Whose Preeminence Will You Love? (3 John 9–15)

3 John 9–15

Introduction

Christ has the preeminence. Colossians states this in no uncertain terms in chapter 1 verse 15: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.”

Christ comes first. He possesses, as the LSB says, “The first place in all things.” He is preeminent in creation because he made the creation and sustains it. Whether we can see it or not, whether it is angelic or human, physical or spiritual, fleshly or soulish, Christ made it and holds it together and therefore he is preeminent over creation. But he is also and especially preeminent over the church, his new creation, and that is because he is the beginning of the church—he has been raised from the dead. As a consequence, Christ is the head of the church, his body. He is the authority over his church, the one to whom all obedience ought to be rendered, all love due, and all praise given.

There are always some who are unsatisfied with these truths. There are always some who love the first place. There are some who are not happy playing second fiddle, with taking their orders from another, or with submitting their wills to the will of another. As our little epistle says, there are always some who like to put themselves first. Or, as the old King James says, there are those who “loveth to have the preeminence among them.” Such was a man named Diotrephes.

Now, if you remember from last week, with the giving of the great commission and the creation of the church the work of missions was created. And with the work of missions came the necessity for hospitality. Churches would send out itinerant preachers—missionaries who would travel from city to city preaching the gospel in obedience to Christ’s command to “go and make disciples of all nations.” When they came into town, they were dependent on the local churches there to support their preaching ministries. They needed room and board, prayer and encouragement, and supplies for their ongoing mission.

But that work of missions is driven by a core conviction, which Jesus himself articulated at the end of Matthew, right before his ascension: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Missions is driven by a conviction that Christ has preeminence in everything, that he is the risen Lord and Savior, and that he will have the prize for which he died. It sets about the task of proclaiming that Christ for the purpose of gathering jewels for his crown—sinners redeemed by mere grace and given unspeakable glory.

We cannot love Christ’s preeminence and our own. We will either want Christ’s name to be lifted up or our own. We will seek either his glory or ours. Christ’s glory is known through missions, and so it stands to reason that if we love our own preeminence and our own glory, we will set ourselves against the work of missions, because we are setting ourselves against the name of Christ. In other words, spiritual pride eviscerates missions. Oppositely, humility loves missions, because humility loves to lift up Christ.

Our text has some very important things to teach us about the nature of spiritual pride and the effects it has in the local church and its mission. And it also has a lot to teach us about the nature of humility, and the kind of people we must be to enter into the joy of mission. And it poses this question: Whose preeminence will you love? Yours? Or Christ’s? At stake in what we learn in our text this morning is nothing less than the successful missionary witness of Eden Baptist. If we are men and women who love our preeminence, we will not be concerned with the glory of Christ’s name, and therefore we will not be concerned with missions. But if we are men and women who love Christ’s preeminence, we will be intensely concerned that his name is proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

So, let us look at three characters in the remainder of this short letter, that we may learn to love the preeminence of Christ: Diotrephes, Demetrius, and John.

I.              Diotrephes: The Man Who Loved Preeminence (9–10)

In Diotrephes, we see an example of a man who has fallen to the sin of spiritual pride because he loved his own preeminence. And in this we also see something of a digression—a devolution which spiritual pride induces.

The first step in this devolution is love of authority. John had written something to Gaius and Diotrephes’ church. We don’t have that letter anymore, but it was likely a letter much like this one. It was probably a recommendation of brothers like the ones that Gaius had received into his own home and Diotrephes had sought to discourage others from accepting. But Diotrephes did not acknowledge John’s apostolic authority, and that is because he “likes to put himself first.” He likes to be the leader. He likes to be in the position of power.

Diotrephes would have made good company with the Pharisees. Jesus said of them, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.” (Matt 23:4–6). They loved preeminence. But its not just the position of power. It’s the praise and recognition and admiration of men. They crave the preeminence because they want attention. But, Jesus responds to this kind of attitude and says, “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Similarly, Jesus had counselled his disciples when they were jostling for first place in the coming kingdom, asking him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (Mark 10:37). And when he says that it is not his to give, they grumble. So he calls them to him and says, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all” (Mark 10:42–43).

