MODERN DAY DIOTREPHESES: COUNTERPILLARS AND CATERPILLARS

 “I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. Dear friend, do not imitate what is bad but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does what is bad has not seen God” – III John 9-11.

When you stopped doing what you were called to do, you would start doing what you were not called to do. At Matthew 24:45-51 Our Lord Jesus said:   

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (NKJV) 

The Living Bible renders it this way: 

 “Are you a wise and faithful servant of the Lord? Have I given you the task of managing my household, to feed my children day by day? Blessings on you if I return and find you faithfully doing your work. I will put such faithful ones in charge of everything I own! “But if you are evil and say to yourself, ‘My Lord won’t be coming for a while,’ and begin oppressing your fellow servants, partying and getting drunk, your Lord will arrive unannounced and unexpected, and severely whip you and send you off to the judgment of the hypocrites; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

Who is in your ministerial boat – Jesus or Jonah? When Jesus entered Peter’s boat, there were testimonies of enlargement and turnaround (Luke 5:1-11). When Jonah entered a ship going to Tarshish, calamity and catastrophe were order of the day (Jonah 1:1-17). 

Who would you prefer as a preacher – the man who has the rhema of the Word or the one who is devoid of it? What kind of messages do you prefer to be exposed to – “What went wrong sermons” or Messages that point you to Jesus, reminding you of Heaven and Hell? Messages that promote fraternal cohesion and Kingdom enlargement? Messages that vilify the Brotherhood and encourage hatred or Messages that promote the Brotherhood, encouraging love and mutual respect? 

 Who is your preacher – Paul and Barnabas or Diotrephes?  

What kind of spiritual and worship environments are you in? Who do you work with and what kind of messages are they propagating? Hebrews 13:9 says: 

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. 

Who is feeding you and with what? Obviously, there are men and “ministers of God” whose anointing have gone sour. They do not need special introductions. They are people who claim to be who they are, but are not. They are men who rather than use the pulpit to enlarge the Kingdom of God in hearts and communities of men are using the pulpit to promote lies and hatred amongst the Brethren. The grace on men have gone sour. In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey (1997:34) quotes Helmut Thielicke as saying,

“When the devil succeeds in laying his cuckoo eggs in a pious mind, the sulphurous stench of hell is as nothing compared with the evil odour emitted by divine grace gone putrid.” 

Rather than operate in the dimensions of God, certain class of ministers are operating in the dimensions of men. Rather than lead God’s people by His Word, they have become Church Police. They have become complainers rather than proclaimers. They are modern day Saducees (Those who are Sad to See) and Pharisees (Those who are Far to See). These are men who have no business being on pulpits because rather than being blessings to God’s people, they have turned themselves into spiritual poisons. They were called to encourage God’s people, but have unfortunately turned themselves into ministers of discouragement. They have no rhema and are busy destroying what God has built. These are modern day Diotrephesses who can best be described as Counterpillars and Caterpillars. They are, indeed, true sons of their progenitor, Diotrephes! 

Modern day Diotrephesses are toxic. Because of this, they create toxic environments, which turn worships into warships and fellowships into battlegrounds.      

DIOTREPHES: WHO WAS HE?

The name, “Diotrephes” (pronounced “Di-ot'-re-fez”) appears only in one place in the entire Bible (III John). His name means “Nourished by Jupiter.” In his commentary, George G. Finley suggested that the name “Diotrephes” means “Zeus reared.” To put it in another term, “The nursling of Zeus,” that is, King of the gods.

He was a man with a rare nomenclature and uncommon toxic nature. He was ambitious, proud, disrespectful of apostolic authority, rebellious and inhospitable. He was the Preacher-in-charge and brooked no nonsense from anyone who would dare disagree with him whether he was right or wrong. Simply stated, he was “Lord of the Manor.” He held court and dispensed ‘justice” any how he deemed fit without recourse to God’s Word or society’s expectations.

How Diotrephes became a preacher is what I do not know. However, his ministry was everything but not what it ought to be and what the Lord expected of His servant.   

God’s Word reveals some characteristics of Evangelist/Preacher Diotrephes:

1.    He loved to be first.

2.    He was disobedient to Apostolic authority.

3.    He was spreading malicious pieces of information about other servants of God.

4.    He was inhospitable. He never welcomed fellow believers.

5.    He formed a religious party and recruited people into it, expecting them to do as he desired.

6.    He disfellowshipped those who disagreed with him without recourse to what God’s Word says. He believed in disfellowship, not fellowship.

