Body, Soul & Spirit.
*A disclaimer to krumbine & billO.. you’re probably not going to enjoy this post… love me anyway? =)*
…Yes, I have finally come to that fork in the road. I am writing a blog that deals with faith….. or if you want to be really dirty.. r e l i g i o n.. *sigh*
I was presented an interesting conundrum the other day (and conversations rarely ever interest me to this degree anymore). A group of friends and I were having a discussion about these 3 different teachings.
#1 : Man is made up of 3 things. Body, Soul & Spirit. Body being the flesh. Soul being your emotions, your intellect, your identity. And Spirit being where God dwells in us.
- To be honest, this was the first that I had ever heard of this 3-element theory. I had never thought of the Spirit and Soul being two separate things.. I suppose I always assumed those words were just different ways of saying the same thing.
#2 : Man is made up of 2 things. Body & SoulSlashSpirit. (Soul and spirit being one and the same.)
-This is what I had originally believed. We’ve got the flesh..obviously. And then we’ve got that weird, floaty, energy-thing that ascends when our bodies give out. Even since we were teenie-tinies we’ve been taught this through cartoons, comics, etc.. Every time the coyote blows himself up, the body singes and the SoulSlashSpirit floats upward.
#3 : Man is not made up of elements at all, man was created in God’s image as a whole. Not fragments that are put together… body - soul - spirit, they’re all one and the same : human. This theory, if we look at the bible, is the Jewish way of looking at things. And as a Christian, this is probably the best example I/we should adhere to.. versus the Greek philosophies of floaty-essence-spirit-thingies that dwell in bodies.
I’ve lived most of my life in a very secular manner… I didn’t get into Christianity till my late teens. So mostly, I still consider myself as a very non-religious person, in the way I think and the way I reason. My instinct is not to reason with WWJD, my instinct is still to reason by my own measures. Sure, I have a larger hunger for spirituality now that I’ve been exposed to different theories of love and so forth… but mostly, I’m still a pretty normal free-thinker….that likes Jesus quite a bit. =)
So with my “secular mind” , I’ve grown up assuming theory #2 is all there is.
And when I had this discussion with friends I took it to a pastor - who is also a good friend of mine - and he’s the one who introduced theory #3 to us. This is probably because this theory is the most biblically sound one as far as the history goes… but after extensive debates and arguments with me, even he started to see things in a different light. His argument was that “in the bible whenever someone mentions the heart or the mind or the spirit, there is really no difference. What they’re referring to is the person, as a whole. We’re not made of little pieces that get jumbled around - when God created us, He said we were good, we were made in his image… we were made whole.”
My reply to this was that even Jesus Himself in the bible says things like “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28; Luke 12:5) - so CLEARLY he is making quite an obvious distinction there. He is intentionally showing a difference between the body, and the soul. And with this, my pastor-friend sort of rubbed his chin, nodded, and silently accepted my point - at least to chew on.
Before I came to know the teachings of Christianity… I thought it to be as simple as theory #2, we have body and we have soul. But before the night of this discussion I had forgotten that as a Christian, I can not miss that extra element of the Spirit.
(this next part is going to sound like complete radical bullshit rambling.. for this I apologize.) As a Christian, I made a decision to accept Jesus and the Holy Spirit (yes I just said that) into my life, into my heart. So I can’t deny that with God living in me through the spirit.. it has added another element to my being. And the separation/distinction? I can not intelligently accept theory #3 because I can’t put it together in my mind that flesh, soul, and spirit are one and the same. So often the flesh wants what my soul or even mind knows is wrong. So often my spirit guides me in directions I know are good. So often my spirit takes the shape of my conscience and whispers guidance in my ears. And all too often, the alignment that I’m sure God meant for : Spirit to Soul to Body, becomes jumbled. Through selfishness, foolishness or plain stubbornness, all too often the Body does not listen to the Soul who ignores the Spirit. This is how I know there is a difference, a distinction. The schizophrenic pull in different directions by different parts of me is a painfully clear example of these elements.
………So this is the thing my mind has been chewing on the last few days. It is so rare that a topic of discussion interests me to this extent - to the point that I’m still thinking about it days after. So I’m embracing this interest/inspiration, and i’m pouring all this sickening spiritual shit onto my blog.. where unfortunately you have found yourselves. :)
I tried for so long not to write a religious blog.. really I did. I know it only leads to endless arguments and blah blah blah. But this, really intrigued me… and hopefully the subject matter is that which we can all still discuss together no matter our beliefs - because I do appreciate your opinions and in fact, because of our different beliefs, I really do want to know…
What do you think?
