Sermon Tone Analysis

The second half of John’s third epistle moves away from his wonderful commendation and encouragement to Gaius, and moves toward the other two main characters: Diotrephes and Demetrius.

John writes about them for several reasons.

They both were part of or would soon be part of the church that Gaius was serving in.

Diotrephes clearly had a major role in the church, as is noted in his power over the people there.

It seems from John’s letter that Demetrius would soon be part of or present in the church, because the writing john does about him is that of commendation or reccommendation.

They served as a contrast that was helpful for the teaching in John’s letter.

We will see that Diotrephes clearly took up a role as one who was a foe of the Gospel, while Demetrius had found a good reputation and a good testimony among those in Christ.

Their respective testimonies serve as an example for the Gaius, the church that John was writing to, and to us today.

They both demanded attention from the church elders and congregants for different reasons.

Diotrephes because he was an example not to follow and was in sin that needed to be dealt with, and Demetrius because he was an example to follow and his character should be accepted by the church.

If we do not know much about Gaius, about whom John wrote just a few verses, then we know even less about Diotrephes and Demetrius.

Again, John does not take time to give us background information about the two, but rather to give us only the necessary information for our spiritual discernment.

He gives us only that information which is pertinent to their standing in the truth.

As we noted in the title of the message, the contrast that we are going to be seeing boils down to the contrast of pride and humility.

Not that the two words are explicitly stated, but the fruits of their presence are clearly evident in the lives of the two men.

The bulk of the material goes to warning against and putting to shame the prideful character of Diotrephes, whom we will look at in detail.

But by way of introduction, i want to explore a bit about what the Lord says concerning pride.

Pride is one of the defining characteristics of every sinful heart.

That verse says that the lamp of the wicked are haughty eyes and a proud heart.

That is what lights their perspective and guides their decision making process.

2. Pride causes people to forget about God.

When our hearts are lifted up, we begin to credit our success to ourselves, and we forget the one who has brought us this far.

3. Pride leads us to be unfaithful to God.

2 Chronicles 26:16

Of King Uzziah, the Scripture says he grew strong, he grew proud, and he grew in unfaithfulness.

4. Pride leads to ungratefulness.

2 Chronicles

Hezekiah directly ignored the miraculous hand of God because of his pride.

5. Pride ultimately is an abomination to God.

Proverbs

We could go on and on, and let us not forget that it was through pride that sin entered into the universe.

First Satan, who sought to lift himself up above God, was struck down for the sin of pride and took 1/3 of the angels in heaven with him in his pursuit of self-glory, and then Adam and Eve, who chose the sin of pride in breaking the one law God had given them because the forbidden fruit seemed good to them, and the benefits of it seemed to them better than all the blessings God had provided.

Pride is not just the root of sin in the world, but it is at the heart of every sin.

For in every sinful decision, we make a judgment that what we are choosing is better and more beneficial than what God has prescribed.

To the contrary, humility is highly praised in scripture, and is befitting the children of God.

Humility is a mark of wisdom.

2. While pride ensures a downfall, humility keeps on the road of faithfulness.

3. God uses the humble to shame the proud.

4. Scripture speaks clearly of God’s preference for humility over pride.

With all that being said, I want to look today at the contrast between Diotrephes and Demetrius.

The contrast between a friend and a foe of the truth, and the contrast between pride and humility in what the scripture says of them.

Because:

A distinguishing contrast between friends and foes of the Gospel is that of pride and humility.

1. Diotrephes: An Example of Pride - Vv. 9-10

As John outlines Diotrephes, we see two major themes, both coming from pride.

First we see his prideful heart, and from that we see his prideful hurt.

A. His prideful Heart.

John was writing to Gaius, so as he is writing about diotrephes, Gaius is in his mind.

While Gaius was gracious and hostpitable, Diotrephes was ungracious and inhospitable.

While Gaius was a lover of the truth, Diotrephes was dismissed those who loved the truth.

While Gaius was submitted the the truth, Diotrephes was submitted only to his own ambition.

John starts his section on Diotrephes by saying that he had written something previously to this church, but Diotrephes did not accept it.