7.    He was a man who would traverse seas and lands to “win a soul,” but on the flip of the coin turn such a soul double a candidate of Hell (Matthew 23:15).      

In III John, God’s Word presents three personalities: Gaius, Diotrephes and Demetrius. Obviously, these men were in the same Congregation. The first and last man were good, but the man in the middle was not. Oh, how illustrative this is! In our various congregations we have people we can conveniently refer to as Pillars, Counterpillars and Caterpillars. Who are you in your congregation? Are you a Pillar, Counterpillar or Caterpillar?

Diotrephes was a man who suffered from a warped sense of self-importance. He wanted to be Number One, to be deferred to and consulted by everyone. He wanted to be the one who made important decisions in his congregation and to have the Final Say in everything regarding the church. His sense of self-importance and his quest to remain relevant in the affairs of the church where he had placed his membership turned him into a religious dictator.

In the course of this presentation, some of the things that will be revealed may sound personal. If it does, kindly disregard the messenger and think about the message.

In his article, “Diotrephes: The Man Who Hindered God's Work,” David Legge (2006) wrote:

Dr. A. T. Robinson wrote an article for a Southern Baptist State magazine. He described the conduct of Diotrephes within that article - but I think he omitted to mention the man's name, and 25 Baptist deacons from various Baptist churches wrote to the editor and cancelled their subscriptions, contending that he was writing about them!

In other words, when we speak about Diotrephes, some people would think we are speaking about them. Are you a modern day Diotrephes? Are you hindering or promoting God’s Work?

A modern day Diotrephes could be anybody: a brother of sister, preacher, elder, deacon, Church secretary, Church treasurer, etcetera. Whoever exhibits the attitudes of Biblical Diotrephes is a Modern Day Diotrephes!      

DIOTREPHESIC MENTALITIES

I am the First, Will Be The First and Will Remain the First

Diotrephes attitudes were:

1.    “If I do not rule I will ruin.”

2.    “If I am not at the helm of affairs, I will be at the heels.”

3.    “If my opinion is not accepted, nobody’s opinion will hold any water.” 

These are all destructive attitudes which seem to define some characters in our various congregations. We must avoid the Diotrophesic mentality of self-will (III John Vs.9-11; Titus 1:7b). We must avoid the temptation to politicize the affairs of the Church - taking members to ourselves and pitching tents against others (cf. Acts 20:28-30).

 Diotrephes was a man who loved to have the first place. If he was not recognized as “Man of the moment,” he would rumple all manners of feathers to maintain the status quo.

Some people treat the local congregations where they are as business concerns and themselves as CEOs who run their affairs. This explains why at the end of certain correspondences, you would read statements like, “Preacher-in-Charge” or “Secretary-in-Charge,” etcetera.  

 If a preacher, elder, deacon, secretary or any wealthy influential brother or sister has the mentality of Diotrephes, you can be sure that he will continue to treat the church where he is as if she is his personal property. Woe betide you to disagree with him. If you are a preacher and he is an influential brother, he would not only seek to frustrate your ministry, but would ensure that you are “pushed out” of the congregation. He would join forces with some of his stooges to form Sanhedrin-like Committees to teach you the lesson of your life.  

Some people have introduced secular principles into church leadership unaware that Church is not a human organization but a Divine organism. Rather than employing Biblical principles, principles gleaned from Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power and Niccole Machiavelli are employed. Jesus did not desire that His Church should be so led. At Matthew 20:25-28 we read: 

“But Jesus called them unto him, and said, ‘Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister', not to be served, but to serve, 'and to give his life a ransom for many.’” 

As far as Bible is concerned, the New Testament Church is beneath the Cross at Calvary and that at the foot of the Cross all ground is level. Church is where everybody is somebody and Jesus Christ is Lord.  

If our understanding of the New Testament Church is Biblical, then nobody would want to imbibe the spirit of Diotrephes. Those who are introducing worldly principles of Congregational Leadership should know that they are fighting against God and that what is not planted by God will be uprooted (Matthew 15:13).      

Hey, Do Not Encroach Into My Territory!

One of the mentalities of Diotrephes was to isolate the local congregation from the rest of the Brotherhood. Anyone who ventured to find out what was going on in the congregation where he preached, Diotrephes would quickly swat him/her. He was protecting his territory. He was using autonomy to strangulate brethren within and prevent those in sister congregations from questioning his modus operandi and vivendi. 

Today, we see preachers/elders, etcetera who discourage members from wider brotherhood activities. They do these because they do not want these brethren to be exposed to what goes on in other congregations and by so doing return to question their modes of operations and rattle the cage of their ministerial manipulations. 

