Servanthood vs Dictatorship

3 John 1-14
1 The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
3 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you.
6 They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.
7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans.
8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.
9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.
10 So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone, and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink.
14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

This a story about three very different men but noteworthy enough for God to tell us about them so we can understand the difference between servanthood and dictatorship. In the Christian world we have what is called the Five Fold Ministry- Apostle, Prophets, Evangelist, Pastor, Teacher and it is easy for people to loose sight of them being servants to the flock.

I have always seen the five fold ministry as being fingers and the flock as being the palm of the hand. When in operation the fingers work in unison with the hand to get the work of God done here on this earth. I think it really holds true when you take your fingers and close them back up to the palm, they work together to protect and to serve the hand. We are to serve the bigger part of the body not take precedence over the body.

The first man was a servant named Gauis who was a treasured friend of the Apostle John. John had said that he had heard about his love through the service of the Brothers through the people he had served and was proud that he was walking in the Truth. John had commended him for his faithfulness to hospitality toward the Brothers when came through his area doing the work of the Lord. They would come to his house and he would serve them with the Love of God through hospitality. Most of the people he did not know, but he worked not for fame nor fortune but through the spirit of servanthood. He knew the commandment that he was to love his neighbor, and he also knew that he was doing something more important than serving himself. Gaius was not a man to complain about serving these men of God no matter how late they showed up or how long they stayed, or how much they ate and drank he counted it all Joy. I am sure that he put out a lot of his own money and time serving them without much compensation other than the joy of being a servant of God.

The second man was Diothrephes who John stated always wanted to be first(not a good sign). He had given in to pride, jealousy, and slander. He had taken over the church and would not listen to the eldership of the faith, he had begun to slander them, and would not receive any of the brothers. He had started trying to stop others from serving and receiving the Brothers in Christ and would go as far as even throwing people out of church for being servants to the needs of the Brothers. Can you imagine that? It was so bad that John himself stated that he wanted to come and have a talk with Diothrephes, talk about being humbled I sure would hate to have to be in that room when that went down. The bottom line was that his pride had disqualified him as a leader and needed to be confronted with the Truth.

The third man was probably a Pastor or teacher named Demetrius. In verse 12 Demetrius was being introduced as man that is well spoken of by the people and even the Truth itself. My study bible says that if Truth could speak it would speak on Demetrius's behalf. He was probably the man that carried the letter from John to Gaius which would also serve as an approval of him to preach and teach the Truth. Certainly Gauis opened his home to receive him as a respected man of the faith. I think that is a pretty high praise from John himself.

John had showed us three different types of people one a True Servant, one a thug/dictator, and one a Minister of the Gospel. It also shows that when good character is revealed, it is noticed and when bad character is shown, it is also dealt with. I think the relationship between John, Gauis, and Demetrius is exactly the same relationship we need in the church today.

May we always have Fathers of the faith that commend us, watch over us, correct us, and approve of us.
May we always have servants that serve and may we always have leaders that are proven trust worthy through time.