DON'T BE LIKE THAT GUY!

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

3 John 1:9-10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we have studied John’s third letter over the past two messages, everything has been positive and upbeat as he (the Elder) writes to his good friend and partner in the Gospel, Gaius.

First, we saw how John was rejoicing in the faith of Gaius and other Christian believers with him who were walking faithfully with one another in the truth, the only legitimate truth found through partnering with Jesus who proclaimed Himself to be the Truth.

Second, we found John commending Gaius for how his church had cared for missionaries who had passed through his area while being obedient to Jesus’ call to go and make disciples. The associated hospitality shown to the traveling evangelists was highlighted by John and served as a primer for how we should show support for our modern day disciple makers who are willing to leave everything behind to go and help others find their salvation.

So all was good with how things were going within Gaius’ church until we get to verses 9 and 20. There, we are introduced to a man who was essentially the anti-Gaius and a poster child for how a Christian believer should never behave within the church. Let’s look again at those verses here:

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

As John details the shortcomings of Diotrephes, the Word of God is sending us a message as well.

“Don’t be like that guy!”

Let’s cover the negative attributes found in Diotrephes.

1. He was self centered.

...Diotrephes, who loves to be first...

Looking at how other translations render this, we find the following:

...Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader... NLT

...Diotrephes likes to be the number-one leader... CEV

...Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them... HCSB

Now, aspiring to lead within the church isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. But when someone decides that they are going to take charge and behave in un-Christ like fashion, it’s a major problem. Maybe you have seen a few modern day church leaders carry themselves in ways not worthy of representing Jesus.

In the case of Diotrephes, John found him guilty of abuse of power which included:

2. He was inhospitable and failed to show proper welcome and loving care for brother and sister believers.

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us.

Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

When someone is conducting themselves improperly in the church, drunk on their power, the last thing they want is to be visited by genuine Christian teachers and evangelists who can expose their sinful behavior. John’s reputation preceded him and Diotrephes, with his love of being “the number one leader”, wouldn’t want to share authority with anyone and John certainly carried that authority in the first century Christian church.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, John tells Gaius that he knew Diotrephes was doubling down on his unfriendly, uncongenial behavior. For we read where he didn’t just target John and his fellow believers with his lack of hospitality but refused “to welcome other believers” as well. Further, he punished anyone who undermined his uninviting, unwelcoming standard, going as far to put such people out of the church. This bullying, over stepping of authority was nothing short of sinful and an atrocity before the Lord.

3. He was badmouthing bonified Gospel followers and servants of Jesus.

So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us.

While the Jesus, the head of the church, made it clear that unity of His believers was of the upmost importance, here we read about how Diotrephes failed to get the proverbial memo and John promised to call him out whenever he came. The scriptures don’t tell us what was said exactly but all we need to know is that it was malicious and false, intended to tear down John and his ministry companions.

In this message and within a mere two verses, we see qualities highlighted in Diotrephes that no Christian in the church, whether in leadership or not, should ever put on display. We shouldn’t ever be like that guy, opting instead to lead selflessly while surrendering our authority and leading to the Lord, showing hospitality to other fellow believers, and watching our mouth so to never speak maliciously or falsely about anyone within our church body.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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