Verse 1
I. INTRODUCTION V. 1
John identified himself and greeted the recipient of this shortest New Testament epistle to set the tone for what follows.
As in 2 John, the Apostle identified himself as "the elder." We do not know exactly who Gaius was. Early church tradition did not identify him with Paul’s native Macedonian companion (Acts 19:29), Paul’s companion from Derbe (Acts 20:4), or the Corinthian Paul baptized who hosted the church in Corinth (Romans 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:14).
"It is generally agreed that the Gaius to whom the Elder wrote this letter is not to be identified with any of the men by that name who were associated with Paul." [Note: D. Edmond Hiebert, "Studies in 3 John," Bibliotheca Sacra 144:573 (January-March 1987):58.]
The reason for this is that Gaius was a common name in Greek and Latin then, as the name John is in English now. [Note: J. H. Moulton and G. Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources, p. 120.] This Gaius probably lived somewhere in the province of Asia. He was obviously someone whom John loved as a brother Christian.
John’s concern for both love and truth is evident again in this epistle (cf. 2 John). "In truth" means truly and in accord with God’s truth. Both John and Gaius held the truth as the apostles taught it.
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