Week Four: \u00a0Oct 2, 2011<\/p>\n
This week we continue the study in 3 John picking up in verse 10.<\/p>\n
10* – For this reason, when I come I will remind him of what he is doing1<\/sup> in spreading false charges against us. And not content with that, he refuses to receive the brothers. He even tries to stop those who want to accept them and throws them out of the church.<\/strong><\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most translation have, \u201cif I come\u201d\u00a0 but the Greek grammar here assumes a probably future. So John is planning to come and deal with this issue.\u00a0 In modern parlance, this would be the equivalent\u00a0 to saying\u00a0 \u201cLord willing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John plans to come and to deal with this.<\/p>\n I will remind him of what he is doing<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The ISV and many translations have \u201ccall attention to.\u201d\u00a0 The Greek word here (\u1f51\u03c0\u03bf\u03bc\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u03c9\u00a0 \/\u00a0 upomn\u0113s\u014d) mean to remember.\u00a0 The translation of \u201cCall attention to\u201d seems strikes me as implying a more public venue, whereas to remind could be private or public.\u00a0 I have no doubt that John planned to follow the biblical model of first confronting Diotrephes privately.<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John\u2019s determination to come and deal with Diotrephes is not only proper it is good. There is no question that the improper exercise or rejection of authority is wrong and this would sum up Diotrephes.\u00a0 But a failure to exercise of proper authority is also wrong.<\/p>\n in spreading false charges against us.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Greek word here (\u03c6\u03bb\u03c5\u03b1\u03c1\u1ff6\u03bd\/phluar\u014dn) means \u201cto speak in such a way as to make no sense, presumably because of ignorance of what is involved.\u201d (Louw-Nida)\u00a0 This is in the present tense, as with the rest of the verse, indicating that this was an ongoing problem, not just something that had happened.<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It would seem that to justify his rejection of John\u2019s authority, Diotrephes was making statements that were untrue.\u00a0 It is not clear if he was lying, but he certainly was not telling the truth. \u00a0Some may be confused by this distinction, stemming from a general confusion about the meaning of lie.\u00a0 Saying something that is untrue is not necessarily a lie, as it could just be an honest mistake.\u00a0 On the other hand a carefully phrased statement may be technically true, but it can still be used to deceive, and it is that deception that is at the core of a lie.\u00a0 In short, a lie is anything said with the intent to deceive.<\/p>\n Thus it is possible that Diotrephes was not attempting to deceive, but rather in his attempt to justify himself, he was not as careful as he should have been. This is something that we should all be wary of.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact he was so uncritical in his charges against John that he drifted into claims that were evidently internally inconsistent to the point of nonsense.\u00a0\u00a0 So whether he was actively lying, or just spreading untrue statements, it is clear that Diotrephes did not love the truth.<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is the question that we should ask ourselves:\u00a0 Do we love the truth?\u00a0 When we speak, particularly when we speak about others, are we sure about everything we say?\u00a0 This really becomes important when we are in a dispute.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When we are in a dispute which is more important to us?\u00a0\u00a0 Being completely truthful, even when it does not help us? Or is it winning?\u00a0 Probably most would say being truthful.\u00a0 But what if we rephrase that slightly?\u00a0 Unless one is a lawyer, winning is normally not the main concern, but rather winning for a reason. What if we, for the sake of argument, assume that we are completely correct, and in fact have been wronged, such that our side is the side of justice?\u00a0 Now which is more important, truthfulness or justice?<\/p>\n Here I think the Gospel of John and the Epistles give a pretty clear answer:\u00a0 truth is a more important value than justice.\u00a0 Jesus did not say in that he was \u201cthe way, the justice and the life.\u201d Consider this, as sinners, do we really want to demand complete justice?<\/p>\n This really comes home when we consider how often we tend to cast things in terms of motives and compared with how well can we know motives? \u00a0\u00a0We can speak about motives, after all John said that Diotrephes wanted to be first, but we had better be very sure about what we said.<\/p>\n And not content with that, he refuses to receive the brothers<\/em><\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not content with saying things,\u00a0 Diotrephes moves on to actions as well. What we say can be bad, what we do is worse. \u00a0\u00a0While Gaius was praised for receiving the brothers, Diotrephes refused.\u00a0 Again there is no indication that the problem with Diotrephes was doctrinal. Perhaps he was them as a challenge to his authority?\u00a0 Or perhaps it was because they were associated with John and to accept them would be to accept John’s authority, but either way he did not receive them.<\/em><\/p>\n tries to stop those who want to accept them<\/em> <\/em>throws them out of the church<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Not only did he not receive them, he tried to stop others from receiving them as well.\u00a0 Throwing them out of the church should not be thought of in terms of formal excommunication. That would imply a more formal church structure than probably existed at the time.\u00a0 Rather this would be a breaking of fellowship.\u00a0 This indicates that the break with John was to some extent public and that Diotrephes had supporters within the church. \u00a0These members may not have had the full story, as we have seen false statements about John played a role in all this.\u00a0 But Diotrephes did have supporters, and so John was coming to set the records straight.<\/p>\n 11a \u2013 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.<\/strong><\/p>\n do not imitate what is evil, but what is good<\/em> <\/em><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With another a personal appeal, John marks a change in subject<\/strong><\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The commentators I read saw this as John telling Gaius to resist any pressure put on him to follow after Diotrephes. \u00a0But, with all the praise of Gaius to this point,\u00a0 this simply does not strike me as correct, and it was not how I read this.\u00a0 \u00a0Instead I saw this as John telling Gaius not to respond in like fashion.\u00a0 As we saw in the previous verse, Diotrephes was speaking ill of John, and putting pressure on member to follow him.\u00a0\u00a0 Gaius should not respond in like fashion.\u00a0 He should not speak ill of Diotrephes, and put pressure on member to support John.<\/p>\n So how should Gaius (or we) respond?\u00a0 The two hallmarks of John\u2019s teaching here have been truth and love.\u00a0\u00a0Modern culture responses to the love part of this pair easily.\u00a0 But truth, does not fare as well.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yet for John, truth, which is mentioned 6 times in letter, is very important.\u00a0 Love is mentioned once, beloved four times.<\/p>\n One other question is why does John say imitate (\u03bc\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf\u1fe6 \/ mimou)? For many, it is the heart that matters, and if your heart is not in what you do, it is meaningless. Yet the concept of imitating implies actions based, not on our heart, but on something outside of us. It is\u00a0doing things even when our heart is not in it, or even against it. Yet, we learn and become better at what we do by imitation. If you want to learn a musical instrument or a language you must practice, and the practice is more important than where their heart is. Likewise, if we want to be a better Christians we must practice. This also touches on the modern distrust of ritual, as\u00a0stale and dead. Yet many Christians have found that ritual can get them through periods where they \u201cdon\u2019t feel it\u201d and help rekindle faith. Now with a musical instrument it is easier if you have a teacher to imitate. Again the same is truth for Christians, and our teacher is Jesus.<\/p>\n Next week we will start in 3 John 11b<\/p>\n If you have question about the class, feel free to send me an email at elgin@hushbeck.com<\/a> and be sure to put \u201cEpistles of John\u201d in the header.<\/p>\n See here for references and more background on the class<\/a>.<\/p>\nb.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Commendation of Demetrius (11,12)<\/h4>\n