“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
Body, soul and spirit – the Bible says we have all three, but since we live in the flesh, we don’t always understand that all three of these parts actually define who we are.
It’s fairly easy to understand what is meant by the word “body.” We live in the here and now and can readily understand and believe in those things that we can see and touch. When our days end, that is when we experience physical death, the Bible teaches that our bodies will literally break down in to dust, at least until Jesus returns. “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19)
What is difficult for most Christians to understand is the other two parts that shape us into what we are – soul and spirit. What is the difference between the two? We know that it is our souls that actually get saved; the other two parts of us just happened to be along for the ride. The Apostle James confirms this truth. “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness,” he told his church in Jerusalem, “and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (James 1:21)
So you see it is our souls that get saved and it is our souls that will first get to see heaven. That’s what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, “absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8) Interestingly, our loved ones will somehow be able to identify us, just by our souls because the Bible says, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) For those of us living in this world, that may be difficult to understand but is no less true.
What about our spirit? Notice here that I’m talking about spirit with a little “s”. If we’re saved, we all have the (Holy) Spirit to help us with and through everything that life brings our way, but just what is the other spirit that the New King James Bible mentions 221 times?
Sometimes I think we confuse soul with spirit and vice versa. Some of us actually think it’s one and the same. In other words, there is no real difference between these two parts of us. Apparently, some of that thinking was present in the days of Jesus, too. Even Paul indirectly recognized how difficult it can be to tell the difference when he talked about the power of God: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)
The truth is all of us, saved and unsaved, have a spirit. Job said, “There is a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.” (Job 32:8) I think our spirit is the piece of us that determines how we relate to one another. “She has a sweet spirit,” one may be heard to say about a fellow church member. We’ve often heard some of our young people characterized as having a rebellious spirit.
For those of us who are saved, our two spirits learn to work together. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” (Romans 8:16) Once we understand that we are not facing life alone, our spirit can team with God’s Spirit to accomplish some amazing things.
So what happens to our spirit when we die? It also returns to God, at least that’s what Solomon once wrote. “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was,” he said, “and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
Is it important to know the difference? I think so. The more we understand about what makes us tick, the more we realize just how right David was when he said, “I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.” (Psalm 139:14)
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I love it,I have been comffused but thanx to this I can see the difference. Dr Dario Salas gave me other passages of the bible the helped me to understand this things too. May God continue blessing you.
Informative. More grace 4 insight
the spirit is reborn the soul has to be trained to live for god the reborn spirit can not sin ! its now dead to sin and is sealed with god by the holly spirit but the soul ( mind will )sins every day even atfer getting saved i m not sure souls go to heaven, it may be when he said save your soul from hell he means a life of hell on earth sin can not go to heaven and the soul has to be trained not to sin can a spirit go to heaven and the soul go to hell ??? or would that soul just die???
I must say it’s a bit tricky to understand the difference between soul and spirit and you’ve clarified some of the fundamental issues, but i’m not sure about the part where you say saved and unsaved we have a spirit.
I want to believe we became spirits after we are born again because Now the bible says that which is born of the Spirit is spirit John 3:6 & 1:12-13 so if now an unsaved person is not born of God how can they be spirits?
Even i think 1corinthians 15:45-49 gives a glue that all who have not received the second man Jesus will stay at Adam as just souls.
1 Corinthians 15:45-47
45And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.
The thing that makes real confusion here is “the soul is what gets saved”. I don’t know how Hebrew and Greek gets its’ meaning but this is major. I keep hearing that the soul of man and the soul of the soul of animals is from the same word, so if the soul is what gets saved, then why can’t animals be saved?
We are body, soul, and spirit just as Jesus is Father, Son and Holy Ghost. An analogy would be ice, water, vapor. So think of your body as ice, spirit as water, for without it we would die, and vapor as your soul. I have always explained it as our body is our shell that will die which holds the Soul which never dies. The spirit is what brings the two together and gives us our personality. I believe the spirit and soul will go together to heaven because there, we will be given a new immortal body which our loved ones can still recognize! We first must be saved and ask God through his Son to save us from our sins so we have eternal life in heaven with God the Father, God the Son and Holy Spirit and all our loved ones who have gone on before us! Praise God!
Thanks for sharing this article…
I am confused about soul and spirit before.
God bless.
Animals do have a spirit. I don’t know why you all say they do not have a soul. In what bible and where is that written? Please someone explain. I do know that if my canines don’t go to heaven I want no part of it!!! There is nothing more pure and good as they.
Ecclesiastes 3:18/19 and Genesis 7:15-22(KJV) tells us that we are also beast and that we share the same breath animals. This shows that they have spirit and it also special like that of man.
Jonah 4:11 (KJV) states, ”And should l not l spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand from their left hand: and also much cattle.” This verse tells us that God also care for cattle (animals) and would not like to destroy them.
Many people are just deceiving themselves even when the Bible is clear on this. The spirit that man has is the same spirit that animals have (Eccl. 3:18).
Man and animal’s spirit is just the breath of God that that keep them alive. That is why it is called the breath of life (Gen.2:7,7:15). Therefore, man and animal have spirits but this spirit is just a force that keep them alive.
The spirit of man or animal is not a being but a force. Man and animal are physical beings made from dust(earth/sand) and when they die, they return back to the dust(Eccl2:20).
The only place in the Bible that talks about where the spirit of animals go is in the form of a question: “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of beast (animal) goes downward to the earth?” (Eccl. 3:21)
Do Animals sin? Did Jesus die for them too?
So the spirit goes back to God who gave it, but what happens to the soul when we die?
With animals I would like to think that God would allow them into his kingdom. I think that animals know their creator and they probably have a better understanding of God than we do. God is a loving God I don’t see him damning the animals.
I thank God for such information posted on ‘net because there is so much confusion brought by wrong religions about that topic.
For those interested where animals go, I firmly believe all animals (or at the very least domesticated animals) go to heaven. Despite the assumption that there is just one or two mentions that give an indication of the eternal fate of animals, I have found a lot more than I expected to.
Luke 3 tells us that ALL flesh will see heaven, and then continues to explain that there are different types of flesh – and he does NOT say some go and some don’t. Now, since I know our bodies don’t go with us, I assume he means that all these beings have an afterlife.
In Romans 8, Paul says that animals are under the curse of death because of man’s fall (most translations say creation but the KJV actually says creature) and that even they yearn for Christ’s return and that they will see the Kingdom along with humans. They don’t have a soul because they don’t need to be saved like we do – they never fell and are driven by the spirit God gave them.
Revelation speaks about what animals will do in heaven and how they will behave. It also talks about every single animal – above ground, underground, in the ocean, etc – praise God.
God made covanents with both Noah and the beasts in Genesis. God spared Niniviah partly becsause of the animals living there.
There are many others but i remember these. I can’t understand why people continue to doubt and argue about this with the scriptures God gave us.
this article has been very helpful. God bless you.