What Is The Difference Between Man`s Soul And His Spirit?

RickReads said:

What Is The Difference Between Man`s Soul And His Spirit?

All Opinions Welcomed

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That a difficult question, to me, to answer.

I think there is the same given to all mankind our spirit. Then there is that which makes us unique from one another our minds that is the thoughts and aptitudes of the heart.

Jesus stated, "Father into your hands I commit My spirit"
Stephen stated, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

This suggests to me that the thoughts and attitudes of the heart are separated even from the spirit.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart

My two cents

RickReads said:

What Is The Difference Between Man`s Soul And His Spirit?

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I would say soul is where spirit is. I think spirit is like attitude, for example like in team spirit. And I think soul is the person himself.

Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 7:21
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven”

John 14:15
“If you love Me, keep My commandments”

Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The heart will follow what the mind is reasoning or rationalizing. For where your heart is so to is your treasure and as a man thinketh so is he. Proverbs 23:7

Matthew 15:18-20
But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person;

Loving God is with our entire being, our mind, will, soul, heart and emotions

RickReads said:

What Is The Difference Between Man`s Soul And His Spirit?

All Opinions Welcomed

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Our soul is that part of us that makes us-us! It is the sum of who we are, our thoughts, feelings, opinions etc. A simplisitc definition is, our body is what we are, and our soul is who we are.

Mans spirit is that part of a man that can fellowship with God. In an unbeliever that part is dead so the unsaved man is comprised of only a body and soul. This is what is quickened or made alive when we are born again and with all other portions of becoming a new Creature in Christ our spirit allows us to fellowship with God.

RickReads said:

Can you elaborate on that?

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Your soul is what makes you an individual. Your spirit is what makes you an actual form of life.

It is your soul that makes you, you. All your memories, all you feel towards things, everything you've been influenced by.. the way you emotionally respond to things, this is your soul. Your spirit on the other hand is you just being alive.

RickReads said:

It seems to me that the soul is the one who must choose between following the Spirit or following the Flesh.

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The soul is the animating principle, it's what makes you alive rather than a lifeless corpse. Without the soul the body is a lifeless corpse. But we also say that man has a "rational soul", the kind of animal-life man has is one that is also endowed with reason and intellect. Thus the soul has, historically, been described as the "seat" of the will, of reason, and of emotions. We aren't un-thinking brutish animals, but thinking animals, animals that are endowed with reason, and with a will, and thus we are moral animals. That is, we are held morally culpable for our actions.

So the soul isn't some separate unit of you, it describes certain aspects of being human.

In the sense that the soul describes being a creature of reason, intellect, volition, and a moral agent then sure, we can say that you as a moral, thinking animal are called to obedience to God, following the way of God by the Spirit over and against the lusts of the flesh. However, it is also your soul that is fleshly. When the New Testament speaks of fallen man it speaks of the "soulish man", this is what gets translated often as "natural man", but the words in Greek are not "natural" but "soulish". So in 1 Corinthians 2:14 St. Paul says, "ψυχικὸς δὲ ἄνθρωπος" (psuchikos de anthropos), "but the soulish man". This word "soulish" indicates the animal-breath, the lusts of the flesh.

So, also, when the Apostle speaks of the resurrection of the body he contrasts between the present body as a "soulish body", but in the resurrection he says that it is a "spiritual body". Note that it is still the body, comprised of flesh and matter, bone and skin and sinew, it's the body. The human body. But that in the resurrection the body is raised and transformed, from being soulish (i.e. empowered and driven by the soul, or the animal-breath, the base instincts etc) to being spiritual (or, I would argue Spiritual, compare with Romans 8:11, the body empowered and made alive by the Holy Spirit in the glory of the future resurrection).

So one cannot speak of the soul as truly separate from the body, or as somehow autonomous. It is simply an aspect of you, that speaks of things such as your ordinary natural life, as well as the animal instincts, as well as reason, and will, and emotion, and moral responsibility, etc.

And within myself, I feel that there is a difference between my heart and my intellect. Whatsoever that is spiritual in me lives in my heart. My mind does not generate spirituality, it can only serve it.

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But here "heart" is only a euphemism for things like your emotion, will, etc. It corresponds and overlaps ideas already presented concerning the soul. So we can't speak of the heart as yet some other autonomous thing, but rather it is another way of speaking about being human. Likewise, the mind speaks of the intellect and reasoning faculties, your consciousness, etc.

