Body, Soul, and Spirit

The Bible teaches that man is a tri-partite being, made with body, soul, and spirit. Paul distinguishes the three parts of man in I Thessalonians 5:23: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The body is the material part of man, and the soul and spirit are the immaterial part. While the soul and spirit have overlapping qualities, they are different. The soul and spirit are housed in our bodies so long as we live.

The body was created originally from the dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7). God took that lifeless pillar of dust and animated it into a living creature by breathing into man’s nostrils the breath of life; that is when man became a living soul. In the creation account, we see all three aspects of the human nature—the body (from the dust of the ground), the spirit (from the breath of God), and the soul. All three parts interconnect, and we are to glorify God with both the material part of our nature and the immaterial part. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 6:20: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”