Diotrephes had confused prominence with importance. Diotrephes failed to understand that positions of authority in the church are really exercises in servanthood. He had begun to believe that being chief was the same thing as being great. But Jesus teaches us that it is not. The greatest is the smallest. The one God exalts is the one who dies to himself daily, the one who gives his life away so that others might live, the one who considers others more important than himself. Greatness is found in stooping. True preeminence is found in lifting others up, because that is how he who was in the form of God expressed his preeminence.

Don’t be fooled—you don’t need to be in a position of authority to love authority. Authority is like money. You don’t need to have it to idolize it. In fact, sometimes the people who are most enslaved to the idol of authority are those who can never seem to get their hands on it! And so ask yourselves some questions: What happens in your heart when a decision is made that you don’t agree with? Are you content when things don’t go your way? Do you listen when addressed by authority? Or do you chafe? Are you receptive to counsel and direction? Or do you reject it and spit it out of your mouth? Are you willing to stoop and become like children?

The second step is: a rejection of authority: “he does not acknowledge our authority.” Spiritual pride cannot stand authority. Spiritual pride says, “I get to call the shots. I have the right to say what is good and bad, right and wrong, to direct the actions of others.” But that attitude cuts across the grain of God-given authority. Submission and self-assertion are like Superman and the Joker—they are arch enemies. It is impossible to assert yourself and to submit to spiritual authority at the same time. The very definition of submission is to willingly bend your will to the decision of another.

John, as he introduces himself, was an elder, which means he possessed spiritual authority, at least in his own church. But beyond that, and more relevant here, John was an apostle, which granted him authority over all the churches. So, for the Apostle John to write to you was to receive instruction sanctioned by Christ himself, who has preeminence in all things. But because Diotrephes wants his own preeminence, are we surprised that he rejects the Apostle’s instructions?

Spiritual pride always bucks instruction. It doesn’t sit easily under sermons—especially ones that prick the conscience. It doesn’t take counsel too well. It is quickly forthcoming with the many reasons why obedience cannot be rendered. It is fast to excuses. It knows Scripture, but it doesn’t accept it, hear it, and obey it. Spiritual pride always wants to be the dispenser of knowledge and wisdom and is slow to receive wisdom from their shepherds. In other words, it doesn’t receive authority, as our text says. It doesn’t welcome it or acknowledge it. The authority of others doesn’t find a warm place in its heart.

We don’t know the details about why Diotrephes rejected John’s authority. Maybe it was a personal difference, some clash of personalities. Or maybe they disagreed on points of doctrine. Or maybe they thought that the church should be run differently. Or perhaps Diotrephes had been infected with false teaching and had no desire to submit to the true apostolic teaching of the Apostle John himself. We don’t know, and it isn’t important to know. What is important is the lesson that comes from it: spiritual pride rejects authority. Whatever the nature of their disagreement, Diotrephes refused to “welcome” the apostle’s letter.

Which leads to a third step in the devolution: character assassination—“talking wicked nonsense against us.” This literally reads as “babbling with wicked words against us.” The word “nonsense” It has the idea of meaningless, nonsensical chatter—accusations that are not grounded in rational judgment, patient thought, careful consideration, or soberminded evaluation. These are accusations shot from the hip with little care about who it hits or where or how. It is only for the sake of creating confusion, doubt, and aspersions in the minds of others to gain comrades in the rebellion.

Now, it is not wrong in itself to bring charges against spiritual authority, so long as they come on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Paul teaches us that we must do so if a leader is in unrepentant sin. But it is very wrong to bring baseless accusations fabricated in the imagination of the self-obsessed. It is wrong to produce “wicked” words—vicious or morally base. They are words laced with poison. Words with fangs and venom. Words proceeding from the nature of their father, the devil, who is called “the wicked one.”

