"His soul." It is that in all things he may be prospered, and be in health. The brotherly love he displayed. He existed in the beginning. A. Gaius was in good spiritual condition; he was walking in the light (cf. Further, Gaius possessed charity. Be in health - in particular. Lukewarmness is an ill sign. All the worldly wealth which a man possesses which is more than proportionate to the wealth of his soul, he will do well to get rid of at once, or by Divine grace bring the wealth of his soul into proportion with it. Non-success in business is to be deprecated. The late possessor referred to was the son of a pious man who supported his family by the labour of his hands. This taken several times a day, in a draught of the tears of repentance, is a sure cure. Because he wants to hammer this essential truth home and clinch it in our minds. Thus we see in this prayer of John, not only benevolence, but comprehensiveness and discrimination; we see in it also intensity. And what a vain thing it is to speak about the truth, to profess it, to argue for it, to recommend it, if all the while we never recollect that it is our duty to believe it! The physical and general welfare of others should be of concern to us as well as their spiritual vitality. I know you are prospering in your soul. Prayer is a wish sanctified. When outward riches are more than proportionate to his godliness and grace, they are a curse to their possessor. To this his brethren in the Church, and the strangers that visited the place bore testimony. A difficulty in breathing. God predestined us to adoption as sons. Many now hale and strong would become weak and sickly. "Know thyself," was the holiest and most urgent of the holy texts of his god to Socrates. Even As Your Soul Prospers [Healing] The Mind-Body Connection. The apostle expresses a wish for the bodily health of his friend. What the apostle would have called prosperity, in a worldly point of view, would likely have consisted of the two following particulars: first, such an amount of the good things of this world as will preserve us from the oppressive cares of poverty on the one hand, and those almost equally great, and more dangerous, though less unpleasant ones, which must always accompany inordinate wealth. Sermon Manuscripts and Commentaries. Deep humility of soul. | 475 views. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," free from all that hinders the development of the spirit's life. Ailments are a serious kind of drawback to men's happiness. But now the question is, WHAT IS THE REMEDY? Return to your native air: breathe the atmosphere of Calvary. A PERSON MAY HAVE A PROSPEROUS SOUL, AND YET WANT EXTERNAL PROSPERITY. Unless our spiritual prosperity be at least commensurate with our temporal prosperity, the latter ceases to be a blessing. A plant is said to thrive and prosper when it brings forth fruit, a field when it abounds with precious grain, a human body when it is healthy and vigorous and active. You think that all is right; that you will be better to-morrow: that's consumption! What would all else be without it? It is important also for other reasons which are not obvious to all. A The writer, 3 John 1:la B The reader, 3 John 1:1b C The wish, 3 John 1:2-4 . 1. 1. 2. Cf. Their souls are ill lodged; and the tabernacles in which they dwell do not appear to suit the dignity and worth of the inhabitants. - W.J. 4. However, in this the writer is first expressing a wish for the physical health of his convert. Then go and do exactly according to His orders. But what is this prosperity of soul that is spoken of? II. ⦠1. They are a fountain spring, whence well forth love, benevolence, active well-doing, and the end is eternal life and glory. 2.Beloved—Commencing the real matter of the epistle with a direct address. 4. Sermon All Godâs Children (1 John 3) When Christians sin, we hide our true identity. I. One more particular I must mention, which most men deem a prime requisite for a prosperous or happy life — FRIENDS. We have no right, however, to involve ourselves in any situation or engage in any pursuit where the atmosphere of prayer cannot reach us. Another sign of this spiritual health will be greater delight in hearing the gospel. Another element of prosperity is SUCCESS; advancement, I mean, as distinct from mere possession. Another sign of this true spiritual prosperity and progress is more entire acquiescence in God's will. Why does he repeat it again in verse 2? Our spiritual feelings and expressions are considerably toned and coloured by our physical condition. Dr. James D. Kegel. No one expects to nourish and build up a robust physical frame on mere condiments and confectionery. The "taming of the tongue," as our Lord's brother calls it. Every one who desires to be blessed with soul prosperity must be intimately acquainted with it likewise. Why We Should Pray Like the Puritans (Even if We Donât Sound Like Them) 4. 1. He was not a little fragment of human nature, like a diminutive island in mid -ocean cut off from the rest of the earth; but a noble part of the great whole of mankind, and a model member of the universal Church of the living God. As Gaius had a sound mind, John desires for him a sound body also. Much of the comfort of life depends upon health. III. Fourthly, you must be very careful of the atmosphere in which you live; see that it be a pure atmosphere, free from all impurities! 3. He will show you the fountain, and Himself will do the washing. In the second place, notice in this wish of the aged John the fact that his benevolent wish goes beyond the year that passeth by; and he wishes him not only prosperity of body, but health and prosperity of soul. "That thou mayest prosper." We know from all his writings that he was eminently affectionate. NICODEMUS . What are the secrets of the recovery of the spiritual life to a diseased soul? This spiritual prosperity is more important than material progress and success. II. It needs great strength and prosperity of soul to behave well, amidst wearisome days and nights, and months of vanity. 