Wealth In Wellness

Wealth in Wellness

There is a wealth that resides in wellness. 3 John 1:2 (NKJV) says, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”

The Apostle John is addressing the “beloved,” and he prays that those who are beloved would prosper. The word for prosper is “euodoo” (Strong’s G2137). According to the Strong’s definition, It is a combo word coming from “eu” (Strong’s G2095) and “hodos” (Strong’s G3598). Breaking the word down presents a picture of two things.

First, “eu” is an adverb or helping verb and is translated as “well” and is used 6 times in the New Testament. It’s worth looking at the ways “eu” is used to get a feel for the word and how it was used in Greek. Scriptures we are familiar with and the idea of it being an adverb matters because it is telling us how to do what is being done. For example, in the gospels, Jesus uses it to say, “Well (eu) done, good and faithful servant…” (Matthew 25:21 ESV). The Apostle Paul uses “eu” in reference to the commandment of children to honor their parents “that it may go well (eu) and that you may live long in the land” (Ephesians 6:3 ESV).i

The second half of “euodoo” is “hodos,” which is used 102 times in the New Testament. Strong’s describes it as a road. It’s translated as “way” 83 times. It’s a path or a way.

Can we call eudoo the “well-way” or the “way of wellness?”ii

It sometimes helps to see the opposite picture of a word in the Bible to better understand it. There are some examples in the Old Testament of when individuals weren’t “doing well.” Of course, in Hebrew, it is a different word, but it is still worth making the comparison.

First, let’s start with the question that God asks Cain. God says to Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:7 ESV)

God, speaking directly to Cain, paints a picture of two paths. One is a path of acceptance and the other is a path of destruction. The charge to Cain was to “do well.” Again, in English, we have this idea of how something is done–not just “to do” but “to do well.”

Second, God asks a similar question to Jonah. God says to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4 ESV) God is also coming in and painting a picture with Jonah. He is saying there is a way of doing well and He is asking if Jonah is doing that.

In both stories of Cain and Jonah, these guys are upset. The stories are different, but the common thread of being upset is there. God also confronts them both with this idea of doing well in the context of them being angry.

The title of this sermon is “Wealth in Wellness.” God wanted Cain and Jonah to understand that there was a way of being blessed, a way of prospering, or a way of doing well. And He is describing the gap between doing well and them being angry in these stories.

As far as anger goes, let’s consider what the book of James says. It says, “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; v. 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19-20 ESV)

In this instance, James is speaking to the beloved just as John was. James lays out a lesson in listening, speaking, and reacting. It’s a “Quick-Slow-Slow” lesson. He charges that the first thing to do is to have a listening ear. For Cain and Jonah, God was speaking to them. He was asking them a question.iii

We will not arrive at a place of prospering in our soul as described in 3 John 1:2 if we cannot enact the “Quick-Slow-Slow” charge given in the book of James. Just like Cain and Jonah, we are going to wind up angry. And in both those instances, it was true that their anger did not produce the righteousness of God. Even worse, Cain’s anger took him and his future generations down a dark path, ending in the death of his brother. (Genesis 4:8)

There are a lot of stories that don’t end well. They started out bad and ended worse. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3), so we have all we need in order to live in a state of being well. If we were to put this on a continuum of Cain’s response being the worst and living the abundant life of Jesus being the best, we could be anywhere on that spectrum. So, how do we live at a level of “being well”?