Words are the weapons the spiritually proud use to tear others down. They have an amazing ability to do harm that goes far beneath the skin. Words can ruin livelihoods. They can tear down meticulously constructed reputations. They can destroy marriages, split churches, end friendships, and divide families. Few churches have split as the result of a fist fight, but many churches have split as a result of proud words. And how easy it is to direct this slander against spiritual leaders. They can’t and won’t respond in kind. They are usually not there to offer a differing viewpoint. They are out in front, often leading from a place of vulnerability on things they know there is disagreement on. They often cannot defend themselves, and certainly not publicly. They’re easy targets. I knew of a pastor who often prayed, “Lord, protect me from the strife of tongues.” It is as easy to destroy a pastor’s reputation with lying words as lighting newspaper on fire. And especially now in the age of digital words without accountability, where accusations are believed simply because they are made! How much wicked nonsense is uttered on Facebook! Facebook is Diotrephes’ Disneyland!

But, just as a brief point here: John says that the solution for this kind of thing is to bring it up. Nothing more. Just point it out to the church. Now, in that culture of honor and shame, there would have been somewhat of an expectation that John would have said something, especially with his age. But the point still stands: the easiest way to diffuse gossip is to bring it up. Point it out. “Did you hear what so and so is doing?” Right response: “That’s gossip. Let’s talk about something useful.”

Which leads to a fourth step in the devolution: the closing off of the heart to others—“not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers.” In the same way that he does not “acknowledge” the apostle John, he does not “Welcome” these brothers—same word. It has the sense of “receive” or “embrace.” These were the same brothers that Gaius had welcomed, brothers which presumably came from the Apostle John’s church. Why did he refuse them? We don’t know for certain, and we need to be careful not to read too much in between the lines. But the biggest clue is that these brothers came from the Apostle John, and he does not welcome the apostle, so he does not welcome those who come from his church. His personal issues with John got in the way of his joyful participation in hospitality for the sake of Christ’s mission. He missed the blessing of obedience because he was too busy pursuing the preeminence. And so, he also missed the blessing of fellowship.

Because he had to be first, John had to be second. And if John was second, then those he sent were third. And so he trades the joy of Christian fellowship for the loneliness of control. He was so focused on being first, being better than John, that he completely their needs and his responsibility toward them. When we want to be first, we always put others second. And when we put others second, we close ourselves off to helping them and loving them. So, one test of whether or not we love the preeminence is this: do we pay attention to the needs of others? And when we see those needs, are we willing to sacrifice to meet them?

Which leads to a fifth step: hinderance—“and also stops those who want to.” Spiritual pride is never content to live and let live. It has to meddle in the affairs of others. It isn’t content to say, “I won’t do this, but you do what your conscience tells you.” It says instead, “I won’t do this, and you shouldn’t either.” You see, if you are preeminent in your own eyes, then you get to make the rules. Your word is the new law, the moral standard that others must abide by. What you say, goes. And so those who go against it must be stopped.

And that of course means that those who won’t abide by your rules must be punished. Which leads to a sixth step: exclusion—“and puts them out of the church.” This is church discipline wielded for the sake of personal gain. It coopts a process designed for the purity of the church and the glory of Christ and deforms it into an organ of self-promoting pride which defiles the church. Either you get on the bus, or you get thrown off the bus and the bus runs you over. Spiritual pride is inherently anti-social. Left to its own ends, it will gradually cloister itself into smaller and smaller groups, until it is all alone and it is the only person who can be saved.

So, how much of Diotrephes lives in you? Do you desire the preeminence? “Yeah, I could probably do that differently.” “Well, I’m thankful for my leaders, but I don’t think I would really do it that way.” “I just don’t feel like I get recognized enough for what I do around here.” Do you reject authority? “What right do they have to counsel me? They’re just men. They don’t know my heart!” Do you assassinate their character, slinging charges that are grounded in thin air? Do you close off your hearts to others who rely on your support? “I’m not gonna help them. They can help themselves.” Do you recruit others to your side? Do you wish that members of our church would be members of a different church?