4. For money, property, every worldly possession, is out of the man. Can it be doubtful to any one that wealth, power, prosperity, are no blessings where God's grace has not come before them? Contributed by Allan Quak on Aug 19, 2020. I would say, first of all, that a growing, deepening sense of unworthiness in the sight of God is one of the best and most unequivocal signs of a state of grace and healthiness of soul. In business, such a man will make but little way; in religion, none at all. Let me speak of another thing which enters largely into the common notion of prosperity — BODILY HEALTH AND EASE. 2. The statement of the wish, 3 John 1:2 2. 4. PERFECT SOUL HEALTH IS ESSENTIAL TO TRUE SPIRITUAL GROWTH. Secondly, how fearful a thing it is by the loss of piety to convert property from being a means of grace to become a source of danger and ruin! What I have in mind is that⦠1. II. 2. 5. Money, property, worldly goods, are not more real possessions than thought, knowledge, wisdom. 2. 3. An ungovernable craving for unhealthy things. That is a good testimony to have. PERFECT SOUL HEALTH IS THE BEST SAFEGUARD AGAINST THE FORCE OF TEMPTATION. However 3 John 2 gives three dimensions of wealth; bodily prosperity, soul prosperity and spiritual prosperity. To those who have no prosperity, neither temporal nor spiritual. Now, honestly, do the books about God, and about the soul and God, make you uncomfortable? Is it not so with the soul's life? Gaius "walked in the truth," as the only path that leads to the home on high. And if we hope for His interposition, it should be our care to avoid everything that would injure the health, and to take proper methods to restore and confirm it, when it is impaired. Another sign of this soul health is greater teachableness. There is a real subjection, degradation, slavery of spirit, to which we may be reduced; there is a real power, freedom, emancipation, to which we may attain. Those who content themselves with a mere speculative acquaintance with Divine truth, resemble those who would sit down to a feast, but leave the food untasted before them. I tell you you are cutting your own throat if you come and sit and consent to sermon after sermon on secret and spiritual prayer, and still remain the same prayerless and unspiritual man you have all your life been. NICODEMUS WAS COMFORTED - Vss. II. Dare we pray thus for many of our friends? Above all things, [ peri (Greek #4012)] - 'concerning all things.' 3. But for one whose soul is really prospering, health and prosperity are good things. John calls followers of Jesus to share in God's own life and love by devoting themselves to loving one another. “A good knight is best known in battle, and a Christian in the time of trouble and adversity”; and Gaius had stood the test. WE WILL CONCLUDE WITH AN EXHORTATION. 1. See Luke 5:31. soul. See Romans 1:10. be in health. I. John 3:1-16. The indwelling of the truth of God. His field of labour is the world. Chuck Smith :: Sermon Notes for John 1:1, 2, 14 â Back to Chuck Smith's Bio & Resources "THE WORD." Caesar forgot nothing but injuries. For better or worse, the families into which we are born have a huge impact on how we grow up and live. John has just said in verse 1 that we are actually the children of God. O Lord God, grant that I may prosper in my business, exactly as my soul prospers.". — that it is not good to be happy if first we are not holy? [Note: See Yarbrough, p367.]. By the indwelling of God's truth, living principles are implanted in the soul. It is frequently owing to the ill-judged indulgence of their parents. While the mission of Christ was primarily spiritual in its aims. And if you have experienced no such prosperity, why not? a) Just as He chose Israel to be His special people (Deut.7:8), He also chose the church, family of God. THE PERSON WHO OFFERS THIS PRAYER — it is the Apostle John. II. NICODEMUS WAS CONCERNED - Vss. Though his body was afflicted, his soul was in health and prospered. III. 1700 28th Street SE Grand Rapids, MI 49508. Genuine Ministry Life Series. Perhaps Gaius himself needed this assurance of his spiritual prosperity. My dear friend. An allowed sin is sapping everything that is good: that's poison — poison of the blood! THE PRAYER OFFERED IN BEHALF OF GAIUS. For all that is changed in Philo is his taste for books. "I wish"; more correctly, "I pray." If this prayer were realized, the physical would bear the true proportion to the spiritual, and the temporal to the eternal. MP3s by Chapter. 3. A kingdom would be a poor bribe for which to accept a life like that. A soul, on which the image of Christ is impressed, is a thing precious everywhere, and for ever; it has not, like man's wealth, a different value in different countries and at different times; it will pass current everywhere — it is free of the universe. But I may be a great authority on the best books; I may be a great collector and devourer of devotional books; and yet, all the time, I may be an utterly unspiritual and undevotional man myself. 3. Without this correspondence we cannot use wealth aright, riches will injure us, the material will crush the spiritual in us. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. Sermons.com provides sermon illustrations, sermons, powerpoint and worship resources, and children's sermons & bulletins. And, if so, in what has your soul's prosperity manifested itself? 2. But there will be something very sweet to take away the bitterness and lull all the pain! 5. Now notice in the next place the comprehensiveness of this wish. Genuine brotherly sympathy, which is the utterance of a warm and true heart, is like rich and copious showers of rain that fall upon the scorched and chapped earth, and seem to hasten to run into the many crevices to soften the divided parts and to bring them together again that the many-pieced earth might be healed. 1. 2. From the language of the text it is gathered that he was a man of feeble health. Some grow up in unloving, abusive homes where anger flare⦠His soul grew strong and flourished on truth. Above all things—Rather, in all respects. 3475 Mainway PO Box 5070, STN LCD 1 Burlington, ON L7R 3Y8. Such men are invaluable blessings to their age; they are the pillars upon whom the moral fabric of their time rests. Whatever were the details of the split â ⦠Continue reading "Commentary on 1 John 3:1-3" Dare we pray thus for ourselves? If we do not love the brethren, there is something wrong with us. This is the great ocean, to which all other truths are but tributary streams, and from whose bosom all the showers of blessings that fall on the moral wilderness of human life and refresh it, derive their origin. 3. ... By Scripture . When the pulse of the soul is feeble and the moral tone low, a man soon succumbs to moral taint. 3. This is profoundly significant. The Discipline of Good Deeds. 1. Yet all is well with Philo: he has no suspicion of himself. "He must surely have learned this from Jesus whose concern for people"s physical troubles is attested in all four Gospels." If for their own sake we desire them, for the purpose of accumulation, then this is mammon worship. I. Probably there is no portion of the New Testament which contains severer tests of Christian character than are to be found in the three short Epistles of John. To care for the health of the body is a duty; for God has not made so fine a piece of workmanship to be carelessly destroyed. It may be that your soul looks better, healthier, than ever it did in your life. In the Beginning was the Word (Part 1) John 1:1-3 Before anything was created, Jesus was already eternally God the Son and with the Father Introduction As we begin our journey together through the Gospel According to John, I want to ask that you prayerfully and attentively engage yourself. Observe, John's sympathy in this instance took the form of a prayer; he prayed that Gaius might prosper and be in health, even as his soul prospered. But inwardly you are getting weaker and weaker; you do not know it — you scarcely feel it. 4. The son early obtained a subordinate position in a mercantile establishment in this city. Man is a compound being, consisting of two parts — soul and body; and if it be a duty to care for the one, it is as certainly a duty to care for the other, though certainly it is a duty of far inferior importance, and one of whose neglect there is much less risk of complaining. How do you stand in this all-important obedience? First, keep very near to the Good Physician to whom you owe your recovery, and consult Him very often, and wait for His answer. 4, 9 . In many cases the immediate hand of God is to be acknowledged in the weaknesses and languors of our frame. Jude . Old Testament. The rising of a pimple on her face, the sting of a gnat, will make her keep her room for two or three days, and she thinks they are very rash people that do not take care of things in time.” Penn, Fruits of Solitude: “He is curious to wash, dress and perfume his Body, but careless of his Soul. III. Jones, Peter Rhea, Smyth & Helwys Biblical Commentary, 1, 2 & 3 John (Macon, Georgia: Smyth & Helwys Publishing Company, 2009) Kruse, Colin G., The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letters of John (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000) 1 Peter 4:8). But have you never felt that no sight is so truly melancholy as the unnatural brightness in the eye, or the glow that often gathers on consumption's cheek, the more beautiful as the end draweth near? This is clear from his making his spiritual prosperity the measure of the desired bodily health and temporal prosperity. âWe Shall Be Like Him â1John 3:1-3â I. What transformations in circumstances! 1 John Download The Bible Project's Read Scripture video on the letters of John, which breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. Free Reading Plans and Devotionals related to 3 John 1:2. Sermon Bible Commentary. Sinner, thou art dead, but life and health are in Christ! The result would soon become apparent in impoverished blood and feeble pulse. Sermon Manuscripts and ⦠"THE THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN" Spiritual And Material Prosperity (2-4) INTRODUCTION 1. 3 John 2 New King James Version (NKJV). 3 For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. Yours, finally, is the only lasting wealth. Shah I offer this prayer for you? It is the least worthy of a Christian. "He must surely have learned this from Jesus whose concern for people"s physical troubles is attested in all four Gospels.". It does not come into the soul. 1 John 1:7). 2. What a man sows, especially in the name of Christ, he will reap (Galatians 6:7-8). Note first the measure of health which, in a physical and in other points of view, St. John craved for him to whom he wrote. Christianity is a system of benevolence, nay, not of benevolence only, or of good wishes, but of good deeds. I. Deeper Into Scripture: 3 John. THE MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF SPIRITUAL HEALTH. what an exaltation this gives to spiritual things above all temporal affairs! Check out these helpful resources Biblical Commentary Sermons Childrenâs Sermons Hymn Lists. The other element, commonly included in the idea of "prosperity," is power. Aye, and men cannot nourish their souls on daily newspapers and exciting novels. The former, on the contrary, like an excrescence on the fruit-tree absorbing the moisture that might have gone to produce leaves and fruit, receive any blessing at God's hand only to retain or abuse it; or, like a rank weed, draw in the genial influences of the soil and atmosphere of life only to poison all the air around them. Now there are in the spiritual condition of man elements analogous to these, of which his inward prosperity may be said to consist. Call, chap. It is a heart disease. 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