| 1 The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in
the truth.
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health
and that all may go well with you, even as your soul
is getting along well.
3 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come
and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how
you continue to walk in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children
are walking in the truth.
5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing
for the brothers, even though they are strangers to
you.
6 They have told the church about your love. You will
do well to send them on their way in a manner
worthy of God.
7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out,
receiving no help from the pagans.
8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men
so that we may work together for the truth.
9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to
be first, will have nothing to do with us.
10 So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing,
gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with
that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also
stops those who want to do so and puts them out of
the church.
11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is
good. Anyone who does what is good is from God.
Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone--and
even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him,
and you know that our testimony is true.
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