Third John: Third John 9-10-John Condemns Diotrephes For Rejecting His Apostolic Authority By Listing Four Charges Against Him

3 John 9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. (NIV84)

3 John 9 I wrote something to a certain church but instead Diotrephes who loves to be first over them never recognized our authority. (Pastor’s translation)

“I wrote to the church” speaks of John communicating in writing to the churches in Ephesus that they should support financially and materially certain itinerant communicators of the gospel which he has checked out and considered worthy of such support.

“The church” refers to the church which was led by a man named Diotrephes.

“But Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us” presents an emphatic contrast with the apostle John’s instructions to Diotrephes to exercise hospitality to itinerant communicators of the gospel which he approved of.

“Who loves to be first” is expressing the fact that Diotrephes existed in a state of loving to be first in the sense of desiring to be prominent and preeminent in the church.

“Will have nothing to do with us” reveals that Diotrephes emphatically rejected the apostle’s authority over the church and also indicates that he was acting in his own interests by rejecting the authority of the apostles.

Here in verse 9, John now begins to reveal his purpose for writing Gaius in the first place.

The fact that Diotrephes is censured in this epistle and John informs Gaius that he will confront this man indicates that he was a Christian since the apostle would have no authority over a non-believer but only over the church.

On the basis of John’s statements here in verses 9-10, it would appear that Diotrephes was in fact a pastor of a church in Ephesus.

These instructions which John sent regarding hospitality to certain itinerant communicators of the gospel would have been sent directly to the pastors of the local churches in Ephesusto see that they were carried out to the letter.

Secondly, John says that Diotrephes did not himself accept these itinerant communicators and also forbid others to do so and put out of the church those who did obey the apostle John’s instructions.

Therefore, because John’s instructions would have been sent directly to the pastors of the churches in Ephesusand Diotrephes contradicted these orders and rejected them, we can infer that Diotrephes was a pastor of a particular church in Ephesus.

The issue for John is not that Diotrephes was wrong in exercising his authority as a pastor over the church but rather that Diotrephes was rejecting John’s apostolic authority which made Diotrephes the subordinate to John.

3 John 10 So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. (NIV84)

3 John 10 Because of this, when I arrive I will call attention to his actions which he continues to perpetrate by continuing to slander us by means of evil assertions. Furthermore, while not being satisfied with these, he himself for his own benefit continues to not welcome these spiritual brothers and sisters and also continues to forbid those who desire to do so. He even expelled them from the church! (Pastor’s translation)

“Gossiping about” is the verb phluareō (φλυαρέω), which means “to bring unjustified charges against someone” or in other words it means “to slander” someone in the sense of uttering false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another’s reputation.

Here John informs Gaius that Diotrephes “slandered” him in the sense that he made false charges against him or misrepresented John so as to defame and damage the apostle’s reputation.

The participle form of the verb is a participle of means which indicates that Diotrephes continued to perpetrate actions, which rejected John’s apostolic authority “by” slandering John with evil assertions.

“Us” is the first person plural form of the personal pronoun egō (ἐγώ) means “us” referring to the apostle John’s authority over the church and the first person plural form of this word is an “editorial” plural meaning John is referring to himself.

“He refuses to welcome the brothers” refers to Diotrephes refusing to welcome into the fellowship of his church the itinerant communicators of the gospel, who John approved of and ordered to be supported materially and financially.

“Continues to forbid those who desire to do so” refers to Diotrephes exercising his authority as a pastor in an unjustified manner.

“He even expelled them from the church!” expresses the fact that this action on the part of this man Diotrephes is out of the ordinary or unexpected and is expressing John’s shock at Diotrephes’ action.

John tells Gaius that because Diotrephes was rejecting his authority, he would call attention to this man’s actions which he continued to perpetrate when he arrived at this man’s location, which means that he would confront Diotrephes and administer church discipline and this discipline would take place in stages.

In Matthew 18-15-17, the Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples the procedure that must be followed when practicing church discipline.

Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. (NIV84)

Therefore, John would first confront Diotrephes personally in private and if he is unrepentant, he will bring two or more witnesses against the man and if he doesn’t repent at this point, Diotrephes’ sin will be brought before the entire church (Gal. 6:1-2).

If he doesn’t repent as a result of this action, then he will be expelled from the fellowship of the church until he repents (Matthew 18:17).

The apostle informs Gaius as to how Diotrephes rejected his apostolic authority by presenting four specific charges against Diotrephes.

The first is that Diotrephes was slandering him in the past and was continuing to do so up to the time he wrote this epistle to Gaius, and he did this by means of evil assertions.

The second charge against Diotrephes is that for his own benefit he refused to welcome into the fellowship of the church those itinerant communicators of the gospel and their families.

The third charge involved Diotrephes forbidding those in his church to aid these itinerant communicators and their families.

Lastly, Diotrephes shockingly expelled from the fellowship of the church those who desired to aid these itinerant communicators and their families, which itself was in violation of the protocol for administering church discipline.

In the first place, he had no basis whatsoever for expelling these believers from the fellowship of the church since they were living in obedience to John’s apostolic authority.

This man used no legitimate witnesses against these Christians because he had none and yet, he kicked them out of the church.

He was living in disobedience to John’s apostolic teaching and ultimately rebelling against the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who delegated John authority.

Lastly, he violated the protocol of church discipline instituted by the Lord Himself by expelling believers without evidence or witnesses.