We have no record of what John wrote in that letter.

It most likely could not be 1st John, because that letter was written about entirely different subjects, it also could not be 2 John, because that letter is written to an individual lady and not a church.

Many scholars believe, and it seems entirely possible, that the letter john is referring to has been lost, not just in history, but directly because of diotrephes, who had some amount of authority in this church, therefore he very well could have intercepted the letter and destroyed it, or led a rebellion against John’s teaching in it.

The main indictment against Diotrephes, and the greatest show of his prideful heart is John’s words “who likes to put himself first.”

This is translated a couple different ways, It could be “loves to be first” “seeks to be ahead of others” “desires to be a leader” all those are bring out different nuances of the word John used, which is a unique word that is only used here in scripture.

it is “Philo-Proteuon”

“Philo” comes from the word “Phileo” which has to do with love.

The city Philadelphia draws the first part of its usage from that word.

the second part, “Proteuon” comes from the word for first.

Proteuon is used in one other place in scripture, and from that we get a better idea of what is going on here.

The last word there, “Preeminent” is the word “proteuon.”

This is the only other place where this word is used, and who is it used of here?

Of Course, Christ, very God of Very Gods, is preeminent.

He deserves preeminence, he is to be revered as the preeminent one, He alone is to be first, the leader, number one not just in priority but in importance and focus of our lives.

This makes John’s use of this word so much more significant, because what Diotrephes is desiring is not just to be somewhat elevated, but Diotrephes wants to be first in importance and in focus.

He wants to be first in leadership, first in peoples minds, first in their way of thinking about the church.

When people consider their church, Diotrephes was most pleased when his name came into consideration as being the main part of that congregation.

This strikes at the root of what pride actually is.

Pride is not just to think a bit more highly of ourselves than we deserve, pride is to think of ourselves as first before the only one who deserves that place, and that is Christ.

The sin of pride in the church is so poisonous, because when pride enters the church, whether in leadership, in teaching, in friendships, in ministries, what enters in is a diminishing of the importance of Christ, who is the head, and a magnifying of the role of people, who are to be submissive.

Pride is a sin that places us up against God, but it also causes us to be unsubmissive to Him.

Diotrephes “does not ackgnowledge our authority.”

Who’s authority?

John and the Apostles.

Of course, the writing of the New Testament had not been completed and collated as of that point, and the Apostles’ teaching was the authoritative rule of the church in that unique age.

In essence, it would be like us saying that we don’t accept the scripture, yet we still desire to be members and leaders of the church.

That sounds foolish, but yet it happens all the time.

Pride causes us to lift ourselves above others, to lift ourselves up above leadership, to lift ourselves up above God’s Word, which is to lift ourselves up above and seek preeminence over Christ Himself.

B. His Prideful Hurt.

What is in our heart eventually comes out.

John promised, when he came personally, to bring up what Diotrephes was doing.

What was in Diotrephes prideful heart came out in the way he hurt the church with his words and actions.

“Talking wicked nonsense against us.”

Diotrephes was downplaying the authority that was before him with his words.

In doing so he was seeking to undermine it, of course to make place for himself to step into it.

A common ploy of those who seek to elevate themselves is character assassination.

You can’t prove a point with actual truth and factual arguments?

Then use what is called an ad-hominem.

This is where one seeks to destroy a person’s character through slander and misuse of information rather than to make a case for their point.

In this case, Diotrephes was slandering the Apostles rather than trying to prove why he thought their teaching was false.

This is directly related to Gossip, which Paul deals with in

“And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers.”

Diotrephes was not content with downplaying and dismissing the authority in his life, he went on further to dismiss anyone who could be seen as a threat to his own power.

This happens often in the church.

When someone has dismissed the authority in their life, first Scripture and then church leadership, they move on to dismissing fellow church members and other believers.

This is a result of fear - fear that someone else will get that place of respect that they desire, fear that someone else may be seen as more gifted in a certain way than they are, fear that someone else will be blessed by the Lord, fear that someone else will have the preeminence.

This is direclt dealt with by Paul.

This is the opposite of prideful ambition, this is humble submission to one another in love.