⁵ Greet also ^(A)the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was ^(B)the first convert^[a] to Christ in Asia.

¹⁵ Give my greetings to the brothers^[a] at Laodicea, and to Nympha and ^(A)the church in her house.

² and Apphia our sister and ^(A)Archippus our ^(B)fellow soldier, and ^(C)the church in your house:

Greetings

¹⁹ The churches of Asia send you greetings. ^(A)Aquila and Prisca, together with ^(B)the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

¹⁵ Now I urge you, brothers^[a]—you know that ^(A)the household^[b] of Stephanas were ^(B)the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves ^(C)to the service of the saints—

²⁰ For where two or three are ^(A)gathered in my name, ^(B)there am I among them.”

⁴ It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for ^(A)they are virgins. It is these ^(B)who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as ^(C)firstfruits for God and the Lamb,

Greeting

^1 (A)The elder to the beloved Gaius, ^(B)whom I love in truth.

² Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. ³ For ^(C)I rejoiced greatly when the brothers^[a] came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. ⁴ I have no greater joy than to hear that ^(D)my children are walking in the truth.

Support and Opposition

⁵ Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for ^(E)these brothers, ^(F)strangers as they are, ⁶ who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner ^(G)worthy of God. ⁷ For they have gone out for the sake of ^(H)the name, ^(I)accepting nothing from the Gentiles. ⁸ Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

⁹ I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. ¹⁰ So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

¹¹ Beloved, ^(J)do not imitate evil but imitate good. ^(K)Whoever does good is from God; ^(L)whoever does evil has not seen God. ¹² Demetrius ^(M)has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and ^(N)you know that our testimony is true.

Final Greetings

^13 (O)I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. ¹⁴ I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

¹⁵ Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, ^(P)each by name.

^18 (A)Of his own will he ^(B)brought us forth by the word of truth, ^(C)that we should be a kind of ^(D)firstfruits of his creatures.