Third John is the Book of Hospitality. The blessings and privileges of hospitality are described, and the failure to exercise such hospitality is exposed. Believers who walk in Truth become fellow workers in Truth as we support the Lord’s servants.
“Of John” is named for the author of the epistle.
Although the author simply calls himself “the elder,” the witness of the Church Fathers quotes this epistle and mainly ascribes it to John the son of Zebedee. Most valuable is the witness of Irenaeus (Against Heresies, 1.16.3). Jerome believed that John the Presbyter wrote 2nd & 3rd John, and is not the same as the Apostle John. Many liberal modern scholars follow Jerome, but most conservative scholars do not.