Spirit, Soul and Body

I saw a car commercial where a participant speaking of the thrilling experience of the power and acceleration of the car he was driving said, “I felt like I left my soul back there.” Wow! Obviously he doesn’t understand what his soul is. Most westerners have lost the concept of their being, we’re taught that we are a body and that when we die that is the end of us by most secular and atheistic sources. They do not want us to understand our full potential as a human being; they certainly do not want us to know that we are an eternal spiritual being. I do not fathom why, but the destructiveness of that teaching is evident in our cultures today.

The heinous murders, rapes and violent crimes against one another, sex trafficking, slavery of every kind, wanton violence for the perverse joy of it; selfish greed and self-satisfaction no matter the cost to others; hatred of every kind and sexual immorality of every kind. These are the signs of a soulless people, people who do not believe or care that they will face eternal judgment for their words or actions.

So who or what is our soul? I have heard it described as our heart or inner being, our stomach or innards or our mind (thoughts). Webster’s¹ defines it as, “n. the spiritual, nonmaterial part of man’s being; the immortal part, that which survives after death of the body; the essence of anything, a human being.” The Bible Dictionary² says, “The word commonly used in the Bible to describe the non-material ego of man in its ordinary relationships with earthly and physical things, the immortal part of man…The difference between man and beast is not that man has a soul or spirit, but that man is created in the image of GOD, whereas the beast is not.”

True Christians believe that GOD is one GOD yet triune in nature Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They also believe that humanity being made in His image is triune in nature spirit, soul and body.

Our spirit grows by being in relationship with the Holy Spirit through the Word of GOD, prayer, fasting and obedience; our soul grows by being in relationship with the Holy Spirit through the Word of GOD, prayer, fasting and obedience; our body on the other hand is mortal and will break down and die. We must nurture and care for it so that it lasts until we get our eternal body.

So what am I saying? I’m saying that when we believe that we are nothing more than an accident of nature and that we have no intrinsic value that it does not matter how we live or what we do we will normally tend towards evil because the heart of man is wicked. The truth is that we are made in the image of GOD and that He has a plan for our life and that it is our decision if we will live for Him or against Him. Either way we will stand in judgment, if we received GOD’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ then our works, or how we lived our life as a child of GOD will be judged; if we reject GOD’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ then we will be judged with the devil and sent to the hell that was created for the him.

GOD loves us so much that before the foundation of the world He determined that Jesus would be His sacrifice to remove our sin from us.  Our soul is immortal (cannot die) and needs to be nurtured and trained to serve and obey GOD, just as our body must be nurtured and trained to obey our spirit. Our spirit is the eternal (no beginning or end) part of us that longs for GOD, when we are born again the Holy Spirit of GOD comes and lives inside of us (we are now His temple) and nurtures and trains our spirit in the eternal call of GOD for our life. If we yield our soul and body to the leading of the Holy Spirit we will live in harmony with GOD’s eternal Kingdom on the earth and in Heaven.

Study Genesis 1:20-31, 6:5, 7:7-16; Exodus 23:12, 31:17; 2 Samuel 16:14; Psalm 10:3, 16:1&10, 97:10, 109:7, 139:13-18; Ecclesiastes 3:18-21; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Matthew 6:25, 7:21-23, 10:28, 28:16-20; Luke 8:55, 11:39, 12:20; John 3:15-19; Acts 20:10; Romans 1 & 8; 1 Corinthians 5:3, 6:15-20, 7:34, 9:24-27, 15:50-58; 2 Corinthians 13:11-14; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12; James 2:26; 1 John 3:1-3, 3 John :2-4; Revelation 19-21.

¹ New Concise Webster’s Dictionary, Modern Promotions/Publishers, 1984 Edition

² The New Compact Bible Dictionary, Zondervan Publishing House, 1967