3 John 9-10: “I wrote unto the church but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, received us not. 10.Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither does he receive the brothers, and forbids those who come.”
3 John 12: “Demetrius has a good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; that you know our record is true.” The short book of 3 John has two main characters. One is Diotrephes who you read about in verses 9-10, and Demetrius who you read about in verse 12. You probably recognize both of these people, either from your church, school, work, or maybe even home. I have been the pastor of both of them. The Diotrephes’ of this world take some of the joy out of life, and the Demetriuses of this world add to the joy of life. Let’s compare the two of them and see which of them we had rather have in our fellowship, and ask which one is more like us? The first complaint about Diotrephes was that he liked to have preeminence, or first place, in everything in the church. He might even remind us that “by golly, my granddaddy and daddy ran this church and I plan to do the same thing.” These are the people who think that if they do not approve of a project in the church, they will not participate, or they will kill the project. His kin are those who won’t go along with something if they are outvoted by the rest of the church. Notice that he also talks against the leadership, namely the pastor and other leaders, and uses malicious words in doing it. Malicious words are words that are intended to hurt the one spoken against, or to destroy his or her reputation. Perhaps the worst thing that Diotrephes did was to try to keep the visiting preachers, who were commonplace in those days, from being welcomed to the church. These “brothers” were itinerant evangelists who went to churches to preach and to witness. They were meant to be helpers for the churches. Diotrephes was not hospitable, to say the least. He did not have a welcoming heart, and probably would not have rejoiced when new people were saved and wanted to join the church. We might not be as bad as Diotrephes, but we need to guard our own tendencies to rule and to have our way in everything. If you sense any “Diotrephes” in you, pray it away --- now. On the other hand, there was a man named Demetrius who was well-spoken-of. It was said of him that he had a “good report.” John is not specific here, but we can use our imaginations and know what it means. Look back on what Diotrophes did that was wrong and you can be assured that Demetrius was not like that. The work of the church did not go on in spite of Demetrius but because of him. I trust that you are a “Demetrius” type of person and that the church to which you belong is glad to have you in its membership. Demetrius was not just of “good report,” but he was also well-spoken of “by the truth itself.” To me, this can mean only one thing: Demetrius’ life reflected the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in his life. Today, we would say that Demetrius was a Bible-believing Christian who lived by the truths revealed there. Today’s “Demetriuses” have the New Testament instead of just Old Testament prophecies and the oral tradition concerning Jesus. You can trust this kind of Christian to help the church go forward. The Holy Spirit inspired these verses, in one sense, to show us the kind of people we should be. We do not want to be like Diotrephes, but we should strive to be like Demetrius. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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