3 John 1:3-13

3 For ¹I rejoiced greatly when the brothers^[a] came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth.

4 I have no greater joy than to hear that ²my children are walking in the truth.

Support and Opposition

5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for ³these brothers, ⁴strangers as they are,

6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner ⁵worthy of God.

7 For they have gone out for the sake of ⁶the name, ⁷accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

9 I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.

10 So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

11 Beloved, ⁸do not imitate evil but imitate good. ⁹Whoever does good is from God; ¹⁰whoever does evil has not seen God.

12 Demetrius ¹¹has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and ¹²you know that our testimony is true.

Final Greetings

13 ¹³I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink.