Prescription for a Healthy Soul
3 John 1-3
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
John’s prayer for his friend Gaius raises an important question. How is the health of your soul? What if our bodies were in the same condition as our souls? What if we paid as much attention to the condition of our bodies that we do to our souls?
You do realize the important of your soul’s health? Jesus put it bluntly when he said, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul” (Mk 8:36-37). The Bible comes to the logical conclusion. “Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Tim 4:7-8). How is your soul getting along? Had a check up lately? Is it healthy and strong? What if your physical condition were only as strong as the health of your soul?
Remember the Rich Fool? He had everything going for him until God said, “This night your soul shall be required of you.”
What does a healthy soul look like? What does it take to have a healthy soul? John provides some hints in his discussion of Gaius. In the first part of the book, John speaks of Gaius knowing the truth, walking in the truth, and working together in the truth. Those three expressions reflect three requirements for a healthy soul.
Healthy souls, like healthy bodies, require:
Proper Nutrition. You are what you eat. That must be why I can see so many donuts and Twinkies this morning. Preachers aren’t exempt from this principle. I don’t how many times somebody has told me this true story. I would probably be offended if it didn’t come from Everett Griggs. Who could ever get offended at Everett? Several years ago a carload of our guys was headed for the Kiamichi Men’s Clinic in southeastern Oklahoma. Several thousand men would camp out for a week listening to great preaching and singing. Gale Miller, Bob Leist, and a couple other guys were traveling together. Everett was in the back seat not saying a word, minding his own business, probably asleep. All of the sudden Everett opens his eyes, lifts his head, and says so everyone can hear him, “I think I’ve just been called to the ministry.” When everyone looks his way he continues, “I must have. I am feelin’ kind of lazy and I have a hankerin’ for fried chicken.”
Soul health requires soul food. I am not talking about fried chicken and corn bread. Twice in our text Jesus reminds his disciples of the importance of abiding in his word. Elsewhere scripture advises, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Pet. 2:2-3). The writer of Hebrews presses that analogy to the next step. “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Any one who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.“ (Heb. 5:12-14). “Let the word of God dwell in you richly” (Col 3:16). “Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God” (Rom 10:17).
Here’s the plain truth. Soul health requires soul food. You need to have a Bible. You need to read your Bible. You need to study your Bible alone and with others. You need to saturate your thinking and your life with God’s word. It’s a matter of soul health.
Proper Hygiene. The right food and all the vitamins in the world won’t necessarily produce good health if you don’t rid your life of the infections that can destroy you from the inside out.
Cleansing from sin is a must. Confession and repentance prepares the soul for growth and purity.
Proper Exercise. Putting faith into practice is a must. In 3 John, Gaius opened his home and his heart to missionaries. His generosity and hospitality make him a partner in the work of truth.
If we eat much and exercise little, we know what happens. A lot of us have the evidence to prove it. In fact, good exercise and good nutrition go together. The more you exercise, the better your appetite. The same is true of the soul. Some of us don’t have much of an appetite for the things of God simply because we are not doing anything with what we already have. James advises, “Be doers of the word and not just hearers only” (1:22).
Humorist Garrison Keillor of the NPR Prairie Home Companion radio show makes this point in one of his hometown tales. Perhaps you have heard Keillor talk about the goings on in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. In one story he talks about “Larry the Sad Boy.” Keillor tells it this way:
“Larry was saved 12 times in the Lutheran church, an all-time record. Between 1953 and 1961, he threw himself weeping and contrite on God’s throne of grace on 12 separate occasions. And this in a Lutheran church that wasn’t evangelical, had no altar call, no organist playing "Just as I Am Without One Plea" while a choir hummed and a guy with shiny hair took hold of your heartstrings and played you like a cheap guitar! This is the Lutheran church, not a bunch of hillbillies. These are Scandinavians, and they repent in the same way that they sin: discreetly, tastefully, at the proper time. … Twelve times! Even we fundamentalists got tired of him. ...”
Keillor then adds, “God did not mean for us to feel guilt all our lives. There comes a point when you should dry your tears and join the building committee and start grappling with the problems of the church furnace and ... make church coffee and be of use, but Larry kept on repenting and repenting." (Quoted in "What IBM Taught Me About Repentance," by John Ortberg, in Christianity Today, August 12, 1993).
Conclusion: If the truth be told, one other factor has as much or more to do with good health as nutrition, exercise, and hygiene combined. Ultimately a strong healthy life requires good genes. Health begins with what you start with. If your parents had strong hearts, you probably will. If your grandfather was bald you probably will be, guys. If your mom was a long liver, you have a good shot at it.
Remember the commercial about maintain a low cholesterol. It is affected by the “alfredo sauce” and your “uncle Alfred.” The genes you are born with had a huge impact on your physical health. Your soul’s health is all about your being “born again.” No amount of work, good intentions, or religious activities can replace being born of the water and the Spirit (John 3:3-5).
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (5). All the Bible reading and knowledge in the world, all the prayer, good works and loving deeds, all of the sorrow and perseverance you can muster will not give life to your soul. Only receiving Jesus Christ in your life and being born a new person through faith in the message of the cross can change you from the inside out. “Christ in you”—that’s the ultimate key to a healthy soul. How’s it with your soul today?
Prescription for a Healthy Soul
3 John 1-3
John’s prayer for his friend Gaius raises an important question. How is the health of your soul? What if our bodies were in the same condition as our souls? What if we paid as much attention to the condition of our bodies that we do to our souls?
You do realize the important of your soul’s health? Jesus put it bluntly when he said, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul” (Mk 8:36-37). The Bible comes to the logical conclusion. “Train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Tim 4:7-8). How is your soul getting along? Had a check up lately? Is it healthy and strong? What if your physical condition were only as strong as the health of your soul?
Remember the Rich Fool? He had everything going for him until God said, “This night your soul shall be required of you.”
What does a healthy soul look like? What does it take to have a healthy soul? John provides some hints in his discussion of Gaius. In the first part of the book, John speaks of Gaius knowing the truth, walking in the truth, and working together in the truth. Those three expressions reflect three requirements for a healthy soul.
Healthy souls, like healthy bodies, require:
Proper Nutrition. You are what you eat. That must be why I can see so many donuts and Twinkies this morning. Preachers aren’t exempt from this principle. I don’t how many times somebody has told me this true story. I would probably be offended if it didn’t come from Everett Griggs. Who could ever get offended at Everett? Several years ago a carload of our guys was headed for the Kiamichi Men’s Clinic in southeastern Oklahoma. Several thousand men would camp out for a week listening to great preaching and singing. Gale Miller, Bob Leist, and a couple other guys were traveling together. Everett was in the back seat not saying a word, minding his own business, probably asleep. All of the sudden Everett opens his eyes, lifts his head, and says so everyone can hear him, “I think I’ve just been called to the ministry.” When everyone looks his way he continues, “I must have. I am feelin’ kind of lazy and I have a hankerin’ for fried chicken.”
Soul health requires soul food. I am not talking about fried chicken and corn bread. Twice in our text Jesus reminds his disciples of the importance of abiding in his word. Elsewhere scripture advises, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Pet. 2:2-3). The writer of Hebrews presses that analogy to the next step. “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Any one who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.“ (Heb. 5:12-14). “Let the word of God dwell in you richly” (Col 3:16). “Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God” (Rom 10:17).
Here’s the plain truth. Soul health requires soul food. You need to have a Bible. You need to read your Bible. You need to study your Bible alone and with others. You need to saturate your thinking and your life with God’s word. It’s a matter of soul health.
Proper Hygiene. The right food and all the vitamins in the world won’t necessarily produce good health if you don’t rid your life of the infections that can destroy you from the inside out.
Cleansing from sin is a must. Confession and repentance prepares the soul for growth and purity.
Proper Exercise. Putting faith into practice is a must. In 3 John, Gaius opened his home and his heart to missionaries. His generosity and hospitality make him a partner in the work of truth.
If we eat much and exercise little, we know what happens. A lot of us have the evidence to prove it. In fact, good exercise and good nutrition go together. The more you exercise, the better your appetite. The same is true of the soul. Some of us don’t have much of an appetite for the things of God simply because we are not doing anything with what we already have. James advises, “Be doers of the word and not just hearers only” (1:22).
Humorist Garrison Keillor of the NPR Prairie Home Companion radio show makes this point in one of his hometown tales. Perhaps you have heard Keillor talk about the goings on in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. In one story he talks about “Larry the Sad Boy.” Keillor tells it this way:
“Larry was saved 12 times in the Lutheran church, an all-time record. Between 1953 and 1961, he threw himself weeping and contrite on God’s throne of grace on 12 separate occasions. And this in a Lutheran church that wasn’t evangelical, had no altar call, no organist playing "Just as I Am Without One Plea" while a choir hummed and a guy with shiny hair took hold of your heartstrings and played you like a cheap guitar! This is the Lutheran church, not a bunch of hillbillies. These are Scandinavians, and they repent in the same way that they sin: discreetly, tastefully, at the proper time. … Twelve times! Even we fundamentalists got tired of him. ...”
Keillor then adds, “God did not mean for us to feel guilt all our lives. There comes a point when you should dry your tears and join the building committee and start grappling with the problems of the church furnace and ... make church coffee and be of use, but Larry kept on repenting and repenting." (Quoted in "What IBM Taught Me About Repentance," by John Ortberg, in Christianity Today, August 12, 1993).
Conclusion: If the truth be told, one other factor has as much or more to do with good health as nutrition, exercise, and hygiene combined. Ultimately a strong healthy life requires good genes. Health begins with what you start with. If your parents had strong hearts, you probably will. If your grandfather was bald you probably will be, guys. If your mom was a long liver, you have a good shot at it.
Remember the commercial about maintain a low cholesterol. It is affected by the “alfredo sauce” and your “uncle Alfred.” The genes you are born with had a huge impact on your physical health. Your soul’s health is all about your being “born again.” No amount of work, good intentions, or religious activities can replace being born of the water and the Spirit (John 3:3-5).
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (5). All the Bible reading and knowledge in the world, all the prayer, good works and loving deeds, all of the sorrow and perseverance you can muster will not give life to your soul. Only receiving Jesus Christ in your life and being born a new person through faith in the message of the cross can change you from the inside out. “Christ in you”—that’s the ultimate key to a healthy soul. How’s it with your soul today?
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
