The Church Dictator
THE CHURCH DICTATOR
3 JOHN 9-15
True leaders know that only Christ can have first place.
The trouble in the church was due to Diotrephes (v.9), “who wants to be head of everything” (JBP). No false doctrine is attributed to him; it was simply that he felt he had to have a finger in every pie. It is not clear whether the “something” John had written to the church was a protest to the church for the way it had behaved or a few lines commending the traveling preachers. Since he is not likely to have written so lightly about a formal protest, it was probably the latter. Diotrephes probably objected to the fact that the letter had not been addressed to him personally and that he had not been consulted in advance. He will have had no objection to the preachers as such.
Diotrephes was not yet a bishop; they developed later. His authority was limited, and the only way he could counteract John’s lines of commendation was to slander him. This has remained to this day one of the most effective ways of undermining true spiritual authority. Diotrephes tried to “put them out of the congregation.” There is no evidence that Gaius had been excommunicated, though Diotrephes would no doubt have been pleased to get rid of him. While John could not order the church about, he had the right to expose what had happened, when he visited the church. The “authority” (v.9) which Diotrephes had not recognized was to commission the preachers. “Demetrius” (v.12) had probably resisted him and been bitterly attacked.
Diotrephes has always been in the church, and has probably done more harm than false teachers. There is always the willingness to let the “willing horses” carry more than their share of church burdens. This, of course, robs the less gifted of their opportunities of service. Sometimes the “willing horse” is motivated purely by the spirit of service; then such a person may have a breakdown. Sometimes it is the drive to interfere in everything. If this is allowed, the day comes when they are felt to be indispensable and they become a dictator. Then they grumble because no one seems willing to pull their weight!
Thought “Through love be servants of one another” (Galatians 5:13).