... In the New Testament, especially in the Pauline churches, we find a practice of letters to and fro recommending Christians to be received, supported, and listened to (Acts 18:27; Romans 16:1-2; 1 Corinthians 16:3; 2 Corinthians 3:1; Philippians 2:25-30; Colossians 4:7-9). The struggles of Paul with the Judaizers and other opponents made it necessary for his churches to have a way of knowing whether strangers who came preaching Christ were on Paul’s side or not. But we have no way of ascertaining whether the practice of letters of commendation was in vogue early in all Christian communities. Would the Johannine Community with its distinctiveness and its stress on love within the brotherhood have required a letter commending Johannine Christians as they moved from one Johannine church to another? Indeed this problem may have led Diotrephes to close his church to all visiting missionaries. For his part the Presbyter may have been meeting the problem by sending just such a recommendation as we find in 3 John 12. ...