What Does 3 John 1:6 Mean?
Who have borne witness to your love before the assembly, whom you will do well to send on their way in a manner that matches the weight of God.
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
Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:THE KEY
Here love leaves a visible trail: it helps another person continue the journey in a way worthy of God.
THE MEANING
Your love has a public witness in the assembly, and its living shape is practical help that carries another person onward. The verse calls this support doing well when it is offered in a manner worthy of God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Love is only an inward feeling: this verse recognizes it in care that helps another person continue.
THE ROOT
προπέμψας
propempsas
GROWS FROM
πέμπω
pempō
to send, dispatch
“bring forward on their journey” in this verse is propempsas. The phrase comes from προπέμπω (propempō, to send forward, escort, or support on a journey), built on πέμπω (pempō, to send). Love here has forward motion: it helps someone continue, with care shaped as worthy of God.
ALSO GROWS
propempō: send forward, escort, help along a journey
προπέμπω
This is the verb behind “bring forward on their journey”; it makes support part of helping someone move onward.
pempō: send, dispatch
πέμπω
The compound’s core is sending: the care in this verse helps another person reach what lies ahead.
ἀγάπῃ
agapē
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπάω
agapaō
to love, cherish, hold dear
“your love” in this verse is agapē. The noun ἀγάπη (agapē, love) names the care whose witness is heard in the assembly. Its related word ἀγαπητός (agapētos, beloved) keeps the relationship in view: the care that sends someone onward makes love recognizable in the one received as dear.
ALSO GROWS
agapaō: to love, cherish
ἀγαπάω
The verb and the verse’s noun share the same word family, linking love with the action that expresses it.
agapētos: beloved, dear
ἀγαπητός
This related form names the one who is loved, keeping the person receiving care in view.
THE PATTERN
Love takes visible form as practical provision that welcomes and sustains another person.
He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and a cloak.Share in common the needs of the set apart. Pursue the love of strangers.And whoever gives one of these small ones only a cup of cold water in the nature of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his wage.THE THREAD
And being sent on their way by the assembly, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, telling of the turning of the nations, and they made great joy for all the brethren.Acts uses the same verb, προπέμπω (propempō, to send forward or escort), as 3 John: the assembly helps travelers continue as they carry their message. The shared root makes the support concrete, love advances a journey and the message that travels with it.
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