1. I, the elder, am writing this letter. I am sending it to you, my dear friend Gaius. I love you because of the truth.
2. Dear friend, I know that your spiritual life is going well. I pray that you also may enjoy good health. And I pray that everything else may go well with you.
3. Some believers came to me and told me that you are faithful to the truth. They told me that you continue to live by it. That gave me great joy.
4. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are living by the truth.
5. Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the believers. You are faithful even though they are strangers to you.
6. They have told the church about your love. Please help them by sending them on their way in a manner that honors God.
7. They started on their journey to serve Jesus Christ. They didn't receive any help from those who aren't believers.
8. So we should welcome people like them. We should work together with them for the truth.
9. I wrote to the church. But Diotrephes won't have anything to do with us. He loves to be the first in everything.
10. So if I come, I will point out what he is doing. He is saying evil things about us to others. Even that doesn't satisfy him. He refuses to welcome other believers. He also keeps others from welcoming them. In fact, he throws them out of the church.
11. Dear friend, don't be like those who do evil. Be like those who do good. Anyone who does what is good belongs to God. Anyone who does what is evil hasn't really seen or known God.
12. Everyone says good things about Demetrius. He lives in keeping with the truth. We also say good things about him. And you know that our witness is true.
13. I have a lot to write to you. But I don't want to write with pen and ink.