⁵Dear friend, you are acting faithfully in whatever you do for the brothers and sisters, especially when they are strangers. ⁶They have testified to your love before the church.^h You will do well to send them on their journeyⁱ in a manner worthy of God,^j ⁷since they set out for the sake of the Name,^k accepting nothing from pagans.^B^l ⁸Therefore, we ought to support such people so that we can be coworkers with the truth.

DIOTREPHES AND DEMETRIUS

⁹I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them,^m does not receive our authority.ⁿ ¹⁰This is why, if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering^o us with malicious words. And he is not satisfied with that! He not only refuses to welcome fellow believers, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.

¹¹Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil,^p but what is good. The one who does good is of God;^q the one who does evil has not seen God.^r ¹²Everyone speaks well of Demetrius—even the truth itself. And we also speak well of him, and you know^s that our testimony is true.^t

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Footnotes

BOr Gentiles

Cross references

h Mt 16:18; 1Co 14:4; Rv 1:4
i Ac 15:3; 20:38; 21:5; Rm 15:24; 1Co 16:6; 2Co 1:16; Ti 3:13
j 1Co 10:31; 1Th 2:12
k Jn 10:25; Ac 15:14; Rv 14:1
l 1Co 9:15–18
m Mt 20:25–28; 23:5–12; Col 1:18; 1Pt 5:2–3; 2Jn 9
n Ac 18:27; Rm 16:1–2; 2Co 3:1
o 1Tm 5:13
p 1Pt 3:17
q 1Jn 4:4
r Ex 33:20
s 1Jn 2:20–21
t Jn 21:24