Diotrephes was setting himself up against the work of missions, and therefore ultimately against the glory of Christ. His spiritual pride led him to contend with Christ for the preeminence in the church. He had forgotten what Isaiah said back in Isaiah 2: “The Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—it shall be brought low…and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

II.           Demetrius: The Man Worthy of Imitation (11–12)

And that is why John takes a moment to admonish Gaius, to encourage him in the face of this opposition: “Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good.” That is to say, “Don’t imitate Diotrephes’ bad example. Rather, imitate good examples.”

Now, that’s curious. The natural question that I have is, “Was Gaius tempted to follow Diotrephes’ example?” I don’t think he was, given the commendation John gives him earlier in the letter. Yet, John still feels it necessary to gently and briefly remind him to not imitate Diotrephes’ example. Why does he feel that necessary?

It is natural to follow the example of those around us, whether or good or bad. We have a gravitational effect on each other. We are always either pulling others toward good or evil; and we are always being pulled by others towards good or evil. As Stott said, “Everyone’s an imitator.” It’s in our nature! We are the image of God, the ones who naturally imitate him and were made to act like him. Our children imitate us from the moment they are born. Friends imitate each other by speaking in the same ways or wearing the same clothes. Spouses imitate each other to such a degree that they begin to look like each other and adopt the same interests and hobbies and lifestyles. And so also with churches. We all are examples to each other which we are naturally inclined to follow, and that is a good thing.

And so Diotrephes, even though he is a bad example, and even though Gaius is not currently following his example, still poses a temptation to Gaius. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Bad company ruins good morals, because bad company slowly erodes the convictions and desires for good. Slow and consistent exposure over time to one who loves the preeminence begins to form in us a desire to be preeminent ourselves. And if we’re not careful, we will find ourselves drifting farther and farther away from our desires to do good. And that is why John warns Gaius. Gaius is not imitating evil right now…but he could. And John is very wise in issuing that warning.

But John also goes a little further by providing a reminder that good works flow from a right relationship with God. “Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.” This is nothing new. Gaius had probably heard John say this a thousand and one times. Even in 1 John, he said it so many times:

-       1 John 1:6–7 – “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

-       1 John 2:4–5 – “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.”

-       1 John 2:9 – “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.”

-       1 John 2:15 – “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

-       1 John 2:29 – “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

-       1 John 3:4 – “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

-       1 John 3:6 – “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.”

-       Perhaps most pertinent to 3 John, 1 John 3:16–18 – “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

And to those we might add the testimony of James 2:14–16 – “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you ways to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

As our text says, “Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.” Saving faith is in the balance here. Gaius is presented with a choice—imitate Diotrephes and demonstrate that I, like him, have not seen God, or imitate Demetrius who, like the other brothers, has “gone out for the sake of the name.” Either love my preeminence or love Christ’s. Which will it be? Make no mistake, every time we are faced with a choice to obey God, the same thing is at stake. The habits we build are issues of heaven and hell. Our practices of doing good or evil will reverberate into eternity. Our actions speak aloud what is in our hearts and will either condemn us or justify us on that last day. And we will either join Diotrephes with the children of the Devil, or we will join Demetrius with the Children of God.

So, John commends Demetrius, another one of these traveling missionaries. It is very likely that this letter itself was delivered to Gaius by Demetrius as a letter of recommendation from John. And John affirms Demetrius with three witnesses, just as the Bible has always taught that we should do.

The first is “from everyone.” Everyone who knew Demetrius affirmed that he was a faithful brother. He was “above reproach” nobody could point to something in his life that would disqualify him from going out for the sake of the name. His works were so evident that everyone who knew him would say, “Yeah, he’s the kind of man God wants.”

