The ordinary idea of the make-up of human beings is dualistic: soul and body.
According to this theory our soul is the invisible inner part, while body is the visible outer physical part.
Such an opinion comes from the natural man, not from God; apart from God’s revelation, no concept is dependable.
That the body is the physical part is correct, but the Bible never reveals spirit and soul as though they are the same.
Not only are they different; their very nature differs from each other. The soul is human, the spirit divine.
The Word of God does not divide man into the two parts of soul and body. It treats man, as three parts: spirit, soul and body.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 reads: “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. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. “
This verse precisely shows that the whole man is divided into three parts. The Apostle Paul refers here to the complete sanctification of believers, “sanctify you wholly.”
According to the Apostle, how is a person wholly sanctified? By his spirit and soul and body being sanctified. This means our spirit must be sanctified. How do we do this?
1 Corinthians 6:17 the one now joining himself to the Lord one spirit is-Greek English interlinear.
From these verses (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24) we can easily understand that the whole person comprises these three parts. Spirit, soul and body.
This verse also makes a distinction between spirit and soul. Since God has differentiated the divine spirit from the human soul, we comprehend that man is a three part being. Not a spirit, that has a soul, that lives in a body. Our spirit is dimensional; it is inside our body but also seated in the heavenly places in Christ.
Is it a matter of any consequence to divide spirit and soul? It is an issue of supreme importance because it affects tremendously the spiritual life of a believer.
How can a believer understand spiritual life if he does not know how our spirit functions and how the soul functions?
Without such understanding how can we grow spiritually? To fail to distinguish between spirit and soul is deadly to spiritual maturity.
Christians often account what is soulical as spiritual, and thus they remain in a soulish state and seek not what is really spiritual. How can we escape loss if we confuse what God has divided?
Spiritual knowledge is very important to spiritual life. It is even more important for a believer to be humble, open and willing to accept the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
If so, the Holy Spirit will grant us the experience of the dividing of spirit and soul, even if the believer does not have much knowledge concerning this truth.
On the one hand, the most ignorant believer, without the slightest idea of the division of spirit and soul, may yet experience such a dividing in real life.
On the other hand, the most informed believer, completely familiar with the truth concerning spirit and soul, may nonetheless have no experience of it.
Once the believer experiences the separation of their spirit from their soul, then God can integrate our spirit and soul and we will be a whole person, no longer divided, no longer be up one moment and down the next, no longer one moment full of the Spirit and the next subject to the human nature the soul. This is called the renewing of our mind, where we are transformed. We live by the life force of the newborn spirit, and not the soul-live of a believer.
The majority of Christians, however, lack such experience. We must know the different functions of spirit and soul and then be continually filled with the Spirit which is a commandment of the New Covenant.
Other portions of the Scriptures make this same distinction between spirit and soul.
Heb. 4: 12 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.
The writer of Hebrews in this verse divides man’s unseen parts into two, “soul and spirit.”
The physical part is mentioned here as including the joints and marrow (in which blood cells are produced): organs of motion and strength and vitality.
When the priest uses the sword to cut and completely dissect the sacrifice, nothing inside can be hidden. Even joints and marrow are separated.
Jesus the Living Word of God separates thoroughly, penetrating even to the division of the spiritual, the soulical, and the physical.
Since soul and spirit can be divided, they must be different in nature. It is thus evident here that man is a combination of three parts.