SOUL SAVING

When I was growing up and on into my teens I often heard the phrase ‘to save your soul.’ I think even way back then that always kind of confused me. There was also talk of having ‘soul-saving revivals’ and such. It just appeared that only ‘saving my soul’ was leaving a lot of me ‘unsaved.’ Because we are ‘saved’ only while living that leaves a lot of extra parts ‘unsaved.’ I used to think these kinds of things… still do.

This was addressed early to the Thessalonian church:
“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.” (1 Thessalonians 5:22-24)

Dallas Willard (1935-2013) wrote:
“We see that the soul is the deepest and the most vital part of the person as a whole. It is often treated as the person, and we actually do this when we talk about “saving our soul.” Well, you know, we don’t save our soul and leave our emotions and our feelings and our body and all the rest of it out. That’s just a way of talking that emphasizes the soul as so fundamental that we can, in some cases, treat it as the whole person because it actually is the thing that integrates all of these aspects of the self and makes them work together.”

I think that is the way it is to be understood as well. Especially from the context of the Great Commandment:

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