5 Feb 2013
III John 1:9-10
III John 1:9: “I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
10 Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.”
As we can see from this verse, there have always been problems in the Church. Modern man may think he is being “cutting edge” by denying the doctrines of the apostles, but that is nothing new. There have always been people like that. There were troublemakers in the church back in the times of the apostles, and there still are today. In the days of the apostles there were those who refused to hear what they had to say, and there still are today. Nothing has changed. The truth was hated back then and it is still hated now.
Diotrephes seems to have been a very devoted evildoer: he actually hunted down genuine believers and threw them out of church! It is the same old story: evil creeps into the church, and as soon as it seizes power it starts getting rid of all the genuine believers. Soon those who truly love God find themselves unwanted – or thrown out.
This is one reason why church discipline is so important. So many churches are like shepherds who do nothing to keep wolves from eating their sheep: they just stand there and let it happen. Without godly leadership and genuine church discipline, the wolves will have free reign to do as they please – and when they are done the true believers will be gone and the church will be dead. No church can survive if it has no mechanism for protecting its congregation from men like Diotrephes.