EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/7/2025 9:14 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2“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 will begin this Spiritual Diary they way that I
ended yesterday’s Spiritual Diary on this verse: “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.” This was
quoted from John MacArthur’s commentary and gives us the direction that we will
begin to go in this Spiritual Diary.
We begin by looking at the first of
four counts which he was guilty of unjustly
accusing John with wicked words. What we are talking about here is character
assassination which is an all too common ploy of those who seek to elevate
themselves, as you can tear down a person who is in your way to a promotion so
you can get it yourself. These kind of
people will gain people’s trust not positively by manifesting a godly character
but negatively by destroying people’s trust in other leaders, and this is
talking about people in churches at this point.
MacArthur writes “The verb translated unjustly accusing appears only
here in the New Testament, but a related word is translated ‘gossips’ in 1
Timothy 5:13. Scripture repeatedly
condemns gossip (Prov. 20:19; Rom 1:29; 2 Cor. 12:20; 1 Tim. 3:11; 5:13; 2 Tim.
3:3; Titus 2:3), and slander (Lev. 19:16; Ps. 15:3; 101:5; 140:11; Prov. 10:18;
16:28; Matt. 15:19; Rom. 1:30; 2 Cor. 12:20; Eph. 4:31;Col. 3:8; 1 Peter
2:1). The adjective translated wicked is
used five times in 1 John to describe the Devil (2:13, 14; 3:12; 5:18, 19) and
once of Cain’s evil deeds (3:12). In 2
John 11, it describes the evil deeds of the false teachers. Diotrephes’ malicious accusations were evil,
false, and slanderous. He saw John as a
threat to his power and prestige in the church and savagely attacked him. This is similar to the way the false teachers
in Corinth had assaulted Paul (2 Cor. 7:2-3; 10:10; 11:5-7; 12:15; 13:3).”
Lord
willing I will look at the last three counts in tomorrow’s SD.
6/7/2025 9:31 PM
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