3 John 1:14

but I hope shortly to see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be unto thee. The friends salute thee. Salute the friends by name.

On the tenderness of the greetings here, see under 3 John 1:1:13, above.

I hope shortly to see thee ... It is usually supposed that the contemplated visit here is the same as that mentioned in 2John.

Peace be unto thee ...

This was the best wish which the apostle could form: it was our Lord's resurrection greeting, the internal peace of a good conscience, the external peace of universal fellowship, the heavenly peace of future glory, begun even in this life.[42]

The friends salute thee ... salute the friends by name ... "By name" as used here is found nowhere else in the New Testament, except in John 10:5; and many have found in this "an echo of the Good Shepherd's calling his own sheep by name, an example for under-shepherds,"[43] and a good closing note for this letter. It is the teaching of the text here that, "The salutation was to be given to each individual separately."[44]

The tremendous importance of this letter is seen in the fact that it deals with the prime sin of the ages, the seeking and the grasping on the part of evil men for the control levers of God's church on earth. The spirit of Diotrephes still rides high and mighty in the ecclesiastical counsels of the earth, denying and contradicting the holy teachings of Christ and his apostles; but the loving apostle unmasked it for what it is in the glowing lines of this precious fragment of the word of the Lord.

[42] W. M. Sinclair, op. cit., p. 502.

[43] R. W. Orr, op. cit., p. 624.

[44] Charles C. Ryrie, Wycliffe Bible Commentary, New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 1038.