EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/25/2025 10:07 PM
My Worship Tim Focus: “John’s Concern For Gaius”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
3 John 2
Message of the verse: “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.”
It is my goal to get through this one verse in this
evenings Spiritual Diary, and so I will begin with a quotation from the first
paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary.
“The phrase I pray that in all respects you may prosper
and be in good health was standard greeting in ancient letters, so it does not
imply that Gaius was ill.” This is why I
use John MacArthur’s commentaries to teach me and also to put these
commentaries onto my blogs in order that the Spirit of God will send them out
to different countries around the world.
Now we want to look at the word prosper translates a form of the verb euodoo. MacArthur writes that “the term,
used only here, Romans 1:10, and 1 Corinthians 16:2, means ‘to succeed,’ to
have things go will,’ or’ to enjoy favorable circumstances.’ The first use of prosper in verse 2 refers to
Gaius’s physical health, as the contrast with the last part of the verse makes
clear. The apostle’s wish was that Gaius’s
physical health would be as good as that of his spiritual soul.”
I think that this would be a good way to pray for my
wife, for I have mentioned she had surgery almost four weeks ago to remove
cancer from her body, and as far as we know that part was a success, but in
studying how cancer can move around it is my prayer for her that from now on
her physical health would be good, and the things that she will be doing in the
future will cause her physical health to be really great.
Now John had a concern for Gaius for he was a pastor and
a pastoral desire that he be free from the turmoil, pain, and debilitation of
illness so as to be unrestricted in his service to the Lord and to His
church. This attitude mirrors God’s
concern for the physical health of His people.
As one looks at the Old Testament dietary laws, for physical health that
God gave to His people we see that they also were designed to protect their
healthy but also were designed for personal hygiene. God wanted His people healthy for their
usefulness as well as their preservation.
Now in the New Testament, Paul advised Timothy, “No longer drink water
exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your
frequent ailments” (1 Tim. 5:23). MacArthur
explains “Wine in biblical times was usually mixed with water, which the
alcohol in the wine helped disinfect.
Drinking that relatively purified water would help guard Timothy from
further illness. Paul’s concern for
Timothy’s physical health was characteristic of any apostle’s affection for a
child in the faith (cf. Titus 1:4). The
same was certainly true of John’s love for Gaius.”
I will mention one thing and that is that during Bible
times in Israel is where the water was not as healthy as it would be in other
parts of the world, and so it could be that Paul was advising Timothy to drink
the wine to actually keep his problems with his stomach to be better. I am in no way saying that he wanted Timothy
to drink so much wine so he would be drunk, but for his health.
MacArthur goes on to write “But Gaius’s healthy soul
brought far more delight to John. He
knew he has a vibrant spiritual life. To
borrow from some other apostles, Gaius was among those who are ‘sound in faith’
(Titus 1:13); constantly ‘grow[ing] in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ’ (2 Peter 3:18); ‘walk[ing] in a manor worthy of the Lord,
to pleas Him in all respect bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in
the knowledge of God’ (Col. 1:10). John
knew this to be true by the testimony of those who had personal knowledge of
Gaius, as he states in the next verse.”
A verse that we will be looking at tomorrow, Lord willing.
5/26/2025 10:40 PM
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