Too often we focus on our body, flesh and the material things of this world. It’s understandable since it’s visible, can be handled, can be processed. The problem we have is that the overconcentration for our body in regard to God could actually replace him in practice. When I say replace, I mean there is very little time or opportunity to consider God while absorbed with things of the body. We are made after his image not in detail but in design. God is one person that is a Trinity like that of an apple skin, flesh, and seed. Each of us are also one person and a Trinity. So, what is our Trinity?
When we speak of our body, we are talking about our physical properties. The early Hebrews did not have a word for body. However, the word flesh appears a 127 times referring to the flesh of both animals and men. It does not stop there. It can extend to those who are our relatives. We could also refer to us as living beings separate from the divine. In the New Testament there is a Greek word for body. Again, it could refer to men or animals living or dead. The person who is carnal is under the dominion of his lower impulses including sexuality. (1 Corinthians 3: 3)
Paul makes references to “sinful body” and “body of death”. He has seen flesh as a seed of sinful desires. In an odd contrast, he also spoke of a body being redeemed. It was his opinion in first Corinthians 6 that the intention of the body was not forever but to be transformed. His design to his readers was for them to understand the significance of the Holy Spirit abiding in a person’s body as a temple. That means even though our body is temporary and corruptible, it is where the Holy Spirit abides in the believer guiding, comforting, and supporting.
Also spoken in our text is about the spirit. The difference between spirit and soul is quite confusing to many people. In fact, the two are sometimes used interchangeably even in the Bible. The basic term of spirit officers the meaning of moving air, and breeze. It also carries with it the idea of when it becomes breath. In Genesis 2: 7 we are told when God formed man from the dust of the ground, he breathed life into him, and he became a living soul. (We will address soul momentarily.) For now, let us pay attention to the idea of the spirit which is that part of us that can know God and has the ability to realize a God consciousness plus a communication with him. It is our spirit that relates to God on a one- to-one basis. After the rapture we will become a spiritual body transformed and shed carnality innate in the very flesh where we abide temporarily.
Now let us address the soul. When man became a living soul, he had with him the capacity of affection, desires, emotions, and even will. We might think of it as the basis of our own personalities. To what do we link ourselves in the current materialistic world is answered by the word soul. It must be tethered so that what is our concern can be likewise associated to God and not the temporary things of this earth. When we are transformed by the operation of the divine through salvation, our soul becomes a new creation in Christ. The soul is a life principle of the living being subject to appetite, emotion, which is characteristic of a unique individual. This can even in Scripture by a collective use for animals. Our soul is the total of our feelings: hunger, thirst, but also emotional status like greed, satisfaction, joy, sorrow, love, hatred, hope, and despair. Sadly, it is our soul that can be hopelessly attracted to sin and needs Christ to make the difference.
It is important for us to know that the human is not a trichotomous, but these three terms are together an expression of the totality of man in the same way we say that we have one God in three persons.
Christian Writer 