1 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."
Problem:
It is inferred from
this verse that one has a soul and spirit.
Solution:
The words,
"spirit" ("pneuma") and "soul" ("psuche") are used in a variety of ways in
Scripture. However, they are never referred to as conscious immortal entities
within man.
It is likely that in the passage under consideration by
"spirit" is meant "mind"1, and by "soul" is meant "life". The expression,
"spirit and soul and body" is synonymous with the whole person. Consider the
following:
Spirit, soul and body are synonymous with the whole person since
the preceding words, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly" imply a
parallelism between the two expressions.
The word "spirit" is used elsewhere
by the Apostle Paul as synonymous with the "mind". For example:
"For I
verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit . . . " (1 Cor. 5:3).
"That
ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind . . . " (Phil. 1:27).
See also 1
Cor. 7:34; 2 Cor. 7:1.
The word "soul" is used elsewhere by the Apostle for
"life". For example:
"So being affectionately desirous of you, we were
willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own
souls, because ye were dear unto us." (1 Thess. 2:8).2
"Moreover I call God
for a record upon my soul . . . " (2 Cor. 1:23).
A corpse is a body
without life. An idiot is a body with a soul (life), but with only an improperly
functioning spirit (mind). It is the person with spirit and soul and body - the
whole person, which Paul prays may be "preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ."
If the body is destroyed, then necessarily the
life and mind cease to function. In death there is a dissolution of being. (Ecc.
9:5,6; Psa. 146:4).
Footnotes:
J. B. Phillips in his translation
renders the Greek word "pneuma" (translated "spirit" A.V.) in this verse by
"mind". J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, (London: Geoffrey
Bles, 1960)