EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/9/2025 8:42 PM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1
“Demetrius’ Commendable Contrast”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 3 John 11-15
Message of the verses: “11 Beloved, do
not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God;
the one who does evil has not seen God.12 Demetrius has received a good
testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we add our testimony,
and you know that our testimony is true. 13 I had many things to write to you,
but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink; 14 but I hope
to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face. (1:15) Peace be to
you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.”
I have mentioned that we are almost finished with 3rd
John as there will probably be only this SD and one more before we finish this
great little book. I think that what I
will do for these evening Spiritual Diaries is to look at the book of Jude,
which actually follows 3 John and it to, only has one chapter, and so once I am
finished with Jude then we will probably move onto looking at Jonah and Nahum
after I finish with Jude. I don’t want
to stop doing my evening Spiritual Diaries.
As
I look at verse eleven I noticed that when I look at my Online Bible program that
verse eleven is the end of a paragraph, and so it appears to interrupt John’s
flow of thought. However it is a
necessary introduction to the section commending Demetrius, which would be the
third person that John was writing about in this short letter. MacArthur writes “John urged Gaius not to imitate
Diotrephes’ evil behavior by refusing to welcome Demetrius. Instead, the apostle urged Gaius to pattern
his life after what is good, like Demetrius did. John’s reminder that the one who does good is
of God; the one who does evil has not seen God is a practical application of
the moral test of genuine faith that he gave in his first epistle…Obedience is,
however, the external, visible proof of salvation (John 14:15, 21). Diotrephes’ refusal to obey God’s commands
demonstrates that he was not saved.”
This is kind of what I have been thinking about as to whether or not
Diotrephes was a true believer. There
are many so called Pastors in the world who are not saved, and those are the
ones, both men and women (who are never to become Pastors according to the Word
of God), who do not teach the truth because they are unable because they are
not true believers. I guess Diotrephes
was one of the first in a long line of so-called Pastors who are not true
believers.
“In
contrast to his strong indictment of Diotrephes, John warmly commended Demetrius. Like Gaius, the name Demetrius (‘belonging to
Demeter,’ the Greek goddess of grain and the harvest) was common. A silversmith in Ephesus by that name sparked
a riot over Paul’s teaching, because the gospel was financially damaging to him
and his fellow idol makers (Acts 19:23-41).
Demas (Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:10; Philem. 24) was a shortened form of
Demetrius.”
6/9/2025 9:11 PM
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