Diotrephes

3 John 1:9-10

Diotrephes is rarely mentioned in the church today, and rightly so. This is because he was a troublemaker. 3 John 9-10 says, “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.” 

From these two verses we see that 1. He loves to be first; 2. Did not like the apostles; 3. Spreads gossips about them; 4. Did not welcome other believers either; 5. Stops others from welcoming believers and 6. Puts those who refuse to toe his line out of the church.

The church today seems to be filled with such people or, at least, with such behaviours and tendencies. Now, every wants to be above everyone else. There are gossips around about a certain leader or person. Believers are not really welcome, and when someone objects to the trend, that person no longer have a say in the church.

This is not what the church should be like. This is not the character of Jesus. We have so many Diotrephes in our churches today that we are struggling to even move forward. We have now seemed to have lost our purpose too.

Let us be careful.