I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
Ver. 9. I wrote unto the church] sc. Of Corinth, where Paul baptized Gaius, and where Diotrephes seems to have been a great sect-master, and chief of those deceitful workers that there so much disparaged Paul.
Diotrephes, who loveth, &c.] Ambition is like the crocodile, which groweth as long as it liveth. What stirs made proud Paulus Samosatenus in the primitive Church! What continual quarrelings were there between the bishops of Constantinople and of Rome for the primacy, and between the archbishops of Canterbury and of York for precedence! What a deal suffered learned Zanchy at Argentina from his ambitious colleagues; and various of our English divines and others, from the lordly prelates! Pareus was wont to say that the chief cause of all the Church's troubles was the Churchmen's affectation of dominion. This trouble town if we could cast out of the Church, said he, great hopes there were that we should all εις το θειον κηρυγμα ομοφρονως και ορθοδοξως συνδραμειν, concur and consent in one and the same truth. (Isidor. Pelus. iv. eph 54.)