3 John 9 “I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say. 10For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church.” We all have those in our lives that irritate us. So did the apostle John. Diotrephes would speak against him and stir up the church against his words. In the previous scripture John spoke of the importance of “receiving the brethren”. I believe these were travelling ministers. Much like Paul was on his missionary journeys. John wanted the church to receive them, support them and allow them to carry on their service. Diotrephes didn’t do this and would excommunicate all those who attempted to help. This infuriated John. This guy was speaking against John and eventually God. He was thwarting the work John was attempting. If the church did receive these brethren, they would be acting in a loving manner, they would be giving these brethren an opportunity to excersize their gifts and they would send them off to the next church refreshed, ready to do more ministry. Instead, Diotrephes was a big presence who had to be in charge. Even over one of the apostles. Diotrephes did achieve his fame, but it was to forever be in scripture as an example of what not to be. John planned to deal with the him directly, if he comes. But John calls him out. He calls him self seeking, unruly, a thwarter of the good, his words are wicked words. This is highly embarrasing. It may be putting this in print was enough to either humble him or give the church courage to discipline him. What do we do with our difficult people? Like John, we need to attempt to talk to them. This usually fixes it. We may not get them persuaded, but even if they’re not, they don’t like being called out, so they would stop. Sometimes we need to go to superiors. If these means don’t work, we need to keep away from them. Almost like we are cutting them off from us. We may still be with them daily, but we don’t open up to them or share of ourselves. Sometimes being deprived, they may turn. Sometimes we need to deal with it. It’s stressful. We’ll need to bring it to God in prayer. David was spoken against in 2 Samuel 16:13,14 “So David and his men went on the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside parallel with him and as he went he cursed and cast stones and threw dust at him. The king and all the people who were with him arrived weary and he refreshed himself there.” David took it. He entrusted himself to God. Lord, help us with difficult people. Give us wisdom as to how to correct and when to succumb to the difficulty.