I Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV)
Now may the God of Peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole Spirit and Soul and Body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are many Scriptures in the Bible that speak to man being Spirit, Soul and Body. Although we may not fully understand the intricacies of the way we are made, we do know from the Bible that we are created by God from the dust of the ground and that He breathed life into our nostrils, and we became a living being. (Genesis 2) We also know that we are made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27) With the Psalmist David, we can say "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:14).
I think we can all understand the concept of being a physical body because we can see our body and that of those around us. What is the spirit and soul of man though? That is a question often asked. Let's see if we can explain one way of looking at it.
Spirit is that part of us that can connect with God and have fellowship with Him. It is the spiritual part of our being, the immaterial part that connects with God. God is spirit and through our spirit we can communicate with Him.
Our soul on the other hand is often talked about as being immaterial also but equated with our mind and our emotions. It is our free will, our thoughts, our feelings and emotions which then drives our bodily life and social relations.
Together the spirit, soul and body comprise the whole of a person. Each part must be healthy in order to be healthy as a whole person. Let's think about this in bodily terms to explain what I mean. Let's say that you are a "healthy" person; i.e. you have had no physical ailments and then all of a sudden you begin to have chest pains and discover that you have a bad heart. Can you say that you are still healthy? Or are you now physically ill? People would now consider you ill because you have a physical illness. Now let's take this to the "whole" of your person. If you have a mental illness perhaps, how soon before other physical symptoms start showing up? Our mind and body are connected and often when the mind has an issue, say anxiety, physical symptoms are usually not far behind. When you are anxious, have you ever felt that feeling in the pit of your stomach? How many anxious people end up with stomach ulcers or other dis-ease. Now I want to join the spirit in to this also! God created us to have a relationship with Him. We are meant to walk and talk with God but sin entered the picture so many years ago in the Garden of Eden and we became separated from Him. Yet, He had a plan to redeem us and sent His Son to die for us on the cross. His Word, the Bible, tells us the story of our redemption and how we ought to live, how we can trust in Him and about the peace that He gives even in the midst of the storm. We need to have a healthy spiritual relationship with our Creator. I will not say that if we have a healthy relationship with him, that we will not struggle with health issues either mentally or physically but I will say that a healthy spiritual relationship is necessary to help us be in the right frame of mind so that we have hope now and in the future, peace in the midst of the storms of life, and have a better chance at living a healthier life. It all ties together and there are many aspects of each part of us that all come together in making us healthy. Physically, our environment, our diet, our life's habits and other choices all influence how healthy our bodies are. Our mind, our emotions and feelings are influenced by our experiences and any trauma. Our spiritual life will be influenced by what we were taught as children about God, our church experiences, whether we develop a relationship with God or just lean into a religion with no real relationship. Do you pray daily, read the Bible, go to church, listen and obey God's word? These things will affect your spiritual life.
My hope here through my blogs and the services offered is that your whole body, soul and spirit will be blameless and healthy. I hope that if you don't know Christ as your Savior that you would come to know Him. Feel free to contact me if you do not know Christ and would like to know how to accept Him as your Lord and Saviour. I would be happy to pray with you, send you information, and celebrate your new life in Christ.
Follow my blogs on helpful tips to live healthy both spiritually, mentally and physically. Here is to complete health and harmony of spirit, mind and body!
