Wanting to be the top dog

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

3 John 1:9-10

One might understand “loves to be first” as meaning that Diotrephes wants to be at the top of the class. What John means is that he wants to be in control of everything—he wants to be the top dog—and so he cannot tolerate other people who may challenge his position, like John, who was one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus. He began to abuse his position as a leader in the church to shut out John and those deemed to be in John’s camp, going down a path that exposes his heart to evil.

There is nothing wrong in wanting to do well and wanting people to acknowledge that, but not when it leads you to manipulate the situation to get what you want.