Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

3 John 1:5-8

3 John 1:5-8. Thou doest a faithful work: the labour of Gaius' love is said to be faithful, as corresponding with the commandment of love and true to it.

Towards the brethren, and moreover strangers: not both brethren and strangers, but, as the sequel shows, brethren who came from abroad. ‘Thou doest' marks that the conduct of Gaius is supposed to be habitual, though a special instance had been brought before the apostle.

Who bare witness to thy love before the church: being evangelists, they gave an account of their travels in the presence of the church where the apostle dwelt; and returning to Gaius for further travels, they are commended to him for further support; to be set forward worthily of God, their Master and the Head of their cause. Then follows a tribute to the dignity of their work, and the high claim it gave them. For the sake of the Name, the name of Christ who is God, they went forth, from the church into the world, though in a very different sense from the going out of the antichrists (1 John 2:19), taking nothing of the Gentiles: this is stated as their fixed principle, to receive nothing from the

Gentiles as such, before they were formed into churches; but it contains no maxim for the missionary work generally. It is introduced here for the sake of what follows. We therefore ought to support such, that we may be fellow-workers with them for the truth: an important sentence, as showing that they who provide of their substance for the maintenance of the labourer are partakers of his work.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

3 John 1:5-8

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