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. I Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV)

Mankind often ignores the fact that man is a triune being, like God is. As a result, we often try to address our problems incorrectly. For example, we may try to use a physical cure for a soulish or spiritual problem. In order to understand ourselves, we must understand the triune nature of man. By man, I am referring to mankind, not specifically males.

We see from the verse above that man is three parts: spirit, soul and body. Each of us is one person with three parts. We were made in God’s image, and He is Three in One: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Although they are connected and affect one another, the spirit, soul and body are all different from one another and have different functions. God is to rule in man’s spirit and the spirit rules over the soul and body. The spirit receives God’s will, soul interprets it, and the body carries it out.

Spirit

Your spirit is born-again. This happened at the moment of salvation. The Greek word for spirit is pneuma. It is the spiritual side of your person, and is filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s the part of us that makes us God-conscious. With our spirits, we are in constant connection with God. We commune with God spirit to Spirit. We receive revelation of God and His Word in our spirits. The spirit is how you relate with God. It is the highest and deepest part of man with which we apprehend, worship and know God.

Soul

Your soul is in the process of being born-again. In other words, we must work with God to allow Him to bring it ever closer to a perfected state. The Greek word for soul is psuche. It is where we get the word psychology. The soul is how you relate to yourself. It is the part that makes us self-conscious. It is the seat of reasoning, desires, and affections. It is made up of the mind, will and emotions. The mind is to be renewed by the Word so we think like God does. The will is to be surrendered to God’s will. The emotions are to be controlled by God’s Word and your spirit. Your mind, or the intellect, thinks, learns, and remembers. Your will decides whether to follow God and His ways or the world. And godly emotions help us better experience life and our feelings are important to enjoying life. The soul is where we think, choose and feel. The strongest part of the soul is actually the will. We can choose with our wills to do something when we don’t feel like it or understand it.

Body

Your body is not born-again, and in its current state, it never will be. It will be transformed at the rapture. However, until then, we must constantly treat our bodies as living sacrifices and keep them under subjection to our spirits. The Greek word for body is soma. God uses it to house man’s spirit and soul. The body is how you relate to the world around you- it contacts the physical realm. It is made up of the five senses. Man must have a physical body to have legal authority to live on earth and rule over it. We cannot allow our bodies to control our lives. When we do, we act carnally and get into sins of the flesh. Carnal man is similar to an animal, acting on physical impulses.

With the three parts of man, we can glorify God. Over the next few days, we’ll look at each of these three parts and get in-depth understanding of what makes us who we are.