3 John 1

The Man Who Liked To Be First

Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them. 3 John 1:9.

Some years ago I visited an industrial exhibition in one of our large cities. The exhibition was held in a big public park, and there were many interesting and unusual things to be seen. There was a huge industrial hall where you could see all sorts of wonderful things in process of manufacture, and where the whirr of the wheels and the throb of the engines was so tremendous that you had to shout to make yourself heard. There was a beautiful picture gallery where some of the finest pictures in the world had been collected. There were buildings containing strange exhibits from all parts of the globe. There was an Irish village where Irish peasants were at work on lace and embroidery, and where everything was included except the pig. There was an immense concert hall where splendid concerts were given, and there were bandstands in the open air where some of the most famous bands in Europe played.

The first day I visited the exhibition I was talking to a friend outside one of the buildings when all at once there was a piercing shriek quite near, and then something tore past us, panting and puffing and snorting. What do you suppose it was? It was a toy engine followed by a toy train, and in the toy train there were dozens of boys and girls going for a “joy ride.” That engine made us laugh. It was so fussy and important. It seemed to say, “ I am the exhibition. Look at me. You won't see anything so fine in a hurry again, and just observe how hard I am working.” And yet it never got anywhere. It only carried a few toy carriages backwards and forwards over two or three hundred yards of toy rails. It would have been utterly useless for pulling a heavy goods train, or carrying passengers up hill and down dale over difficult ground.

Now there are some people who are like that toy engine. They make a great deal of noise and fuss. They like to be important, they like everybody to look at them, but they do very little real good in the world. Diotrephes, the man who is mentioned in our text, was one of those people. He liked to have the preeminence among the Christians in his church. And that just means that he liked to have the first place. He liked to boss everybody, he liked everybody to defer to his opinion, and he was very angry when anybody tried to interfere with him.

When John, who was the real head of his church, sent missionaries to it bearing a letter from himself, Diotrephes refused to receive them. But he didn't stop there. Perhaps he was jealous of John and of his influence. Perhaps he thought the apostle had not taken enough notice of him. At any rate, he began to say nasty things about him. He said things that were unkind and untrue. Then he went on to forbid the other people in the church to receive the messengers John had sent. And all because he wanted to be first. You see to what lengths his love of power and self-importance led him.

Now I think most of us are inclined to be a little like Diotrephes. We all like to be first. Fortunately, most of us have brothers and sisters at home and companions at school to take the nonsense out of us; otherwise we should turn into very horrid people indeed.

There is a sense in which this desire to be first is a good desire. It is good to wish to make the very best of yourself to do your very best work and win the very best place you can. The boys and girls who have a good ambition are kept from many mean and unworthy things. But this desire is not good when it makes you vain and selfish. It is not good when it makes you forget the rights and feelings of other people, when it makes you overbearing, and self- important, and unkind.

Diotrephes called himself a follower of Jesus, but I think he must have forgotten that Jesus told His disciples that he who wanted to be chief among them must be ready to serve others. Do you know the finest thing you can do? It is not to carry off prizes or make a great name for yourself. It is just to serve other people by kind and loving deeds.

Once a missionary in China sent home for an assistant. A young man appeared before the committee as a candidate, but he seemed so unlikely that they said he would never do. Then they thought he might do for a servant, so they asked him if he would be willing to be that. And the young man replied cheerfully, “Certainly. To be ‘a hewer of wood and a drawer of water ' is too great an honor for me when the Lord's house is building.”

The true followers of Jesus are glad to do even the humblest work for Him. It is a good thing to be first. It is a finer thing to be able to take the second place sweetly and cheerfully. But the greatest honor of all is just to take the lowest place and to help others with humble and loving service.