3 John 9 - 12

9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. 10 Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.

11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.

12 Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true.

John tells us he wrote to the congregation of which Gaius was a member. Several other verses in this book will support this conclusion. Apparently since Diotrephes ignored the letter indicates the letter was sent to him in his position as an elder of the church. Usually official letters sent to a congregation would be sent to an officer of the church or at least in the care of the church. As an example refer to (Philippians 1:1) Paul writes to “the bishops and deacons.)

The letter referred to by John must have stated John's intention to visit the congregation as Diotrephes opposed the visit and John's intention to visit regardless of Diotrephes resistance to his visit.

While it is the responsibility of an elder to restrict the access to the congregation from outsiders who would cause harm to the membership, it is the right of an apostle, who was apostle before there were elders and had authority over the local church government.

When John arrives he intends to censure the actions of Diotrephes because of his prating, which indicates he was making false statements about John. Malicious words are the kind of talk which is used with the intent of doing harm.

Diotrphes also opposed other brethren who were sent to the church as messengers. He forbade others from accepting the messengersd and if they showed friendship to the messengers from the apostle, they were excluded from the congregation.

Gaius is encouraged to continue living a life which is acceptable to God. Doing good because it is the good actions which are part of God while doing what is evil shows a lack of belief in God.

Demetrius is known as being a good man and one who follows the truth. John also testifies that Demetrius is good and His testimony is true. Apparently this man Demetrius is the one who will be delivering this letter to Gaius.