3 John moves from commending truth-governed love and sacrificial care for gospel workers to condemning the pride that resists apostolic authority, resolving in the call to Christian fellowship that flourishes through personal presence, mutual peace, and the imitation of good rather than evil.
Return to the storyline index when you want to compare the wider canonical movement of Scripture by book.
3 John 1:1 - 3 John 1:4
Christian leadership speaks with tenderness, and Christian fellowship is bound together by the truth of God.
Sets the book's starting burden.
3 John 1:5 - 3 John 1:8
True Christian faithfulness expresses itself in sacrificial care for fellow believers, especially those serving the spread of the gospel.
Marks a major turn in the book's movement.
3 John 1:9 - 3 John 1:12
Self-exalting leadership opposes the truth and undermines the life of the church.
Carries the book toward its climactic emphasis.
3 John 1:13-14
Christian fellowship flourishes through personal presence, mutual peace, and relational care within the people of God.
Closes the book's movement and final emphasis.
Mission is God's purposeful movement to reveal His glory, redeem sinners, gather a people from every nation, and restore creation, carried out through His covenant people and fulfilled through the saving work and authority of Jesus Christ.
The people of God are the community God forms, preserves, and claims as His own throughout the biblical storyline, beginning in His purpose for humanity, developed through Israel, fulfilled in Christ, and expanded through the church as a redeemed people gathered from every nation.
Sacrifice is God's appointed means by which sin is addressed, worship is expressed, and reconciliation with God is symbolically and covenantally maintained, ultimately fulfilled in the once-for-all sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
Covenant is the binding relationship God establishes by His own authority through which He orders His relationship with humanity, governs His redemptive purposes, and carries His promises forward throughout the biblical storyline.
The presence of God is the biblical theme describing God's nearness to His creation and His people, expressed through His dwelling among them, guiding them, revealing Himself, and ultimately restoring full fellowship with humanity through Jesus Christ.