Third John-The Apostasy of Diotrephes

The purpose of Third John is to deal with a certain pastor named Diotrephes who rejected the apostle John’s authority.

This man demonstrated this rejection by not adhering to John’s apostolic teaching to practice hospitality towards itinerant teachers of the gospel by financially and materially supporting these teachers, which is indicated by several factors.

In verse 5, John commends Gaius for obeying his apostolic teaching by practicing hospitality towards these itinerant teachers, which demonstrated the love of God and then in verse 6, the apostle encourages Gaius to continue this practice.

Then, in verse 9, the apostle John condemns Diotrephes for not adhering to his teaching and thus rejecting his apostolic authority and in verse 10, John says that Diotrephes unjustly accused him and did not practice hospitality towards those itinerant teachers of the gospel but in fact put them out of the church.

He also had forbidden those in the church under his pastoral authority from practicing hospitality towards these itinerant teachers.

In verse 11, John describes Diotrephes actions as evil, which resulted in John sending Demetrius who was to stay with Gaius.

Therefore, the contents of Third John indicate that unlike Second John, the apostle John was not dealing with the issue of false teachers teaching false doctrine.

Rather, it appears that John is dealing with the issue of a pastor rejecting his apostolic authority by not supporting itinerant teachers of the gospel financially and materially and forbidding others in the church to do so.

There is nothing in the epistle which would indicate that Diotrephes was teaching false doctrine.

Why he decided to reject John’s apostolic authority is unknown.

3 John 1 From the elder, to Gaius, the beloved, whom I myself divinely love by means of the truth. 2 Beloved, I myself make it a habit of praying that you would be prospered with regards to all things as well as that you would be in good health just as your soul prospers. 3 For I was prompted to greatly rejoice during the time when brothers and sisters arrived as they testified to your truth because you make it your habit of living by means of the truth. 4 I never experience a greater joy than this, namely that, I regularly hear about my own spiritual children because they are making it their habit of living by means of the truth. 5 Beloved, you continue to act faithfully with regards to whatever you work hard accomplishing on behalf of your spiritual brothers and sisters even though this is on behalf of strangers. 6 They testified to your divine-love in the presence of the church. You will act correctly by sending them on their way in a manner of the one and only God. 7 Because for the sake of the Name, they went out while accepting absolutely nothing from the heathen. 8 Therefore, we are obligated to make it our habit of supporting such individuals in order that we would become co-workers on behalf of and in association with the truth. 9 I wrote something to a certain church but instead Diotrephes who loves to be first over them never recognized our authority. (My translation)

In verse 9, the apostle condemns a man named Diotrephes for rejecting his authority and not demonstrating to these itinerant communicators when he instructed him to do so.

Verse 10 makes clear that when John informs Gaius in verse 9 that he wrote “something” to a certain church, the context indicates that this “something” refers to the instructions John sent to Diotrephes by way of a letter.

These instructions involved supporting financially and materially itinerant communicators of the gospel, which John approved of.

The apostle informs Gaius here in verse 9 that Diotrephes emphatically rejected these instructions.

The church mentioned here in verse 9 is not the same one mentioned in verse 6, which refers to the Christian community the apostle John was teaching when he wrote Third John.

The church mentioned here in verse 9 is not the church Gaius belonged to or was leading since John does not use a third-person (“among them”) pronoun to refer to the other members of the church.

If Gaius belonged to this church mentioned in verse 9, the apostle John would have used a second-person pronoun (“among you”).

Some argue that the “something” refers the contents of Second John which was written to the church in Ephesus to not demonstrate hospitality to those who did not adhere to his apostolic teaching concerning the person of Jesus Christ in that He is both God and man.

These false teachers were rejecting the humanity of Christ.

Therefore, some contend that Diotrephes thought John was wrong to demonstrate hospitality to any itinerant communicator of the gospel, thus, Diotrephes rejected his instructions, however, John forbid only the aiding of false teachers.

It is highly unlikely that Second John was the letter that Diotrephes rejected and is referred to here with “something” in 3 John 9.

3 John 10 clearly identifies what Diotrephes rejected from John, namely supporting financially and materially those itinerant communicators of the gospel whom the apostle approved of after interviewing them.

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.

The question then arises as to what was Diotrephes relationship to this 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 Ephesus to 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 Ephesus and Diotrephes contradicting these orders and rejecting them, we can infer that Diotrephes was a pastor of a particular church in Ephesus.

John informs Gaius that the reason why Diotrephes rejected his apostolic authority by rejecting his orders to demonstrate hospitality to itinerant communicators of the gospel who he approved of was he loved to be first or in other words he likes to be the boss.

Verse 10 also makes clear that Diotrephes was involved with slander since John says that he unjustly accused him with his wicked words.

Therefore, the apostle John is writing to Gaius in order to encourage and commend him for obeying his apostolic authority by demonstrating hospitality to the itinerant communicators he instructed all the churches in Ephesus to aid financially and materially.

Also, the apostle is writing about Diotrephes’ rebellion in order to instruct Gaius not to follow Diotrephes’ example.

John is seeking to prevent Gaius from falling into the same error as Diotrephes and by doing so ensuring that aid would continue to flow to these itinerant communicators.

So John writes Gaius so that he might not be influenced by Diotrephes which suggests strongly that Gaius and Diotrephes were geographically not far away from each other and were more than likely leading churches 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.

Pastors like Diotrephes were under the apostle John’s authority even though they were in authority over the local churches which they led.

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! (My translation)

The apostle then informs Gaius as to how Diotrephes rejected his apostolic authority and identifies the actions which John was going to confront Diotrephes with.

John presents four specific charges against Diotrephes and 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.

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.

John had approved of these individuals and directed the churches to support them and their families financially and materially.

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

He violated the protocol of church disciplined instituted by the Lord Himself by expelling believers without evidence or witnesses.