Dividing Asunder Between Soul and Spirit

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Probably one of the things that mixes Christians up more than anything else is the confusion about who they really are, differentiating between soul and spirit.  In Hebrews 4:12, Paul says, “ For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

It is important to know the difference because if we confuse the two, we will ride a rollercoaster of highs and lows and wonder what is wrong with us when there isn’t anything wrong.  And it’s not that simple to tell them apart.  It takes the word of God to divide them.

So, just who exactly are we?  To answer that question, we need to start with who God is.  We know that he is tripartite, the trinity, the three Gods in one.  I know that is beyond our reach of understanding and there are many explanations, most of which don’t really quicken.  But there is one image, perhaps simplistic, that can perhaps give us a better understanding.

First of all, God the Father is Spirit, and He seeks those to worship him in spirit and truth (John 4:24).  This is the “WHO” of God, His essence.  The problem with just the one part is spirit has no form or expression.

God must express himself.  He manifests Himself through His Word.  The reason Jesus was called the Word of God is because He is the exact representation of His Spirit Being (Heb 1:3).  Think about it.  That is how we express ourselves, through our words.  Thought, then word.  Spirit, then Son.  You might think of Him as the “WHAT” of God.

To manifest Himself, He must also act.  That is through the Holy Spirit.  He is the “HOW” of God.   And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters (Gen 1:2).  Put it all together and this is what you end up with:

Another way of looking at the composition of God is:

Thought, Word, Deed.  Think it, say it, do it.

Now, let’s look at man.  He is made in God’s image (Gen 1:27).  So how does that work?  To start with, we are also tripartite:  spirit, soul, body.  The spirit is also who we are, our essence, where it all starts.  The soul is where we express our thoughts, our spirit, our word.  It is the interface between the spirit and the world.  The body is . . . well you know.  That is how we get it done. Look familiar?

And if we look at the composition of man another way, how about this?  Looking a lot the same, huh?

How about that?  Thought, Word, Deed.  We think it, we say it, we do it.  When God said he created man in His own image, he was serious.

Now that we can visualize the parts, let’s get to the problem between soul and spirit.  If we mistake one for the other, we have trouble.

First, the human spirit is the real SELF.  That is who we are.  Soul and body are merely the clothing for the spirit, the expression of the spirit.  It is just like the Son (Word) and the Holy Spirit are the expression of God the Spirit.  The human spirit is where the heart, mind, and will reside.  The heart is a euphemism for the center of our being.  It is the container for God’s Spirit and is therefore Love, if in fact we are in Christ.  The mind is where we know things, and by that I mean all the mysteries of Christ and the universe.  1 Cor 2:16 says, “we have the mind of Christ.”  That is how we know.  Before you go out bragging about how you know everything or start hunting down Alex Trebek, you better consider that the dissemination of that knowledge is limited by the measure of God’s grace and revelation.

Now, the will is where we make our choices.  The most important one is for Christ.  And if Christ, our will is to do God’s will.  If not Christ, it is the will of the not-god.   Our spirit, our self, takes on the nature and will of the one it contains.  That is the only nature we have.  We have none of our own.  That is a delusion.

Now, to the soul.  That is where we have emotions and reason.  This is where we tend to react to the world around us.  We have highs and lows.  We have depressions.  It is variable.  Our spirit is not variable.  Like God is the same today, yesterday, and forever, so is our spirit.

Herein lays the problem.  Our soul emotions are subject to inputs from the still small voice of our spirit and the loud clamor of our external environment.  The question is which one are you going to believe?  If we take all these changing feelings as reality, then we get whipped around like the wind, questioning ourselves, our motives, our heart, and eventually falling into the trap of self condemnation.  Many of our soul feelings are illusory.

For example, you may think you cannot love this person or that.  In fact, you might feel like you hate him or her.  Of course that can’t be true.  We just said if you are in Christ that your spirit center is love because God resides there.  The truth is love is not a feeling.  Love is actually a person, and that person is God, and God dwells in you in Christ.  You cannot “not” love.  It’s not a matter of whether or not you “feel” you can love another, Christ does it through you, as you.

How about that?  We just circled back again to Galatians 2:20:

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:”

To learn more about the difference between Soul and Spirit, I recommend God Unlimited by Norman Grubb.

Read The Lost Coin by Samuel Hayes Sherwood. A young man’s journey takes him on a path revealing Total Truth, understanding the mystery which is Christ in us.