3 John 1:11 - Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

Hath not seen God] a truly Johannine thought: cp. 1 John 3:6.

12. Nothing further is known certainly of Demetrius. But as both he and the mob-leader of the same name (Acts 19:24) lived apparently in or near Ephesus, there is nothing impossible in the suggestion that the agitator had become a disciple, and that both references, therefore, are to the same person. He may have been the bearer of this Epistle. The thought of a threefold witness—in this case, general report, the truth, and the Apostle himself—is characteristic of St. John: cp. 1 John 5:6-10.

13, 14. The conclusion is the same as that of the Second Epistle. Possibly the journey contemplated in both is the same.

3 John 1:11

11 Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.