⁹ I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be ·their leader [first], will not ·listen to us [receive us; or accept our authority]. ¹⁰ So if I come, I will ·talk about [call to mind; bring attention to] what Diotrephes [^Cnothing further is known about this man] is doing, about how he ·lies and says evil things about us [slanders us with evil/malicious words]. But ·more than [not satisfied with] that, he refuses to ·accept [welcome; receive] the other brothers and sisters; he even ·stops [prevents] those who do want to ·accept [welcome; receive] them and ·puts them out of [expels them from] the church.

¹¹ ·My dear friend [Beloved], do not ·follow [imitate] what is ·bad [evil]; ·follow [imitate] what is good [1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2:14; 2 Thess. 3:7; Heb. 6:12; 13:7]. The one who does good ·belongs to [is from] God. But the one who does evil has never ·known [^Lseen] God.