Scripture Read: 3 Jn 9-10 I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say. 10 For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church.
Application: Losing ourselves in You is so important Father. Many of us try to hold on to who we are to the point of doing damage to the Body. But is it wrong to want to still be me after I have united with You Lord? The answer is… simple, yet needs explanation. You desire us to remain individuals, that’s why you made us all different Father. The problem is not our individuality – it is out “love” for ourselves that creates the problem. As we grow in love for You Lord we remain individuals that reflect Your character our individual way, but if we grow in love with ourselves we want to be noticed and honored – individuality has very little to do with it. Pride is the issue. An individual can be very humble and it will show through his individual character. This passage deals with an individual that was full of pride. Two real interesting things surface in this passage – first Diotrephes – this is a name that based on Church history tells us something about this person. Many gentiles were given names to honor false gods and it was standard that after salvation, at their baptism they would take on new names to honor God. This man claimed to be a believer in this church yet his name is interesting – The Greek is διοτρεφης – a compound of Dios Διος of Zeus and trephō τρεφω “to nourish,” and it means, “Zeus-nursed.” At the very least we see he was determined to keep his identity even if it offended some – Then John points out that this guy is -
φιλοπρωτεύω philoprōte˙ō - To love to have preeminence [1] - What is so interesting is that this word is used only here in the entire NT and is also a compound of phileō φιλεω “to be fond of,” and prōtos πρωτος “first,” [2] = To be fond of being first – Two compounds that spell bad news – Why do we (especially leaders) have this same drive and love for preeminence – all the disciples had it – I have it – Thank God He grants us the grace (usually painful) to learn humility! K. S. Wuest in his work Wuest's word studies from the Greek New Testament – states “Robertson, in connection with his discussion of this man’s character, says that he wrote an article for a denominational paper on Diotrephes, and the editor told him that twenty-five deacons stopped the paper to show their resentment against being personally attacked” [3] .The truth hurts – Oh Father keep us from loving ourselves the wrong way!
* Meditation Questions: Do you have problems submitting to authority? Are you offended when someone else gets credit for your work or idea? Are you open to ideas from others? What do you feel when others do not see things your way? What does that show?
[1] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.
[2] Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.
[3] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest's word studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English reader (1 Ti 4:1). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
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