future. They were concerned about the lives of the people to whom they wrote, exhorting them to lives of purity and holiness. They themselves, by Peter's definition of a prophet, were men dedicated to God who lived holy lives.

False prophets display no such characteristics. They may speak with pious sounds, but behind it all, if you listen carefully, you can hear the hiss of the serpent. John reminds this lady that Jesus Christ must be central in any teaching about God. "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." (II John 9)

A life filled with Christ will be filled with love for our fellow Christians. "And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. The proof that our love is genuine is a life of obedience to God. "And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, that, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it." (II John 5-6)

John's third letter is also to an individual. It is addressed to Gaius. There are references in the New Testament to a Gaius, but the Gaius of this letter cannot be identified with any certainty. He speaks to him about a man named Diotrephes (III John 9,10), who was probably one of the false teachers he had written about in I John.

Gaius had evidently extended hospitality to some Christian teachers who were passing through and John commends him for this and encourages him to keep it up. Diotrephes, on the other hand, had gained a prominent position, among Christians but had assumed authority that didn't belong to him. He not only refused hospitality to these brethren, but charged others not to do so.

Pride and personal ambition were not unknown to the early church. These two letters show the personal concern of John for his friends. Study them to gain insight into the life of the church in those times.