3 John 2 --- Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
A new day has begun. A new work week is here. I am excited for the blessing of a new opportunity to live and walk with the Lord through it all. I pray your week starts off well and starts off seeking Jesus and walking with Him!
After spending several days in verse one of 3 John we moved forward in our journey. We continue to verse two, where the greeting of this letter/book continues.
This verse praying for Gaius to prosper and be healthy was a common way to open a letter during this period. What I love is John added a few touches that really show the love he had for his fellow brother in Christ Jesus.
Obviously, the only communication you had during this time was in person or in letters. Those were your two choices. So, what's funny is WAY before cell phones and texting were even a sliver of an out of this world, fantastical dream of someone's wildest imagination, many people would abbreviate the opening to their letters. For instance: SVBEEV was short for "Si vales, bene est; ego valeo" which means, "If you are well, that is good; I am well." There was also: SPD which was for "salutem plurimam dicit" which add a name in front of it and it says, "Phillip, says very much health". So, yeah, the Romans invented text abbreviations thousands of years before us. LOL.
Okay why is all of this important? Well, the thing that is awesome is John uses a common greeting framework, but he starts it with one of my favorite Greek words, agapētos or Beloved. So already he has brought God's love into a common opening.
Then he ends this standard greeting with, "just as your soul prospers.". If this had not been added, it might be extremely easy to take the middle part, "that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health", to mean a promise of earthly prosperity and perfect health. However, this verse saying, "just as your soul prospers" shows there can be a difference between the levels or our physical health/wealth and our spiritual prosperity.
There is a giant list of things we could dive into about false teaching, prosperity gospel, etc… but that's not where the Lord has led today. He's led in a simple manner to once again show through this opening that we are to love our Christian brothers and sisters how He loved us. We are to pray for them to prosper and be healthy yes, but to make sure those things are in perspective to the prospering of their soul, their walk with the Lord, their spiritual health.
David Guzik's commentary had this to say: "Just as your soul prospers: John here made an analogy between the condition of our health and the condition of our soul. Many Christians would be desperately ill if their physical health was instantly in the same state as their spiritual health."
I'll end this with the verses the Lord had on my heart when I woke up this morning and it applies very much to help put health, wealth, and all this in perspective.
Matthew 6:24-33 --- 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Do Not Be Anxious
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Well, that's all for today. As I always say, this is my journey through the Word with God. You be the Berean, jump into your Bible. Seek after Him in the Word and see what He has to tell you!
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