“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 3 John 2
If God had a wish, what do you think it would be? Actually, allow me to rephrase that question in a way that may lead us directly to the answer. As a parent, what is your wish? If you’re like most parents, your wish would be that your children live in health and not lack in any area of life, but instead be blessed and prosperous and whole. So, if that is our wish for our children, why would we think that God’s wish for us would be any less?
From what we see in scripture, it seems pretty obvious that the Apostle John had a real handle on love and the heart of Jesus and the Father. It’s as if God knew he could entrust John with writing about His greatest wish, and therefore inspired John, through the Holy Spirit, to do so right here in John’s last Epistle to the Church. In what may seem to be just an ordinary greeting to some, in verse two John expresses God’s wish, straight from the Father’s heart.
I love the King James translation of this verse because it expresses God’s wish in such a clear and profound way by saying, “I wish above all things.” Yes, John is writing the letter, but, again, the words are coming straight from the Father’s heart. His wish is that we may prosper and be in health! The word “prospereth” in the Greek is the word eudoo, pronounced yü-o-do’-o, and means to be successful, to succeed in reaching, figuratively to succeed in business affairs and life, to grant a successful and expeditious journey, and to experience gain. Wow! And you know what? That’s exactly what I want to see happen in the lives of my children.
The word health here is the Greek word hygiaino, and means sound, wholesome, soundness of health, safe and sound with nothing missing and nothing broken.
Interestingly, God also expresses, through John, the pathway by which we, His children, can experience both prosperity and health and that is found in our soul. Our soul is what we think, what we like, and what we feel. How many times does Jesus tell people, “According to your faith or belief be it unto you?” Proverbs 23:7 clearly tells us that, “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.”
Today, take joy in knowing that our Heavenly Father’s wish for us is that we live a prosperous life, whole in every area.