EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/6/2025 6:00 PM
My Worship Time PT-1 Focus: “Diotrephes’ Perverted Actions”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 3 John 10
Message of the
verse: “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.”
I just have to say this at the beginning of this
Spiritual Diary that in order to put someone out of the church the procedure
that Jesus speaks of this in the 18th chapter of Matthew: “15 "If your brother sins, go and show
him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 “But
if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY
THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 “If he refuses
to listen to them, tell it
to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to
you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 "Truly I say to you, whatever you
bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth
shall have been loosed in heaven. 19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you
agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by
My Father who is in heaven. 20 “For where two or three have gathered together
in My name, I am there in their midst.’”
I find it interesting that the word church is only found two times in
the gospels, and both are in Matthew. I
write this so that anyone who reads it knows the different steps of discipline
to have a person removed from the church.
Now if a person is really a member of the church then it must be that
that person has been born again, and thus removing that person from the church,
like Paul speaks of in both 1st and 2nd Corinthians can
take the time to repent and then brought back into the church. That is the goal, repentance and returning
back into fellowship in the church, which pleases the Lord.
John
MacArthur begins his commentary on this verse by writing “For this reason (Diotrephes’
prideful defiance of John’s apostolic authority) the apostle declared, If I
come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does. John would not overlook this challenge to his
apostolic authority and to Christ’s rule in the church. He would expose Diotrephes before the
congregation, make his conduct a matter of church discipline (1 Timothy
5:19-20), and if need be, use his apostolic authority to deal with him. Paul issued a similar challenge to the rebels
at Corinth when he wrote, ‘I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I
shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power’ (1
Cor. 4:19), and again in his second letter to Corinth, when he stated
‘1 This is the third time I am coming to you.
EVERY FACT IS TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE TESTIMONY OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES. 2 I have
previously said when present the second time, and though now absent I say in
advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well,
that if I come again I will not spare anyone.’ (2 Cor. 13:1-2).
I will end with this short paragraph from MacArthur’s
commentary which will lead us to what will be written in the next SD.
“John indicted Diotrephes on four
counts. In each case, the present tense
of the verb indicates that these were continual, habitual behaviors on
Diotrephes’ part.”
6/6/2025 6:32
PM
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