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SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY

INTRODUCTION

Man is a triune being (spirit, soul, body, 1 Thessalonians 5:23), just as God is a triune being (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). We will examine each aspect of natures below. However, we must realize from the outset that, although all humans have these natures, most of humanity is not living them in the correct order. Our spirits, as our only means of communication with God, who is a spirit, are often buried beneath our soul or body so that the spirit has very little domination in our lives. Our true life, the only source of life, is our spirits and it is the spirit that should dominate the other areas of our lives here on earth and in the age to come. Our soul life and our bodies must come under the dominion of our spirits; today for most of us the opposite is true to the point that most are not even aware of the spirit aspect of their nature. We are happy when the soul and body are satisfied by the many means available-food, pleasure of all sorts, sex, etc.-but in and of itself this does nothing but feed our lower nature appetites with a satisfaction that does not last. The spirit is eternal. It is the spirit, not the soul that we must feed.

THE SOUL

The soul is the seat of all of our functions as humans. It contains the emotions, the intellect (unless we have the mind of Christ), our individuality, our desires, our will and is in fact the switchboard for expression either as fallen man or, more perfectly as an expression of our spirit. It is in a sense mutable; it can be controlled either by our earthly desires or our spirit. When controlled by our earthly lusts, the Bible calls the soul the flesh or flesh nature. In Romans 8:3-4 Paul says: "[God] condemned sin in the flesh [our unperfected souls] in order that we do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit" . In Galatians 5:16-23, he distinguishes between the deeds of the soul (flesh) and the deeds of the Spirit:

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like

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