3 John: Walking in Truth and Love
Faithful welcome, humble leadership, and truthful love
3 John shows that walking in the truth becomes visible in faithful love, generous welcome, humble leadership, and resistance to self-exalting control.
Help believers practice truth-shaped love in the life of the church, especially through faithful partnership, hospitality, and humble leadership.
- Main Format
- 6 sessions
- Flexible Formats
- 4, 6, 7 session options
- Scripture Focus
- 3 John primary text
- Book
- 3 John teaching path
Why This Series
Help believers practice truth-shaped love in the life of the church, especially through faithful partnership, hospitality, and humble leadership.
Gospel thread: The series repeatedly anchors each movement in Christ's saving work: The gospel creates a new family in which believers are truly loved, not because of natural affinity, but because they share in the truth revealed in Jesus Christ. The gospel produces transformed lives so that those who truly know Christ increasingly walk in the truth they confess. The gospel not only brings people into salvation but also forms a new life of truth-shaped obedience that produces joy among those who shepherd God's people.
Doctrinal thread: The doctrinal movement emphasizes Sanctification, Stewardship, Consequences of Sin, Covenant Faithfulness, Divine Providence with support from Servant, Faith, Shepherd, Holiness.
Shepherding burden: Small letters expose real church patterns. 3 John helps teachers address hospitality, authority, pride, and faithful partnership with clarity and hope.
Standard Session Guide
- 13 John 1:1
Truth-Governed Love and the Beloved Brother
Christian leadership speaks with tenderness, and Christian fellowship is bound together by the truth of God.
Teaching aim: To open the letter with affectionate identification, establish relational credibility, and affirm the elder's sincere love for Gaius in the truth.
Gospel clarity: The gospel creates a new family in which believers are truly loved, not because of natural affinity, but because they share in the truth revealed in Jesus Christ.
Why this session belongs here
Selected because 3 John 1:1 contributes to 3 John: Walking in Truth and Love through Righteousness, Covenant Faithfulness, Faith.
This passage opens the series by establishing the starting point for 3 John: Walking in Truth and Love.
ThemesDoctrinesCross References - 23 John 1:3
Joy Over a Life Walking in the Truth
A believer's life should visibly align with the truth of the gospel so that others can testify to that faithfulness.
Teaching aim: To commend Gaius for his consistent faithfulness to the truth and to affirm the testimony of traveling believers who witnessed his conduct.
Gospel clarity: The gospel produces transformed lives so that those who truly know Christ increasingly walk in the truth they confess.
Why this session belongs here
Selected because 3 John 1:3 contributes to 3 John: Walking in Truth and Love through Sanctification, Faith.
This passage continues the canonical movement through 3 John.
- 33 John 1:4
No Greater Joy Than Children Walking in Truth
The highest joy of faithful spiritual leadership is seeing believers live in obedient fidelity to the truth of the gospel.
Teaching aim: To express the elder's greatest joy as seeing those under his spiritual care living in faithful obedience to the truth.
Gospel clarity: The gospel not only brings people into salvation but also forms a new life of truth-shaped obedience that produces joy among those who shepherd God's people.
Why this session belongs here
Selected because 3 John 1:4 contributes to 3 John: Walking in Truth and Love through Sanctification, Faith, Servant.
This passage continues the canonical movement through 3 John.
- 53 John 1:8
Fellow Workers for the Truth
Supporting those who proclaim the gospel is participation in the mission of the truth.
Teaching aim: To instruct believers that supporting gospel workers makes them partners in the work of the truth.
Gospel clarity: The gospel advances not only through those who proclaim it but also through those who faithfully support its messengers.
Why this session belongs here
Selected because 3 John 1:8 contributes to 3 John: Walking in Truth and Love through Stewardship, Servant.
This passage continues the canonical movement through 3 John.
- 63 John 1:10
Confronting Self-Exalting Leadership
Prideful leadership produces destructive actions that must be confronted for the health of the church.
Teaching aim: To warn the church about the destructive conduct of Diotrephes and to affirm that such behavior will be confronted when the elder arrives.
Gospel clarity: The gospel produces communities marked by truth and love, and destructive leadership that opposes these realities must be corrected.
Why this session belongs here
Selected because 3 John 1:10 contributes to 3 John: Walking in Truth and Love through verse addresses proper conduct and authority within the Christian community, Consequences of Sin, harms the church.
This passage continues the canonical movement through 3 John.
DoctrinesCross References - 73 John 1:11
Imitate What Is Good
Believers must imitate what reflects God's character because conduct reveals spiritual reality.
Teaching aim: To exhort believers to imitate what is good rather than evil and to affirm that moral conduct reveals one's relationship to God.
Gospel clarity: The gospel transforms believers so that their lives increasingly reflect the goodness and character of God.
Why this session belongs here
Selected because 3 John 1:11 contributes to 3 John: Walking in Truth and Love through Sanctification, Regeneration, Holiness.
This passage continues the canonical movement through 3 John.
ThemesDoctrinesCross References