II AND III JOHN

Figure 1: The Structure of 2 John

I. Introductory Greetings (vv. 1-4) “the elect lady and her children”

II. Exhortation: Love One Another and Follow Commandments (vv. 5-6)

III. Deceivers (v. 7)

II'. Exhortation: Abide in the Doctrine (vv. 8-11)

I'. Final Words (vv. 12-13) “the children of your elect sister”

Who are these elect women and their children? “Elect lady” may refer to the church with “her children” being the Christians themselves. Alternatively, the lady may be the owner of a house in which “her children” referred to the Christians meeting there.

There are a couple of similarities with the teachings in I John:

Sections II and II' are exhortations to live the Christian life and contain between them exactly the same three aspects of Christian living emphasized in 1 John.

Verse 7 mentions “Antichrist” as referring to more than one person. The same is true in the only other 

references to Antichrist in the New Testament: I John 2:18-22 and 4:1-3. What is the specific heresy 

mentioned in this verse? Docetism (do-seet'-ism) = denying that Christ came in the flesh. The major 

belief of this group was that Christ's spirit possessed the man Jesus at his baptism and then departed 

right before the crucifixion.

Figure 2: The Structure of 3 John

        I. Introductory Greetings (vv. 1-4)

                II. Exhortation: Love (Gaius as good example) (vv. 5-8)

                        III. Evil Behavior (Diotrephes as example) (vv. 9-10)

                II'. Exhortation: Do Good and Shun Evil (Demetrius as good example) (vv. 11-12)

        I'. Final Words (vv. 13-15)

Specific examples of behavior are contrasted here, unlike the more general teachings in 2 John. To deliberately emphasize the contrast in behavior, the same Greek root for “works” appears in praise of Gaius in verse 5 and in the censure of Diotrephes in verse 10.

What is the relationship between these two letters?

In terms of the literary form of these epistles, there are some differing opinions.

On the one hand:

Four commentaries stated that both 2 and 3 John are excellent examples of ancient Greek letters.

            Three other scholars said that 2 John resembles other NT letters while 3 John is more similar to secular Greek letters of the time.

            Lastly, one writer said that neither of these letters uses the format of either NT letters or secular Greek letters.

Regarding this last opinion: whereas Paul's letters have a blessing for the audience at the beginning and end, 2 John only has one at the start and 3 John only has one at the end. Almost like they were designed to be paired as one letter, especially when you look at the similar wording.

Peace to recipients (2 John 3)

Joy to John (2 John 12)

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                                    Joy to John (3 John 4)

Peace to recipients (3 John 15)

Orr simply states, “The Second and Third Letters are obviously a matched pair.” Factors going into this conclusion include the identification of the writer as The Elder, their comparable length, and the fact that they have been preserved together.

A comparison of figures 1 and 2 shows that the two letters are also divided in a similar manner.

Even the center sections of each are similar in intent by describing characteristics of dangerous negative elements within the church. There are a number of striking verbal similarities between these two epistles also, especially between their opening and closing statements.

I and I: “the elder to the...whom I love (agapao) in the truth,” “children,” “all,” “I rejoiced greatly,” “walk(ing) in the truth.”

            I' and I': “I have/had much to write to you..I would rather not use paper (write with pen) and ink...I hope to see you...and talk with you face to face”

Therefore Orr concludes, “We may expect a common purpose in the Letters.” On the other hand, Raymond Brown says, “As for the substance of the bodies of II and III John,...the two letters have little in common.”

Contrary to Brown's opinion, both letters deal with the issue of whether to show hospitality to itinerant 

teachers and prophets who were visiting. In the first century church this was a very important issue 

because these people were totally dependent on support from the local congregations. The very early 

church document called the Didache attempted to give practical advice on how to deal with this

situation.

 

Either letter by itself would be easy to be taken to an extreme. A balance needs to be struck. That is, 

what happens when the requirement to love one another comes in conflict with the adherence to proper 

doctrine? A discussion arose in one of our Sunday school classes concerning a situation in which one 

of the occasional attenders was reported by others to privately hold almost heretical views even though 

he had never expressed those views in the class. What should they do? Tell him he wasn't welcome in 

the class anymore (one extreme that might be inferred from 2 John) or invite him to give a series of 

presentations to the class so that the merits of the ideas could be discussed (the other extreme that 

might be inferred from 3 John)? What do you think?