Leadership Gone Wrong

Introduction

Jesus is the epitome of leadership. Lynn Anderson describes it as such “Think of it. Jesus left the comforts of heaven and came into our universe, our pasture, to smell like sheep!” in his book, They Smell Like Sheep. Leadership is so important as it pertains to wellness of the church. Our ability to grow, our ability to equip and our ability to reach the lost starts with how effective our leaders are.

The third epistle of John begins on a positive note and transitions to having to deal with influence in the wrong hands as it pertains to Diotrephes. The table is set by informing us of the great works of Gaius, and then transitions to how John plans on dealing with Diotrephes. Often times it is not the person we are dealing with more so than it is the way we deal with the person that is causing dissension in the church.

During the foundational period of the early church many leaders, apostles and teachers found themselves dealing with false teachers, unscrupulous leaders, and to make things difficult they had to navigate this type of behavior with letters in the midst of persecution, imprisonment and the death of Jesus.

Encouragement Meets Opposition

Encouragement is powerful but it can be diluted by negativity. Discouragement is so powerful that it that it can tip the scales effective work so much so that people who could be beneficial to the church are not because of the roadblocks that Diotrephes makes.

Encouragement and exhortation is extremely important. Hebrews 3:12-13 “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Diotrephes through the vein of influence and power has dominated the church to the point in which he has had the ability to position himself as a gatekeeper so much so that he is oppressing the people of God who are in support with the apostles that Jesus called to facilitate growth and correction in the church.

Applying This to Today

To suggest that there is a sense of mutiny against the apostolic governing of the church is a possibility. We see this today. We have pioneers and influential men that speak to the doctrine of the church and in the same place we have people who are on opposing sides. We respect the pioneers of our movement. Nonetheless for every pioneer of our movement there are individuals who have gained a wealth of influence that find themselves on the opposite ends of their teachings. In other words there are and will always be people who attach themselves to the church in effort to get rid of everyone that does not bow down to their leadership or ascribe to their interpretation of scripture.

This text provides a sense of difficulty because the way that John describes Diotrephes does not explicitly deal directly with a theological argument but more importantly the spirit of Diotrephes.

Even furthermore, the issue isn’t indefensibly doctrinal based considering the fact that the meaning of receive or accept are clearly based on his inability to be hospitable.

How is Diotrephes Described?

Granted we have limited information but what we have is enough to know and understand what we are dealing with.

Character traits of Diotrephes listed in the text

Loves to have preeminence

not hospitable

Gossiper

unwelcoming - putting people out of the church.

Loves to be first

use of wicked words

insubordinate (ESV - v. 9 “does not acknowledge our authority”

Character traits of Gaius and Demetrius

Demetrius is said to have a good testimony from all based on truth itself.

Gaius is described to be generous and hospitable to strangers, and walking in truth.

It’s difficult for all of these characteristics to coexist within one locale nonetheless this is what the church is. We have people who are here for opposing reasons and it is up to the leaders of the congregation to decipher between what is Holy Spirit led and what is inspired by selfishness, contention and foolishness.

It’s bad enough that Diotrephes is talking negatively about the Apostles but he is also unwelcoming to brothers amongst the same mindset and he also puts people out of the church that align with this mindset. Verse 9 in the NLT states “I wrote to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, refused to have anything to do with us.

How can one love to lead but ignore the doctrinal tenets of the apostles. Nonetheless, it does not stop there. He is also making evil accusations and the spirit of “prating” which does harm within itself.

Typically people who are cantankerous in nature can accomplish this at a high level. Prating or to speak in such a way that makes no sense, or to talk without anybody being able to understand what one is saying. People who their way will use confusing speech to appear as if they are the smartest person in the room.

Proverbs 16:28 “A perverse man sows strife, And a whisperer separates the best of friends.”

There is enough poverty, oppression, and sin on earth to go around and keep Christians on task that we should not find ourselves:

arguing on social media

wasting time and arguing with negative people.

Sometimes our acts of encouragement have to do the convincing.

We are not just dealing with any old church member, the power that Diotrephes has is unbelievable.

“he himself does not receive the brethren”.

“forbids those who with to, putting them out of the church”

To put them out is to cause to leave sometimes involving force, to send away to drive out to expel.

Contextually this is a remarkable passage, even by the way John describes Him. the term used to describe his leadership style is not an isolated incident it is a continuous attitude.

We fall short when our attraction to preeminence and power becomes more important that our ability to serve and love one another. Let us be reminded of what Jesus says in Mark 10:42-45 “But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.””

How Do We Respond?

I believe this is the biggest hurdle. Typically we want to return the favor of dissension to the Diotrephes of the church.

But I’m reminded of 1 Thessalonians 5:15 “See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.”

Our mission of the church is one of collective work and sacrificial love, we do not have the authority to dismiss people based on personal preference.

We respond in the manner of verse 11 “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.

The easy way is to give Brother Diotrephes a taste of his own medicine, nonetheless that would not be Christlike.

It’s going to take all of us to build a place of exhortation and encouragement! Let’s personalize this for a second, John directly addresses Gaius directly. Just like him we are faced with a choice are we going to encourage or discourage!

Conclusion

Jesus did not hang on the cross so that we could abuse power! He came to save the lost, He came to bring peace unto the world!

Even though all authority was given to Jesus, He never abused it in a way that ostracized people. This is the example we should leave, regardless of the person, regardless of the situation, we should show Jesus.