The Seeds of Apostasy: A Personification of Heresy

Gaius wasn't someone Diotrephes would tolerate, because Gaius was someone the Apostle John loved (3 John 1:1), who walked in the truth (1:3).  When Gaius came along, he would not be accepted into the midst of the church to which John had written according to his third epistle (3 John 1:9a).  Diotrephes in 3 John is the personification of heresy and in his qualities are the seeds of apostasy.  John indicts Diotrephes on at least three counts, one of which stands above the rest.

First, John had written to the church, so when John writes, Diotrephes "receiveth us not," he meant that Diotrephes did not accept and distribute the contents of his letter.  That's how he doesn't receive John.  I have found in my lifetime that I'm not received because someone is not receiving what I say, not because it isn't the truth, but because it is.  Like Diotrephes, someone doesn't want to hear the truth.

John was an Apostle.  What he sent and would send was authoritative, either scripture or like scripture, because it was apostolic.  Diotrephes suppressed and opposed it.  Why?  Because he had greatest affection for himself, what John communicates: "who loveth to have the preeminence."  This translates a compound Greek word (philoproteuo), which is made up of two words, phileo, "to have strong affection," and proteuo, "to be first."  Whenever scripture, the truth that John taught and in which Gaius walked, clashed with Diotrephes strong affection for putting himself first, he chose himself above the truth.

Heresy is dividing from the truth, causing a faction, and this relates to apostasy, which is turning from the truth.  Heretics and false teachers, teaching or preaching heresies, are nameless, no one in particular, so enigmatic or obscure.  Diotrephes though is a real person, hence a personification of heresy in scripture.  In him we see an example of what the other heresy and apostasy passages, such as 2 Peter and Jude, teach.  What one reads in those epistles and the example of Diotrephes are not contradictory.

What is "strong affection to be first" in Diotrephes is walking according to lust in 2 Peter and Jude.  In 2 Peter and Jude, this means eliminating any competition to that lust, whatever authority  that says, "No."  John would be one.  Gaius would be another.  Anyone who walked with John and Gaius and behaved liked they did.  Being first meant having your way and the truth would be a casualty to lust when it needed to be.

So Diotrephes actively suppressed and opposed scripture, and it is implied that truth in particular that clashed with Diotrephes.  Second, he was "prating against us with malicious words" (3 John 1:10).  "Prating against" is literally to make false accusations.  The same word in 1 Timothy 5:13 is translated, "tattlers."  Tattlers tell tales, false, unfounded accusations, to cause people to distrust the authority, the leadership, the teacher, who is saying something different than what they want to hear.  They don't want their teaching and then they undermine them by saying things about them to others that are false.

"Malicious words" are harmful ones that have that intent, of causing harm to the person.  They want to harm that person's reputation, to make him of enough disrepute that his teaching won't be trusted, trashing him so that they will be free of him.

Third, Diotrephes personified heresy by also not being receptive to those like-minded with scripture.  There are people in agreement, see things the same way as John, love the Lord, and these people are not received—they are rejected.  This is expressed in 3 John 1:10 as "neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would."  Whoever agrees with John and his teaching can't be allowed or received, nor anyone who would else who would accept those who agree with John.

In the way of Diotrephes, a personification of heresy, are the seeds of apostasy.  John says in 1:9, "if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth."  John says, I'm going to expose the man if I come. I will make it an issue of his conduct in the church because it is an issue for discipline. I'm not going to overlook this. Something is going to be done about it.

The heretic, the one turning from the truth to whatever varied degree, doesn't want to hear that he's going to be dealt with, only that he's going to be tolerated and be allowed to continue however he wants to be.  When a Diotrophes isn't dealt with, however, his belief, attitude, and behavior will influence others, spread, and turn the church a different direction than it is.  Someone who cares about the truth, like John, won't allow it to continue.  He will deal with a Diotrephes because the truth is more important than the potential grief that comes from the unjust, malicious accusations that come from a man who is most interested in having his own way.