What Does 3 John 1:5 Mean?
Beloved, you do steadily whatever you work at for the brothers, and for the strangers.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers;THE KEY
The verse places the stranger inside the same circle of trustworthy care as a brother.
THE MEANING
Your faithfulness becomes visible in what you do for fellow believers and for people who are strangers to you. The verse holds both within one scope of reliable care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Only people already inside my circle are within the reach of my care.
THE ROOT
πιστόν
piston
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
peith-
To persuade or convince; to be persuaded, trust, or win trust.
“steadily” in this verse is piston. The Greek describes what you do as faithful or trustworthy: trust becomes visible in action. The verse names care for both brothers and strangers as part of that reliability.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust; reliance.
πίστις
This word family links trust with the dependable action the verse describes.
peithō: Persuade, convince, or trust.
πείθω
Its range shows the movement between being convinced of someone’s reliability and placing trust in them.
ξένους
xenous
GROWS FROM
ξεν-
xen-
Stranger, foreigner, or guest.
“strangers” in this verse is xenous. The same Greek word family can name someone as a stranger or as a guest. The outsider is also someone received into relation, so the verse’s faithful care reaches beyond familiar belonging.
ALSO GROWS
xenia: Hospitality or guest-friendship.
ξενία
It shows how the stranger’s presence can become a relationship of welcome.
xenizō: Receive as a guest or entertain a stranger.
ξενίζω
This verb appears in the connected verse, where receiving strangers becomes the central act.
THE PATTERN
Faithful care crosses the boundary of familiarity, receiving the stranger within the same field of regard.
But the sojourner who sojourns with you shall be to you as one who springs up among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.Share in common the needs of the set apart. Pursue the love of strangers.For I hungered, and you gave me food; I thirsted, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in.THE THREAD
Do not let slip the opening of your home to strangers, for by it some have sheltered messengers without knowing it.“Entertained strangers” uses the Greek verb xenizō, from the same ξεν- word family as “strangers” in 3 John. Here, receiving a stranger can reveal a presence the host does not yet recognize.
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