The second is from “the truth itself.” He’s saying, “If the truth could speak, it would approve of Demetrius’ life.” And in fact, the truth has spoken. God is the truth, and Christ is the truth, and the Spirit is true. That Triune God has spoken in the Scriptures, which are truth (John 17:17). And so, we can compare a man’s life to Scripture and know whether or not he is approved based on whether or not his life matches what we find there.

The third is the Apostle’s testimony. The “we” and “our” is probably the same thing as back in verse 9. When he says that Diotrephes did not receive “us,” he is speaking with the plural of authority, speaking on behalf of the Apostles. So also here in verse 11. The “we” is a “we” of authority. John adds his authoritative testimony on top of the other two in order to seal the fact with three witnesses that Demetrius is an approved workman, worthy of being supported in the cause of Christ.

And as such, Demetrius was the good example which Gaius was supposed to imitate. Demetrius was the man who was worthy of imitation, the human example of a good center of gravity. Demetrius loved Christ’s preeminence and not his own. And when Gaius received Demetrius into his house, he would see in Demetrius a good example of walking in the truth. He would be encouraged in his own walk. He would learn to imitate what is good.

III.        John: The Man Who Loves the Saints

Which is exactly what we see in John’s final greetings: a longing for personal, face to face fellowship. “I had much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink. I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”

It is so enlightening to me that centuries before the digital age and facebook and facetime, John still preferred face to face communication. Writing a letter just didn’t cut it for him. There is something about physically being in the same room that ignites fellowship between those who love the truth. It’s a kind of fellowship that can’t be had any other way. Part of this is because you can more fully disclose your heart in person than you can in writing. But the other part is that there is a depth of fellowship possible when you are face to face that is absent when you are relating through pen and ink.

Think of it this way: we here in this room this morning have fellowship with each other in a way that is utterly unique and, I would argue, better than we have with brothers who meet across the globe. We all understand the hollowness of Facetime Fellowship.

We should not only love those who love the truth and imitate their good example. We should also want to be with them. As John says “I hope to see you soon.” We should feel drawn to be in the same room each other. That’s why church is so good for us. We should never be satisfied with pixilated worship, but only with “face to face” worship. But it is when we are in each other’s presence that we can bear witness to the deeds of others, where we can provide tangible needs for the furthering of the gospel, where we can together acknowledge the authority of Christ through the Apostles, where we can imitate each other’s examples of good and draw one another away from evil. In other words, local church is where true humanity happens, and true humanity is fleshy humanity. And we should want to be in that space.

But all this is summarized so aptly in the closing words, which themselves give us a profoundly personal sense. “Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.” John wants Gaius to have peace—he wants him to be whole and at rest, to be calm of soul and for his life to be filled with placid and life-giving relationship. And John wants Gaius to know that he has friends. With Diotrephes’ opposition, perhaps he felt alone. But John says, “You have friends here, and they greet you. They welcome you. They would treat Gaius the same way Gaius had treated the brothers, because they had already welcomed Gaius into their hearts, even if they had never met. And John wants Gaius to know that the same flows the other way: “Greet the friends, each by name.” Intense, personal relationship.

Conclusion

What shall we say then, at the close? Only this: Love Christ’s preeminence. Get behind his mission by getting under his supremacy. Live lives that are consumed with making Christ known, not just in deed, but especially in words. Come to love the truth about him. Walk in the truth, even as you love it. And then, allow your heart to be drawn to those who love that truth as well. Support missionary works that are faithful to the true gospel. Put forward the hard effort of uplifting them and supporting them because they have gone out for the sake of the name.

And correspondingly, repent. Repent of the times that you have loved the preeminence, when you have attempted to take for yourself what is rightfully his. Repent of your rejection of authority and words spoken in wickedness. Repent of closing your heart off to your brothers and unduly trying to control the obedience of others or even wielding your influence to punish them. We may not have done these things in the same way, but we all done them. And trust. Believe that his is supreme, that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the one who deserves the praise of nations, the Lion of Judah who has the right to open the seals of history, and the Lamb who was slain for the sins of his people. If you love his preeminence, you with trust in that sacrifice.