You aren't a conglomerate of disparate units, but a human person. And Scripture, utilizes many ways of talking about the human experience, of being alive, of having feeling, of the experiences of empathy, or the sinful condition of man, or of man's capacity to reason, of the power of volition, of moral culpability, of being able to relate to God, etc. So we speak of man's body, because we experience, see, touch, sense the physical frame, but we recognize that the body isn't just a lump of lifeless matter, but is animated. We move, think, breathe, feel, desire, etc. So we speak of "soul" of "spirit"--the breath, the animating reality that makes the difference between a living creature and lifeless matter. We speak of the mind to refer to the intellect and rational faculties, we speak of the heart to refer to our feeling, our experience of emotion and desire.

Christ assumed all of that in becoming human, which is why we believe that our salvation involves all of that. Every aspect, every dimension of being human has been assumed by the Eternal Son who became flesh, God has united Himself with humanity, become human, and by His uniting of our humanity with His Divinity and by His plunging it into death and raising up again He has healed our humanity, and now by our union to Him, by the grace of God, we are ourselves being healed. Beginning now in this life by word and promise through faith, and perfectly at the end of the age when we are raised up on the last day.

There aren't some parts of you that are perfect, and other parts not yet perfect. There is only you. There is you that is made new in the newness of Christ by His life which you have as a gift, and is yours through faith; and there remains you as you always were, sinful, broken. The two exist together, the old and the new. So that you are simul iustus et peccator, both saint and sinner at the same time. Saint by the imputed righteousness of Christ which you have received as a gift, this is the alien righteousness of Jesus which you receive only as grace; and sinner by your own continued selfishness, self-directed impulses of your lusts of the flesh, desires of the heart, motives of the soul, and machinations of your mind (just to cover all bases here). And it is this struggle between the old man and the new that you experience in this life.

In Christ you are already perfect, not because of you, but because Christ is Himself perfect and He gives Himself to you. In yourself you are not perfect, but very imperfect. Which is why there is this struggle between the old and the new, between Adam and Christ. And this struggle will be yours your entire earthly life. And so this life is a cross, this is the cross we must carry, as disciples of Jesus in this world. The cross of discipleship is the cross of this life, and the cross of repentance, the cross of running the race, fighting the good fight, charging forward with our eyes upon Christ the Author and Finisher of our faith.

-CryptoLutheran

This is a difficult topic. In greater perfection there is no difference between Soul and Spirit. The spirit could be considered to be the highest part of ourselves. It exists as a more fundamental reality. The soul is a rib of the spirit and so it is Spirit too. The soul is like a sliver of the spirit. the soul is what our spirit is here in this world.

The Greek word for soul is related to the word for cold. The nature of material is a representative and symbolic reality. But in this realm it is in a Fallen state. It has become crude and cold.

In it's Fallen State this world is considered to be other than God. So there is a theosis of the person and a theosis of reality.

Spirit is the fundamental reality. What it is, it is. God is spirit and so are we. Our soul is the middle ground between a fallen reality and the natural condition of reality which is spirit. The more our soul falls into this Fallen and sinful Realm, the more we lose ourselves, because evil destroys personality. Personality is the Divine idea God has of us. Personhood is not individualism. Individualism is one side of the coin of collectivism. The individual is the mere evolutionary animal.

Personality is the kingdom of heaven, where all exist in eternal happiness, uniqueness and unity. Where all persons are themselves in reference also to God and others. Personality is a result of nearness to God because being near to God is also being near to Gods idea of us, his dream of us. God knows you better than you know you.

To be caught up in the world is to ignore higher realities. By being part of this world we are enslaved to it. we must have food, shelter, protection, Etc. So even Jesus Christ called himself a servant.

1 foot of us is standing as the soul and the other in the spirit. When a person is truly themselves they are in their spirit. when a person is not in their Spirit they're all the components of that which forms their body and their environment, like a body that has their head cut off. But also of all spirits that influence them. I think the difference can be distinguished as involuntary Freedom versus voluntary freedom. Or sleep versus awake. Or a blurry vision of ourselves versus a clearer.

