This has to do with Church gone bad.
If we read 3rd John, we quickly discover that there was another letter, apparently with the same geographic address, but confiscated by what appears to be false, bad, or self serving leadership–in a word, “redundant.”
Several things have my attention in this present post. The first is, if all Scripture is “God breathed,” 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” then I have believe it is.
(However, I need to quickly add that this does not mean that everything that is written down is the way God wanted things to “go down.” It simply means that God wanted us to know what was said and done so that we could learn from what went right, as well as what went wrong. This includes what was said that was from Him, and what was said that was not from Him.)
In the case of “3rd John,” this means that while John’s previous letter to the church was not received by the church, John, in his subsequent letter, still referred to his previous letter as being written to “the church.” I take this to mean that it was still a church as far as God was concerned, even though Diotrephes was intercepting the mail.
By now, rogue leadership has taken things much further. Things have gone so far as to no longer reflect what God called “church”, even here in 3rd John. For this reason I have, for many years, made a distinction between what God calls church, and what is calling itself “church.” What is calling itself “church” is rogue.
Rogue: Merriam-Webster On Line Dictionary:
1: vagrant, tramp
2: a dishonest or worthless person : scoundrel
3: a mischievous person : scamp
4: a horse inclined to shirk or misbehave
5: an individual exhibiting a chance and usually inferior biological variation
The point I want to make here is that eventually the fruit of rogue leadership is rogue church. Even by the time that the New Testament Writings were coming to a close, rogue leadership came in, at least 5 flavors. The menu can be found in Ephesians 4.
By the way, Diotrephes got away with 3rd John.
Love!
- By Jay Ferris, originally posted August 2012.
Loving Like God 
My journal entry the other day asked the question ‘should I stay or should I go’ – having to do with waking from spiritual slumber only to find yourself in a rogue church. The steps a person awakened (Eph 5:14) takes to reconcile the Spirit and the Word with a rogue church; calling them to repent leads to kill the messenger; finally leaving the camp(s) of men to join Jesus outside the camp (Heb 13:13).
So many obstacles to leaving – few dare try. The condemnation, ostracizing, fear and uncertainty. Simple things like the programmed belief that the ‘assembly’ spoken of in Heb 10:25 is the Sunday morning church service. That was hard to reconcile, until I ran into an elderly member while window shopping with Karen who confronted us saying “you need to leave that Holy Spirit stuff at home” – and I realized that it wasn’t an assembly without the Holy Spirit. Helped to read the words of Paul also in 1 Cor 5:3 where he says “Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit” – thus is the Spirit that joins me to Christ’s body, not my physical attendance. Like we’re assembled, Pam – though we be 3000 miles apart.
It’s eye-opening in Rev. 3:20 that when someone in a Christ-less church finally hears and opens the door, Jesus does NOT go into the Church, He goes into the person who hears and opens the door, and there they sup together – within the person’s body-temple. If you believe Rev. 18 about the harlot church, the Lord won’t enter into them – He will only call His sheep out of them unto Himself. It’s fruitless to try and redeem a rogue church. Like Jesus said of the temple the last time He left “Behold, YOUR house is left to YOU, desolate”.
Thanks, Jack. Strong words, for the strong to hear. There really is very little assembling in most assemblies. I rather saw this as well one day, in a paraphrasing of Hebrews 10:24-25:
“Let us consider [deeply behold, fully observe Christ in] one another to provoke [challenge and stir up Christ, stimulate desire] unto love and good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves [drawing close because of our recognized union in Christ] as the custom of some is [who replace true intimacy with shallow religious activity], but rather exhorting [inviting, wooing] one another, and so much the more as you see the day approach.” [inserts mine]
Wish I’d known Jay. Thanks for keeping his memory alive, Pam. Hugs!
Thanks Jack. And I believe you do know Jay–in the way that matters the most. :-)
This was quite informative. Something I never heard about. It kind of makes me think that what is going on today in “church” had its roots even back in the day. I struggle with the “local” church theme, and have a hard time enlisting others who have the same struggles with it. Thanks for posting this, Pam. I wish I had gotten to know Jay better than I did. He was at two of the Searching Together conferences I went to but deep discussion at those was usually fleeting.
The struggle is shared, Bobbye, and oh, so real. I don’t have any answers, either, as unlike what man calls “church, God’s “Church” can’t be created or replicated in the flesh. Recognizing who is given to us in Christ–to be in relationship to–is the only thing that gives real life in the Spirit. If we could only be satisfied with that, and nurture that toward a fullness, we might actually see with our eyes the Kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven. ❤︎ Bless you for your comment. ❤︎ – Pamela