When asked if I’m getting along well I quickly think of health, financial well-being, or my status at work. Or I’ll mention relationships with family. My first thought never goes to the question, is my soul getting along well?

John the Apostle wrote to a friend named Gaius, and commended him on the wellness of his soul:

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Lest we think he had it easy, Gaius cultivated a healthy soul in a lousy place. As a follower of Jesus, Gaius walked around his pagan city as a member of a distrusted, minority religious sect—Christianity. Then he experienced fighting in his local church. One of the leaders thrust himself to the front, manipulated members and spread malicious rumors.

Even with these burrs, Gaius maintained a healthy soul. How? He committed to the truth and walked in it day after day. The truth of Jesus as Savior, coupled with the truth embodied in the Scriptures, nourished Gaius’s soul. As he fed on a steady diet of truth—day after day—the lies of his world failed to pull him into despair.

How do you and I enjoy a soul getting along well? Like Gaius, we read and ruminate on the Scriptures under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Then we’ll see our souls grow healthy as we walk in the truth.

John 3 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Torsten Dederichs