All Excellence comes from a person's spirit because it comes from deep within them. But if this lower part of us is cut off from our best part then our best part is shut up and hidden and we are what we are.

The spirit is freedom, it is why we are kin to God. The spirit becomes and it is. The soul in her Fallen condition is a harlot. But She is a virgin in reference to herself.

Praise is by our souls while worship is by our spirits to Him.

chad kincham said:

Actually...

The Bible makes it clear in 2 Corinthians ch. 5, that our body is only a home, that WE leave at death.


2Co 5:1 For we know that if our earthly HOUSE of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.


2Co 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are AT HOME in the body, we are absent from the Lord:


2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be ABSENT FROM the BODY, , and to be PRESENT with the Lord.


Scripture further makes that clear that at salvation, the Holy Spirit comes into our house, the body, and changes it from just a house, into the TEMPLE of the Holy Spirit.


1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your BODY is the TEMPLE of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?


It further makes it clear that our body is a house when Jesus gives an example of a demon possessed man, who had a demon cast out of him, but the demon went out and got more demons, and returned to the man, and found his HOUSE swept clean, and moved right back in and brought the other demons with him, so that man was worse off than he was before.


Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone OUT OF a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.

Mat 12:44 Then he saith, I will return into my HOUSE from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.

Mat 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they ENTER IN and DWELL there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

And, John in Revelation was caught up into heaven, and saw SOULS there.


Rev 6:9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the SOULS of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

And When Stephen was stoned to death, he looked into heaven and saw Jesus, and said, Lord Jesus, receive my SPIRIT.

Shalom.

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There is nothing immortal about us ..... we do not receive immortality until Jesus returns and the 1st resurrection happens.

chad kincham said:

2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be ABSENT FROM the BODY, , and to be PRESENT with the Lord.

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He says would RATHER be absent from the body .... not that that is what happens upon death.

State of the dead (all are in a dormant sleep until they are resurrected)


Psalm 90:3-6

You turn man back into dust And say, "Return, O children of men." For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night. You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

Job 7:21

"Why then do You not pardon my transgression And take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust; And You will seek me, but I will not be."

Job 14:10-12

"But man dies and lies prostrate Man expires, and where is he? "As water evaporates from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dried up, So man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no longer, He will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep.

Psalm 13:3

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

Daniel 12:2

"Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

Matthew 9:24

He said, "Leave; for the girl has not died, but is asleep." And they began laughing at Him.

Mark 5:39

And entering in, He said to them, "Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not died, but is asleep."

Luke 8:52-53

Now they were all weeping and lamenting for her; but He said, "Stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep." And they began laughing at Him, knowing that she had died.

1 Kings 2:10

Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David.

Deuteronomy 31:16

The LORD said to Moses, "Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.

2 Samuel 7:12

"When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.

1 Kings 11:43

And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David, and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

1 Kings 14:20

The time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.

1 Kings 16:6

And Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah, and Elah his son became king in his place.

1 Kings 22:50

And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David, and Jehoram his son became king in his place.

2 Kings 14:16

So Jehoash slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son became king in his place.

2 Kings 15:7

And Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Jotham his son became king in his place.

2 Kings 16:20

So Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.

2 Kings 20:21

So Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son became king in his place.

2 Kings 21:18

And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.

Revelation 14:13

And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them."


John 11:11-14

This He said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep." The disciples then said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep.

Acts 7:60

Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" Having said this, he fell asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:6

After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;

John 5:28-29

"Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

Job 14:13-15

"Oh that You would hide me in Sheol, That You would conceal me until Your wrath returns to You, That You would set a limit for me and remember me! "If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I will wait Until my change comes. "You will call, and I will answer You; You will long for the work of Your hands.

Psalm 17:15

As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.

Isaiah 26:19

Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.


1 Corinthians 15:20

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

Jeremiah 51:57

"I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, Her governors, her prefects and her mighty men, That they may sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up," Declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.


Psalm 7:3-5

O LORD my God, if I have done this, If there is injustice in my hands, If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary, Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; And let him trample my life down to the ground And lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

Psalm 76:5

The stouthearted were plundered, They sank into sleep; And none of the warriors could use his hands.

Jeremiah 51:39

"When they become heated up, I will serve them their banquet And make them drunk, that they may become jubilant And may sleep a perpetual sleep And not wake up," declares the LORD.