20250410

Diotrephes

3 John 1:1-15

3 John 1:1 The elder: To my cared about Gaius, whom I genuinely care about.
3 John 1:2 Cared about one; I pray that everything is going well with you and you are in good health, just as your throat is going well.
3 John 1:3 I was very glad when brothers came and testified to your loyalty to the truth—how you are walking truthfully.
3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children walk truthfully.
3 John 1:5 Cared about one, you are living faithfully in whatever you do for the brothers and sisters, especially when they are strangers.
3 John 1:6 They have testified to your care before the congregation. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God,
3 John 1:7 since they set out for the Name’s sake, accepting nothing from Nations.
3 John 1:8 That is why we ought to support such people to be coworkers with the truth.
3 John 1:9 I wrote something to the congregation, but Diotrephes, who loves to have first place among them, does not welcome us.
3 John 1:10 This is why if I come, I will remind him of what he is doing, slandering us with malicious words. And he is not satisfied with that! He refuses to welcome brothers and even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the congregation.
3 John 1:11 Cared about one: do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
3 John 1:12 Everyone speaks well of Demetrius—even the truth itself. And we also speak well of him, so you know our testimony is true.
3 John 1:13 I have many things to write to you, but I don’t want to use pen and ink.
3 John 1:14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.
3 John 1:15 Peace to you. The friends send you greetings. Greet the friends by name.

John’s third letter exposes a different danger from the one addressed in the second. Previously, the concern was naïve hospitality toward deceivers who promoted teachings that went beyond the apostolic message. Here, the problem is not gullibility but control. Diotrephes, apparently a prominent figure in the congregation, rejected a legitimate ministry that John himself endorsed. His refusal was not doctrinal caution but personal ambition. He used his influence to block support for faithful workers and even expelled those who disagreed with him. The issue was not truth but territory. He narrowed the church’s attention to himself, treating the congregation as his possession rather than Christ’s.

This pattern is not unfamiliar. In many modern settings, pastoral authority has expanded far beyond the New Testament’s vision of shared leadership, mutual submission, and the priesthood of all believers. The result is a culture that unintentionally produces Diotrephes-like leaders—individuals who equate their own preferences with divine direction and assume that resisting them is resisting God. When Jesus’ disciples asked about greatness and authority, he did not outline a hierarchy. He placed a child in their midst and taught them to take the lowest place, to consider others as more significant, and to live in glad submission to one another. Leadership in his kingdom is cruciform, not self-protective; it is marked by relinquishing control, not consolidating it.

There remains a real need to reject false teaching. John’s second letter makes that clear. But the third letter reminds that the church must also guard against rejecting what is good. Many ministries, callings, and gifts are genuine works of the Spirit. They deserve recognition, encouragement, and partnership. Discernment requires holding both truths together: resisting what distorts the gospel while embracing what advances it. The danger lies in confusing personal authority with spiritual fidelity, or in assuming that the Spirit’s work must always flow through a single leader or structure.

Lord, grant wisdom to recognize and support every true work of the Holy Spirit. Guard the church from counterfeits that harm, and from leaders who cling to control rather than embodying the humility of Christ. May the community of faith be marked by generosity, openness, and shared ministry under the one true Head of the church.