Sometimes, their tool is castigation. At III John v. 10, Apostle John wrote: 

“Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words.”

Diotrephes was spreading malicious gossips. To explain what Diotrephes was doing, Apostle John used the word, “Prating.” David Legge (2006) explained:

“That word ‘prating,’ it is the only time you find it in the New Testament, and that's what it means: to babble incoherently, to gossip. It means literally ‘bringing false and empty charges against us.’ It's true that an empty receptacle will make a lot of noise, and it is those who are empty, those who are devoid of real, true, deep spirituality who make the most noise - particularly in gossip. The Greek verb translated, ‘gossiping’ or ‘prating’ comes from a root that is used of the action of water when it boils up. You imagine it on the stove, and a pot of water boiling over, it throws off a lot of bubbles - that's the word used here. Since bubbles are empty and useless, the verb is communicating that this is an indulgence of empty people who engage in useless talk - it's the nature of Diotrephes’ slander, of all slander, when it is sheer nonsense.”

Modern day Diotrepheses would use terrible words to describe other servants of God who are doing their bests to enlarge the borders of God’s Kingdom in the hearts and communities of men. They would use unprintable names and terms to describe programmes and activities organized by other congregations. When Eha-Amufu Annual Christian Revival Seminar started twenty-two years ago, modern day Diotrepheses went to town with their stock-in-trade. There was nothing they never said. Today, even though their attacks have largely reduced, they are still at it, albeit skeletally.

Modern day Diotrepheses lord it over the flock. They put doctrinal chains around the necks of the brethren under their ministerial care. Somebody described Diotrephes as follows:  

“He was of a narrow sectarian spirit, one of those men who despised others. He desired to recognise only those who were of their particular stripe.”       

So long as you do not belong to his ministerial party or circle, whatever you do and however you preach, you are bound to be maligned by modern day Diotrepheses. H. A. Ironside describe modern day Diotrepheses as: 

“Self-seeking, self-important, self-elected overseers, lording it over their brethren, and abrogating to themselves the right to say who may or may not be recognised as true, authentic children of God.”    

Hey, If You Do Not Obey Me, You Get a Red Card!

In the interesting game of football, if you commit a serious foul, you are given a “Red Card,” meaning you are expelled from the game. Often, this is done after a Yellow Card had been issued against an offender. In the Christian Faith, if someone lives an un-Christian life or subscribes to an Un-Biblical doctrine, he/she is issued “Yellow Card” of warnings. Depending on a given situation or enormity of an offence, such a person is given the Red Card of Disfellowship.

Disfellowship is a Biblical practice which can be invoked on any brother or sister, preacher, elder or deacon who is guilty of immoral (I Corinthians 5) or doctrinal (1 Timothy 1:20; II Timothy 2:16-18) sins. Usually, before a person is disfellowshiped, he or she is sufficiently warned (Titus 3:10). Care should be taken, however, not to treat a brother or sister who is disfellowshiped as an “enemy” but “admonish him/her as a Brother/Sister” (II Thessalonians 3:14-15).

Disfellowship was not designed by God as a Punitive, but as a Corrective measure. It is to assist the erring to retrace his/her way back to the Fold (II Corinthians 2:6-11). However, Disfellowship in the hands of a Diotrephes can spell doom. The Biblical Diotrephes we are talking about employed the use of disfellowship with reckless abandon. He dispensed it without recourse to morality, spirituality and ‘Scripturality.’ At III John v.10 we read what Diotrephes was doing:

Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.          

In other words, the moment anyone disagreed with him, he/she would be chased out of the congregation. He had the power to hire and to fire. Today, modern day Diotrepheses are not different from their progenitor.

Modern day Diotrepheses evict (chase out) fellow Christians from their midst on the least reason of not seeing issues from their perspectives on a given subject. To some, it does not matter if the issues involved are Biblically-defined or not. Some church leaders have become overly autocratic and infallible. Some have arrogated powers to themselves with which they can drive out whoever does not agree with them.

To be sure, there are Scriptural and unScriptural disfellowships. Some are cooked and dished out without recourse to what God’s Word says. In his presentation, “Disfellowship: The Issues Involved,” Bishop (Dr.) Gideon Nwaeze of Tetlow Road/Amaram Street Church of Christ, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria in a lecture delivered on Saturday, December 4, 1994 made references to what he considered “Cooked disfellowship.” A Cooked disfellowship is a kind of kangaroo disfellowship which some brethren employ to weed off people in an assembly that they are not comfortable with without Scriptural authorization. Augustine of Hippo wrote:

“One thing I say deliberately as unquestionable truth, that if any believer has been wrongfully excommunicated the sentence will do harm rather to him who pronounces it, than to him who suffers the wrong.”

