The relative clause is often better rendered as a new sentence; for example, ‘It is they who have testified…,’ or ‘Those men have testified….’
Who have testified to your love before the church: for the verb see comments on 3 John 1.3. Your love may have to be rendered by a verb clause; for example, ‘how you have loved them.’
The term love refers here to behavior showing a loving disposition rather than that disposition or emotion itself. Some versions therefore shift to such renderings as ‘your generosity,’ ‘that you have really practiced showing-kindness (to them).’
Before the church, or ‘in the presence (or hearing) of the church,’ refers to those to whom the testimony was given.
Adjustments along the lines of the preceding remarks may result in a rendering of the clause such as ‘those men have told the church how kindly you helped them,’ or, with a further shift, ‘the church has heard them tell how you showed your love towards them.’
The church is originally a term for any kind of assembly; the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, used it in reference to the Israelites when they assembled for religious purposes. In the New Testament the term can refer to the universal Church, or to the congregation in a particular city or house which forms a representative part of the universal Church. In the present verse it is used in the latter meaning. Which congregation is meant is not specified, but the most probable guess is the elder’s own congregation. It may be necessary to make this explicit, ‘the church/congregation here.’
The term has been rendered by such descriptive phrases as ‘the gathering of the believers,’ ‘the (gathering of the) people of God,’ ‘those who gather to worship God,’ ‘the family/clan of Christ.’
You will do well to send them … is in the Greek a relative clause going with who have testified. A rendering as a new, independent sentence is found in all versions investigated.
The expression do well to is often used in letters to introduce a wish, or to express an exhortation or a command in a polite manner. The clause may be rendered here ‘to be so kind as to send them…,’ ‘please send them….’ The future tense is used because Gaius should continue to act as he is acting now.
To send them on their journey renders a Greek verb meaning “to send forth,” “to escort,” then “to help on one’s journey” (with food, money, by making necessary arrangements, and so forth). The latter is the meaning the verb has here, and also in Acts 15.3; Rom 15.24; 1 Cor 16.6; Titus 3.13; hence “help them to continue their trip” (Good News Translation), ‘give them what they need on the way,’ or quite explicitly, ‘help them when they leave your house (or your town, or your congregation) so they can go on to another.’
The reference of the pronouns is not restricted to the preachers who have visited Gaius already but covers the group of traveling preachers in general. Some versions, wanting to make this explicit, render them as ‘such people.’
As befits God’s service qualifies the preceding verb, stating how Gaius should send the preachers on their journey.
The Greek expression, literally “worthy of God,” has been rendered in various ways; for example, “in a way that will please God” (Good News Translation), “in a manner worthy of the God we (or you) serve” (New English Bible, Translators’ Translation). In some cases a construction that is attributive to a person is preferable. Then one may take the phrase with the preachers; for example, ‘as people who are doing God’s work’; or one may take it as a new sentence, ‘Thus we should help those who are doing God’s work.’
Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The Third Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .