Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 3 John 1:9 - 1:11
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The insolence of Diotrephes:
v. 9. I wrote unto the church; but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
v. 10. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words; and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.
v. 11. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which Is good. He that doeth good is of God; but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.
Diotrephes seems to have held some office in the church; he may have been an elder in the congregation to which Gaius belonged. His behavior shows to what lengths a person will go that seeks personal aggrandizement in church-work: I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who is seeking to obtain the leadership among them, does not receive us. John had given the itinerant missionaries short letters of introduction, addressed to all the congregations, just as letters of that kind are now often given. But this Diotrephes absolutely ignored the authority of the apostle, refused to receive his delegates. And all this was because Diotrephes had the intention of making himself a leader, probably in that entire province. It was a case of misguided ambition which did not shrink from any degree of insolence.
But John was equal to the occasion: For that reason, if I come, I shall remind him of his works which he does, prating against us with evil words; and, not content therewith, neither does he himself receive the brethren, and those that are willing to do so he hinders and casts them out of the church. This was the form of reckoning which John had in mind for this upstart. He would visit the congregation in person, and would recite the various evidence of insolence and false ambition at a meeting of the church: the evil speaking against the person and office of John, the refusal to receive the missionaries as Christian brethren, the attempt to hinder the true Christians in the performance of their duties, and the false excommunication which Diotrephes practiced in the ease of those that refused to comply with his unwarranted interference. This picture is not overdrawn in a single line, but has often been duplicated in the Christian Church since those days.
The apostle's earnest admonition to Gaius in view of such conditions is: Beloved, do not imitate the evil, but the good; he that does good is of God; he that does evil has not seen God. Gaius is to keep before him as a pattern and example only such things as have the approval of the Lord, as are good in His sight, and he is to shun everything that is evil. Every one that actually does live a life of sanctification in doing that which is good thereby gives evidence that he is of God, that he is born out of God, that he is a child of God. Of those that do evil it is ever true that they are so far from being the children of God that they have not even seen Him, that there is not the faintest idea of their knowing the Lord. But note the gentleness of the apostle, even in this case, since he does not say that the doers of evil are children of the devil.