Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”
Our Bible verse for today: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.” Psalm 23:1-3 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “The soul needs to be cared for.”
Theologically there has always been debate about the nature of the soul and whether or not the soul and spirit are the same thing or different. The Bible itself speaks of both soul and spirit, and in some cases it seems to use the terms interchangeably (as we commonly do too), but in both the Old and New Testaments the Bible also draws some distinctions between soul and spirit.
In its simplest form “soul” is understood as “the breath of life”. It is what God breathed into the man in Genesis 2:7 which brought the mortal body of flesh and bones to life. It is the thing that animates the mortal body and which distinguishes its life from that of a flower or a tree. In this sense animals have souls too (the Bible bears this out) and once the soul departs the body, that body no longer lives. So in this sense the soul is the very essence of life, the thing that brings the body to life and it is so deeply united with the body that a person is thought of as a body-soul.
However, how the spirit relates to the soul is a tricky thing and the Bible doesn’t really give us a clear explanation about it. It appears that with the coming of the Holy Spirit into an individual’s life the “soul” is regenerated with new life from above, and essentially becomes a soul of a higher order – or a soul with an added dimension to it. The Dictionary of Evangelical Theology is helpful:
“It (soul) is often used interchangeably with spirit, although distinctions that begin to appear in the Old Testament are carried forward in the New Testament… soul in the NT normally means an individual spiritual entity with a material body, so that a person is thought of as a body-soul … spirit is the special gift of God which places one in relationship to him.”
So according to that explanation, everyone has a body and a soul, but when someone enters into a right relationship with God (through Jesus) they then have a body and soul/spirit – the soul being the lower element of this entity which infuses the mortal body with life, and the spirit being the higher element which enables that mortal man or woman to have a relationship with God. So in the unbeliever the soul is a single-faceted thing which simply infuses a mortal body with the breath of life. But in a believer the soul becomes a multi-faceted spiritual entity which both infuses the mortal body with the breath of life, and then enables that individual, by means of the Spirit, to have a relationship with God.
Throughout the month of June we are going to consider the well-being of our soul/spirit and how it is that we go about keeping it healthy. If our soul is the very breath of life that infuses and animates us, and if the spirit is the higher form of the soul and is that which enables us to relate to God, then we need to ensure it is healthy. We will spend this month discussing exactly how to make sure that it is.
God Bless,
Oak Hill Baptist Church 