Beloved don’t imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. He who does good is of God. He who does evil hasn’t seen God.
3 John 1:11 (WEB)
The New Testament contains many compelling vignettes about Gentile and Jewish characters, featuring numerous believers and non-believers who play important roles in God’s story.
Take our character study for today. Diotrephes. He is no hero.
We know he was a Gentile (his name is a clue). We also know from the passage that he had a position of authority within the Church, so he is purported to be a follower of Christ. But his lack of Christ-like character qualities was glaring.
Look at a summary of complaints that John has against him.
“I wrote to the assembly (about Diotrephes) … but he doesn’t accept what we say:”
- Loves to be first
- Doesn’t accept authority
- Gossips about men of God
- Withholds hospitality from other believers
- Disallows believers from showing hospitality to others
- Excommunicated believers from the Church if they disagreed with him
The sins of jealousy, pettiness, selfish ambition, and covetousness may have led to Diotrephes’ downfall. Often, those sins plague the Church today and it doesn’t just infect the heart of pastors.
Church members don’t recognize those sins in their own hearts many times. These sins quietly begin to tear down the local church.
What we know about Diotrephes is that he failed the Biblical standard to lead the Church.
Click the link below to know the pastoral standard, because it is a great standard for even ordinary believers.
World English Bible (WEB)
by Public Domain. The name “World English Bible” is trademarked.
Getting the Seed out of the basket and into hungry hearts. Matthew 13 