Four essential parts of you

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “A fresh start in a new year”

Our Bible verse for today: Dear friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health, just as your whole life is going well.” 3 John 2 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Four essential parts of you”

The Apostle John wrote the little letter of 3 John very near the end of his long life. Scholars estimate it was around the year 90 A.D. As verse one tells us, it was to his dear friend Gaius, a leader in one of the churches in Asia Minor. We believe John was essentially a supervising senior pastor over many small churches in the region and he served as a mentor to the younger pastors.

What’s interesting and helpful for our purposes here this morning is the comment John made in verse two. He wrote that he prayed his friend was prospering “in every way,” including in terms of physical health. He even wrote that he believed Gaius’ whole life was going well. What’s being described there is a life that is balanced and healthy in all the important ways.

There are four ways in which we humans need to be healthy if our “whole” life is going to be going well. Those four ways are physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. When we talk about the physical person, we’re talking about the life of the body. For optimum well-being, your body needs to be reasonably healthy for your stage of life. Few things will negatively impact your life more than bad health.

The mental aspect refers to the life of the mind. This is all about remaining intellectually sharp and engaged. And just like physical health, there are things we have to do in order to keep the mind healthy. Endless hours of television and computer scrolling dulls your intellect and turns your mind to mush. Reading, study, learning new things, solving puzzles, and other intellectual pursuits help to keep your mind sharp.

Emotional health refers to the life of the heart. This is a matter of emotional stability and is described for us by Scripture passages like Galatians 5:22-23 (love, joy, peace, patience …), and 1 Peter 3:3-4 (a gentle, quiet spirit). This is the kind of emotional health Paul urges us in Philippians 4:8 to intentionally cultivate by controlling the influences we allow into our heart.

Spiritual health refers to the life of the spirit within us. Not the Holy Spirit (He is alive and well, thank you very much). This is about your spirit. Is your spirit healthy? Are you properly caring for the life of your spirit?

A healthy life will include a good balance of health in those four key areas. You are a whole person. You are more than your body, you are more than just a brain on a stick, you are more than just a bundle of nerves and emotional energy, and you are even more than your spiritual self. This is a complicated and deep subject that bears more discussion, so we will come back to it tomorrow.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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