The 3 Parts of Man—Spirit, Soul, and Body
Human beings are complicated. Each one of us is unique; we come
from various backgrounds and have different personalities.
But with respect to how God created us, we’re actually all the
same. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that we were all
created with three parts—a spirit, a soul, and a body:
“And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your
spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In this post we’ll read an extremely helpful note on this verse in
the New Testament Recovery Version to help us understand these
three parts.
The three parts of man
Let’s take a look at note 5 on 1 Thessalonians 5:23 in the Recovery
Version. Since this is a lengthy note, we’ll read it in sections.
The first part of the note says:
“This word strongly indicates that man is of three
parts: spirit, soul, and body. The spirit as our inmost part is the
inner organ, possessing God-consciousness, that we may contact
God (John 4:24; Rom. 1:9).”
The human spirit is the deepest part of a person. By means of this
innermost part, we can contact God in the spiritual realm. No other
creature was created by God with this third part.
Now let’s read the next section of the note, which explains our soul:
“The soul is our very self (cf. Matt. 16:26; Luke 9:25), a medium
between our spirit and our body, possessing self-consciousness,
that we may have our personality.”
Our soul perceives things in the psychological realm. In fact, in
Greek—the original language of the New Testament—the word
for soul is psuche, which is also the root word of psychology.
Our soul is our personality, who we are. With our soul we think,
reason, consider, remember, and wonder. We experience emotions
like happiness, love, sorrow, anger, relief, and compassion. And
we’re able to resolve, choose, and make decisions.
Now let’s read the next section about our body and how our three
parts are related:
“The body as our external part is the outer organ, possessing
world-consciousness, that we may contact the material world. The
body contains the soul, and the soul is the vessel that contains the
spirit.”
Our body exists in and contacts the tangible things of the material
world using our five physical senses. The body is the visible,
external part of our being, and it contains the soul. Our soul is the
vessel containing our spirit.
Below is a simple diagram of three concentric circles illustrating
these three parts. It shows the body as our outer, visible part; the
soul as our inward part; and our spirit as our innermost, hidden part.
God’s intention for the three parts of man
Now let’s read the last section of the note, which explains God’s
intention for all three parts of our being:
“In the spirit, God as the Spirit dwells; in the soul, our self dwells;
and in the body, the physical senses dwell. God sanctifies us, first,
by taking possession of our spirit through regeneration (John 3:5-
6); second, by spreading Himself as the life-giving Spirit from our
spirit into our soul to saturate and transform our soul (Rom. 12:2; 2
Cor. 3:18); and last, by enlivening our mortal body through our soul
(Rom. 8:11, 13) and transfiguring our body by His life power (Phil.
3:21).”
God’s intention concerning us is that we
would contain and express Him. But to express God, we need to
be filled with Him. When we believed in Jesus Christ, we received
Him and were regenerated, or born again, in our spirit. But He
doesn’t want to only fill our spirit. That’s just the beginning.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 tells us, “The God of peace Himself sanctify
you wholly.” He sanctifies us by spreading into and saturating our
whole being, starting from our spirit, continuing into our soul, and
eventually including our body. By being wholly filled with God in
every part of our being, God can be expressed through us.
Our cooperation with God’s saturating
How can we cooperate with God’s intention to saturate our whole
being with Himself?
Exercising our spirit is the key. Not only does our spirit have the
ability to contact and fellowship with God, it’s also the place where
He lives in us. We can turn to Him in our spirit to live by His life. By
means of our spirit we can also receive more of Christ each day.
From this “base” of His operation in us, He can then spread into our
soul. The more we receive Christ by exercising, or using, our spirit,
the more God will have a way to spread into our soul.
We can daily exercise our spirit by calling upon the name of the
Lord, reading and even praying with God’s Word to be spiritually
nourished, and obeying Him. The more we exercise our spirit, the
more we allow the God of peace to continue spreading in us and
saturating us. Then we’ll be able to express God to everyone around
us.
The New Testament Recovery Version has a number of other
enlightening notes on 1 Thessalonians 5:23, including an important
one on how God preserves our spirit, soul, and body complete. If you
live in the United States, you can order a free copy of the New
Testament Recovery Version here. We encourage you to read the
notes and the verses they reference to gain a fuller understanding
of what we’ve discussed in this post.
The book The Economy of God is another invaluable resource on
the subject of the parts of man. You can read the details in chapters
6 and 7 in the book, which you can download for free from anywhere
in the world here.
