THE SOUL

I am often struck by the consideration of having a soul. I am not even sure I know what that means. I do know it is not a clear subject Biblically in the sense that one can go to a certain passage and find a definition. If anything, there are too many definitions and these over-lap and include things like ‘the heart’ and ‘the body’ and ‘the spirit.’ What seems to be the focus line for the word soul is that it pertains to ‘life and vitality.’ The soul is who we are or what defines us as a person.

All of this is important because it includes so much of our person. Our soul represents all the inner workings of a human. The soul is the life-giving and intelligent principles that animate the human body, using bodily senses as its agents in the exploration of material things, and bodily organs for its self-expression and communication with the outside world. The soul originally came into being as a result of the supernatural inbreathing of God’s Spirit. “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath (or spirit) of life, and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). Paul explains further, ‘the first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit (restoring the dead to life).

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Jesus