Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. 3 John 1:2.
This is one of the most misquoted bible passages by the thorny believers. Who are these thorny brethren? (A) They are those in the kingdom who thinks as if everything is about money, and they speaks and do anything and everything to acquire and amass material gain and financial profit in the kingdom.
Being ignorant and proud, these are describes as men of perverse disputing of corrupt minds, destitute of truth, suppposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw yourself: 1 Timothy 6:3-6: (b) these are they that received the seed among the thorns, having heard and received the word, but the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things choke the word, and they becomes unfruitful with no spiritual multiplication in the poverty of souls against the prosperity of their souls. Matthew 13:23.
There is legitimate and illegitimate labour. After the fall, man was made to understand that his food and bread shall be gotten from the sweat of his laborious work. This is a legitimate labour. Whosoever does not work shall not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10): but though, all the labor of man is for his mouth (for self-preservation and enjoyment), and yet the desire [of his soul] is not satisfied. Ecclesiastes 5:7. Amplified Bible.
Believer should work with his hand the things which are good and godly, that he can earn a just and legitimate salary, with contentment and satisfaction in the Lord, not to gather wealth by unrighteous means, lest he should incur the wrath of God upon his life and lose his soul, what shall man give in exchange for his soul? As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. Jeremiah 17:11.
The apostle expressed the possibility (that you may prosper) his desired and expectations for the overall well being of his beloved spiritual children and brethren, but his desired and prayers were founded on the visibility and fruitfulness of their spiritual prosperity as the text before us reveals the necessity and superiority of spiritual well being, (the prosperity of the souls of saints) above the pursuant of ungodly riches or of the insatiable desire for wealth which could be seen as futile and illegitimate pursuit which the bible warns us against: labor not to be rich: cease from your own wisdom. Wilt thou set your eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Proverbs 23:4-5.
The word, labor not to be rich (a) is a stern warning against the dangers posed by the love of money, which is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1Timothy 6:10:
(b) the text also shows us the vain, wasteful and self condemnation of eternal destructive efforts of those men and women whose priority and motive are wrong and false in serving Christ who’s blessing alone makes a man rich, without sorrow (did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in the same spirit? Walked we not in the same steps? 2 Corinthians 12:17-18): he that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance with increase: this is also vanity. Ecclesiastes 5:10:
(c) the text establishes the poor and sickly spiritual state of the soul of the brethren at Laodicea church: the Lord’s frown, rejection, condemnation against her: his counsel against her false and boastful prosperity – because thou says, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knows not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou may be rich; and white raiment, that thou may be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that thou may see. Revelation 3:17-18:
(d) I wish above all things that you prosper and be in good health…this is nothing but the good thought and heart-felt desire of a beloved spiritual father towards his brethren and for his children in the faith.
Though, the outward man perishes, yet, the inward man is renewed day by day. Increasing labor and resources of grace should be bestowed upon the things which edify the inner man, things that endure unto eternal life, and not the things which God shall destroy, meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. 1 Corinthians 6:13.
Was Mary Magdalene not commended by the Lord for her choice of best part which shall not be taken away from her, when she placed the nourishment and prosperity of her soul above filling the stomach with meat and drink at Bethany? Luke 10:42.
Further, the text shows the rebellious state of mind of the greedy and covetous of those who have no respect for the law and principle for every first things in the kingdom: they will not seek first, the kingdom of God and all his righteousness, but have placed personal interests and material profit and gain above spiritual purposes, will and interests of God in their life and other’s -for I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state (spiritual prosperity and wellness of your soul). For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. Philippians 2:20-21.
When has God ceased to know the things you have need of, and will not supply for all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus? Since when has the good Shepherd which gave his life as ransom for his sheep, lost sight for their mental, physical and material or financial cares, security and wellness? But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Isaiah 49: 14-17.
Are you not living, moving and having your beings in God? Acts 17:28. Is not the Lord your strength, and the saving strength of his anointed? Psalms 28:8. Is he not the springs and rivers of the living water unto you, that you should dug your own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water? Jeremiah 2:12. Was Christ not made righteousness unto you and his righteousness extended unto all his saints, and to the excellent, in whom is all his delight?
Why then should his saints on earth seek after that which cannot save or deliver, things that cannot do evil or do good? Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hastens after another god: they are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Jeremiah 10:5.
For how long has God ceased to forgive the iniquities and to heal the diseases of his people, if they seek after him with all their whole heart? Was king Hezekiah not see his mighty hand when he was sick with death sentence which was reversed after he prayed and wept to the God of heaven and earth? But of King Ahaziah, who after he fell from the lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, became sick, but sent to ask counsel from Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, did he not died for his iniquity in his sickness, for seeking after vanity – idol? (2 Kings 1:16): for all people will walk everyone in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God, forever and ever (Micah 4:5): and when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:19-20.
God has not withdrawn the shining light of his countenance upon you, neither has he ceased to be the health of your countenance and being your God. He will not cast off forever, but will continue to be favorable to his saints. His mercy clean endures forever; neither doth any of his promise fail: we have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plants them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and your arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou were a favor unto them. Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob. Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. Psalms 44:1-5.
Has he not promised to bless your bread and water, and to take away the diseases and infirmities of which you have heard in the world, far away from you, if you will keep his word and walk in his precepts as he commanded you? Exodus 23:25.
Whereas the scripture says you should think spiritually, to set your affections on the things above, and not on things on earth, not to think about your life for the food to eat or the cloth to put on, not to worry for anything, but you continually think and act contrary against the order of the holy writs, this is the reversal of divine fortune, the prosperity of your soul, the diminishing of the effectual power of the despised scriptures against those who rebelled against the light.
The overall wellness and upbringing of his saints are in the hands of God (yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words. Deuteronomy 33:3). He is their God and guide: he found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them, bears them on her wings. Deuteronomy 32:10-11.
God is the sustenance, provider and he that nourishes his people with good things, so that their youth is renewed like the eagle’s: he made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. Deuteronomy 32:13-14.
God is their portion of his saints in the land of the living: he is their exceeding great reward, and gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labor of the people. Psalms 105:44.
No soldier ever serves in the army and pays his own salary. No one ever plants a vineyard without eating some of the grapes. No person takes care of a flock without drinking some of the milk. Thereofore, your wellness, whatsoever is the nature of your need, has all been taken cared of before the foundation of the world, according as he has choosen you in him, and you cannot have more or less, than what he has apportioned unto you in him from eternity.
What God has made crooked, no one can make straight, seeing the days of his saints on earth are determined, the number of their months are with him, he hast appointed their bounds that they cannot pass. Job 14:5.
You must lay hold of the promises of God. You must live daily for his promises and live daily by them, for all things that pertain to life and godliness are included inside the exceeding great and precious promises of God, that by these, you might be partaker of divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lusts.
A little that a rightoeus man possesses, is better than the many riches of the wicked, for the life of a man consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. The true riches and prosperity of the soul is found in the increasing fulness of the riches of Christ love in the heart of his saints. It is found in the riches of increasing faith in the hearts where he truly dwells in faith. It is found in the increasing fruit of rightoeusness of the souls won into the kingdom by each branch in him. It is found in the increasing good works and undying zeal to keep his work to the end. It is found in the visible increasing productivity of fruit bearing in his season, for in him is found the fruit of his saints – Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Hosea 14:8.