Many congregations are guilty of wrong disfellowship or excommunication, which have continued to hunt them till today.

Fellowship and disfellowship issues are spiritual matters which should be handled with utmost sense of spirituality. We must eschew vindictiveness and parochialism. Disfellowships should not be executed with reckless abandon, vain glory and attitudes of carnality. Disfellowships should be a congregation’s last resort in matters relating to discipline at congregational level. Congregations should be seen to have exhausted all avenues to restoring an erring Christian. Only when such efforts have proved abortive should disfellowships be resorted to. In my thinking, handing out disfellowship letters should actually elicit tears from the rest of us, not something to ‘rejoice’ about.

DNA OF DIOTREPHES

In his article, The DNA of Diotrephes, Mike Hess (2018) outlined the following attributes of Diotrephes:

1.    Always Want To Be The Center of Attention

“Notice Me.” A person with Diotrephes DNA always wants to be noticed. He wants to be recognized whether he/she is important or not. Such a person does not work in the background, he/she is always at the forefront always calling attention to himself/herself. Such a person is egoistical. He/she wants to get credit whether he/she deserves it or not. He/she is always in need of ego massage.

2.    Must Always Be Right

A Diotrephes is always right. He can never be wrong. When he is “right” in every sense of the word, he uses demeaning words against the person he is in contention with, but when “wrong” he easily gets angry. Rather than address issues, he attacks personalities. 

 

3.    They Are The Centre of The Universe

The spirit of “Me, Myself and I” rules in every Diotrephes. Diotrepheses are characterized by “Me first” mentality, which is reinforced by self-importance where self is past, present and future. You notice this easily in conversations. They always talk about themselves and what they have done. They hardly use the words, “We” and “Us.” 

4.    They Possess Divisive Presence

Diotrephesses are catalysts for conflicts. They are the “Obata Osu.” The moment the walk in, the atmosphere changes from being cordial to being toxic. In fact they exhibit high levels of spiritual, doctrinal and social toxicities. They belittle and tear people down. They do these so that they can always look good in their own eyes.  

5.    They Make Baseless Accusations

Apostle John called what Diotrephes was saying about him as “Nonsense.” He wrote that Diotrephes was “prating against us with malicious words” (3 John 10).

Every Diotrephes is a manufacturer of lies against others. He can go to any length to write and accuse others of wrongs when they have done no wrong. What they say and write cannot be established and justified - just arrant nonsense.  

6.    They Are Unwelcoming

At III John v. 10, Apostle John wrote of Diotrephes: “He refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and put them out of the church.”  Diotrepheses live Standoffish lives. They find it difficult to bring themselves to other people’s levels and to accommodate other people’s opinions.    

7.    They Get In The Way of Others’ Service To God

A Diotrephes would not serve God and would not want others to serve God. Apostle John wrote of Diotrephes: “He refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and put them out of the church.” At Matthew 23:13 Jesus said of the Pharisees and Saducees:

“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.”

PROTECT YOURSELF FROM DIOTREPHESES

Identify all the Diotrepheses in your congregation and environs and protect yourself from their spirits and lifestyles. You owe yourself this responsibility knowing that nobody is going to stand for you before God, but yourself. The Christian Race is individual as well as collective. Be careful of anyone who wants to prevent you from serving God.     

CONCLUSION   

Diotrepheses are people who suffer from spiritual, doctrinal and psychological imbalances. They are characterized by chaos and unproductivity. They are toxic and aggressive, always condemning and accusing others of wrongs when they are the ones who are in the wrong. At III John v.11 Apostle John admonished:    

 “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.”

In III John, there were several brethren who were mentioned. Amongst these were Gaius, Demetrius and Diotrephes. Apostle John encourages us to imitate Gaius and Demetrius and to avoid Diotrephes.

Come to think of it – are you a Diotrephes?

References

Legge, David (2006). “Diotrephes: The Man Who Hindered God's Work.”

www.preachtheword.com

Hess, Mike (2018). “The DNA of Diotrephes.” https://baptistbulletin.org/the-baptist-bulletin-magazine/the-dna-of-a-diotrephes/

Yancey, Philip (1997). What’s So Amazing About Grace? Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Zondervan.