3 John 1:9-11 (9) I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. (10) So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. (11) Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. Who is this Diotrephes? Perhaps a better question is, Who does this Diotrephes think he is? Was he an apostle? Was he an evangelist? Was he a pastor? Was he a leading man in the congregation? Was he an ordinary member? John does not say, but it is interesting that John mentions that Diotrephes just loved to have the preeminence among them. It almost sounds as if he was only a member of the church or perhaps an elder. We do not know. One of his most marked characteristics is he liked to be Number One. He had to be the important guy, the one everybody came to for answers to their questions, the one to make the big decisions. He even went so far as to say malicious things against John - one of the original twelve apostles. He prated against him with malicious words. He spoke down on him. John was the disciple that Jesus loved, and here some little man, probably in the church at Ephesus, was talking against the apostle who had put his life on the line for the church many times, who had spent years in exile on the Isle of Patmos, who (tradition says) was put in a vat of boiling oil and was not harmed a bit, a man whom God was obviously with - and this Diotrephes thought he was so important that he could point out Johns flaws to the rest of the congregation. - Richard Ritenbaugh
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 10:28:25 +0000
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