This pastoral passage was first written for LRBC on August 16 2015.

Have you ever thought about your soul as something that could be healthy or sick? It would be easy to think that a healthy soul is one that is content and full of self-esteem. There’s nothing dramatically wrong with this idea, but such a view does leave God out of the picture. A biblical view of humanity will recognise that men and women and children are made for God – to know and worship and live for him.

John the Apostle touched on this at the beginning of his third Epistle. He prayed that a certain Gaius would be as healthy in body as he was in his soul (3 John 2). His ‘soul health’ was identified by his holding to the truth of the gospel and living accordingly (3John 3, cf. 1Tim. 4:16). He recognised that since we were made for God, we are healthy in our ‘inner life’ of the soul only when we are living in harmony with the truth about God, the truth about mankind and the truth about Jesus and the gospel.

So in view of this, how is the health of your soul? I read a book recently, titled Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. It discussed questions like ‘Do you still grieve over sin?’, ‘Do you thirst for God?’, ‘Are you more loving?’. Questions such as these can be helpful ways of considering your spiritual health. Of course, for there to be health, there must be life – so one must be certain he has the eternal life that is in Christ (1John 5:12-13). But if you do have this eternal life in your soul, consider: How is its health?

So – how does your life adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour?