• Title Page
• Pentateuch
• History
• Poetry
• Prophets
• Post Captivity Prophets
• Gospels, Acts
• Pauline Epistles
• General Epistles
  • Lesson 56: Hebrews
  • Lesson 57: James
  • Lesson 58: I Peter
  • Lesson 59: II Peter
  • Lesson 60: I John
  • Lesson 61: II and III John
  • Lesson 62: Jude
  • Lesson 63: The Revelation

fidelity to His name, but their conscience would not permit them to receive such aid. How valuable the instruction of this example. And what a close relationship it bears to the teaching of the second epistle about fellowshipping with heretics. How should such loyal and self-denying workers as these be treated in the church, and why (III John 8)?

Worldly Character of Diotrephes

The third division of the epistle deals with another type of the professing Christian and sets before us the worldly character of Diotrephes (III John 9-11).

What seems to have been his besetting sin (III John 9)? What boldness on his part to have withstood even an apostle in such a way. How does this experience of John recall that of Paul in connection with the churches of Corinth, Galatia and Thessalonica? In what manner did John intend to deal with him (III John 10)? Does this also recall anything similar in the exercise of apostolic authority on Paul’s part? How does III John 10 further reveal the worldliness and insincerity of Diotrephes? What an awfully disagreeable, overbearing, autocratic, unholy man he must have been! How did he get into the church?

What advice is given Gaius in III John 11? How does this verse testify to the relation between a living faith and good works? What opposite kind of example is set before him in III John 12? How many kinds of witnesses testify to the Christian character of Demetrius? One cannot help wondering if this were the Demetrius of Acts 19. Such trophies of grace are by no means unusual, Paul was such an one.

Note the similarities in the conclusions of this epistle and the one previously considered (III John 13-14), suggesting that they may have been penned at the same time.

Jude

The writer of the epistle of Jude was evidently not an apostle; he calls himself a “servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James.” Which James? There were two whose brother he might have been, the son of Alpheus and the brother of our Lord. It would be profitless to speculate on this question here, enough to say that the general opinion is in favor of the last-named relationship.