This is a lesson Fred provided to the Woodland church of Christ in January 2018. Fred and Arnie discuss what Paul referred to as the body, soul and spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Discussion will be centered around what the Bible says about these three terms. We invite you to have your Bible available so you can verify what is being said. Take about 30 minutes to listen in on this episode.
This is a lesson Fred provided to the Woodland church of Christ in January 2018. Fred and Arnie discuss what Paul referred to as the body, soul and spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Discussion will be centered around what the Bible says about these three terms. We invite you to have your Bible available so you can verify what is being said. Take about 30 minutes to listen in on this episode.
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Fred This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ, meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. , 5 30 p. m. We meet for Bible study at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday and 7 p.m. on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com.
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Arnie Good afternoon. This is What Does The Bible say? I'm Arnie Granke, this is Fred Gosnell with me from Woodland church of Christ here in Sumter, South Carolina. Fred, several months ago you provided a sermon here at Woodland on Body, Soul and Spirit, and you made a number of interesting observations there. And what do you say we share that with our radio audience and our podcast audience?
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Fred Sounds like a good idea. Let's do it.
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Arnie All right. Go for it.
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Fred Well, Arnie, what, what it was, I was I was of course reading my Bible and I read first Thessalonians 5:23 there, Paul says. Of course, he's writing to the Saints, at Thessalonica, and he's about to end his first letter here. And he says, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it was interesting to me that Paul, uh, made mention of your whole spirit, soul and body, 3 components basically, and it led me to think, well that since the Bible says that, that's the name of our program, What does the Bible say? So So I said, Well, you know, I got to go do a little study on this. So I looked up places where body, soul and spirit were together or soul and spirit or body and soul. And in Ephesians er Hebrews 4 ;12 and 13, There, Paul says, God's word is living and active, and it is sharper than any two edged sword and cuts as deep as the place where soul and spirit meet, the place where joints and marrow meet. God's word judges a person's thoughts and intentions. So here the Hebrew writer talks about how sharp God's word is, and then it says it cuts as deep as the place where soul and spirit meet. So then I'm thinking, Well, where's that? course? It's got to be in the body. But then he says, it's the place where joints and marrow meet. Course, they're in the body. But it indicated to me that that these two things, the soul and the spirit, are closely associated. they're so closely associated that it would take the word of God to separate them. And then here
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Arnie At least something as sharp as...
spk_1: 3:08
Fred Sure And then he uses the comparison with the joints and the marrow and, of course, the joints and the marrow, they're not the same thing. But they are part of the physical body, and they are, of course, associated closely together. So the word body, of course. It's talking about the human body, but the word body, it's it's ah, the word Soma. It's 4983 for those who have Strong's numbering system, and it says, and we use lexicons to get the meanings of these words. And of course, we always got to recognize that lexicons are not inspired. They're produced by men. Men who have great knowledge had ,have been a lot of study of words, and they're useful to us, But, but they're not perfect all the time. Sometimes they're not necessarily correct in what they say. But here it says the body as a whole, the instrument of life, whether a man living and then he has Matthew 6:22 or dead Matthew 27:52 or in resurrection, in first Corinthians 15:44, or of beasts, Hebrews 13:11 or of grain, first Corinthians 15 37-38 or of even heavenly hosts or heavenly bodies, first Corinthians 15:40. In Revelation, 18:13 it's translated slaves. So in its figurative uses, the essential idea is preserved. That's according to Vine's. So the word body and like a lot of words in the Bible, is used in different contexts and refers to different things. So you have to pay attention to the context that you find the words in. So in first Corinthians 15:39 he's, Paul writes, he says. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of man, another flesh of beasts another of fishes and another of birds. So here we have the word flesh, and it's the same word in each of these cases. But it doesn't mean the same thing. In each of the cases, the flesh of men is different from the flesh of beasts. It's different from the flesh of fishes and is different from the flesh of birds. It's all flesh, but it's different. So yes again, we have to note the context that that the words are in. And, James says, for as the body without the spirit is dead, So faith without works is dead also. So So we have a body, our body, but and there's a spirit in it. But without the spirit, the body's dead. So the spirit provides life to the body course, there's another word for life in, In, in, in the Greek. In other contexts, the word life is Zoa, and that's where we get zoo from. But in this case, the body without the spirit is dead. So, you know, sometimes people are on the operating table and you know, they said while he was dead and the Dr brought him back to life. I guarantee you, when the spirit leaves the body. There's no doctor in the world can put it back.
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Arnie It could have been miraculously done in your New Testament times, but not now.
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Fred Not now. Okay, so Romans six Verse 12 Paul writes, writes there Let not sin, therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. So Paul says the body is mortal, where the word mortal means subject to death. And then in second Corinthians 5 :10 he says, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body. According to that he has done whether it be good or bad. So we're gonna be judged based on the things we do while we're alive. Our body is mortal. It's subject to death. When we die, there's nothing else that we can do. We can't sin anymore in the body. And that's one of the reasons why the Lord removed Adam and Eve from the garden. Had he left them in there, they would have remained alive and done what?
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Arnie and continue to sin. Exactly. that was that was part of the point that Paul was making in Romans, Chapter six, about being dead to sin there It shouldn't be happening in in the life of a Christian.
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Fred That's right. Yeah. So in 2 Corinthians 4 :11 Paul writes, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake that the life also of Jesus, might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So our flesh is mortal. Our flesh is subject to death. So in 2 Corinthians 5:4 he says for we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. And again, our mortality, our death is ah, something that we don't like. And again the word mortal here for those who have Strongs, it's number 2349. It's Thnetos. It's from 2348. It's liable to die. So our body and our flesh is liable to die. Now I would submit to you that that is never said about our soul or our spirit. Never said that our soul or our spirit is mortal. So, So The word spirit in the New Testament is number 4151 and that word is Pneuma. Now you might recognize that word. We get Pneumatics from it. Pneumatics is those things that are operated by air. So it's, uh, it's a current of air. It's breath, blast or breeze, by analogy or figuratively, a spirit, human, the rational soul by implication vital principle. Now again, this is, the word Soul is a different word. So, so, again, the lexicographers kind of throw us a curve here. by implication, vital principle, mental disposition, etcetera or superhuman and angel demon or( divine) God, Christ's spirit, the Holy Spirit. It appears 379 times. So in the King James version, when you see the word ghost or you see the word life, you see the word spirit, spiritual or spiritually or the word mind. In a lot of cases, that's the word Pneuma. Some cases it's not. So. That's why if you have ah, if you have it have an Englishman's, Englishman's keyed to Strong's, you can you can see these words. These numbers. It'll it'll show you all the passages where a particular word appears, and you can find out whether or not the King James, whether the translator's, translated it properly.
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Arnie All right, well, uh, I'm looking here at James chapter 26, Chapter two and verse 26 James says uses both body and spirit. He said, as the body without the spirit is dead. So faith without works is dead also. And that that goes back to the point that you were making a few minutes ago about we can't revive the body, once the body is dead, when the spirit leaves the body. That's it. Unless the Lord is there, one of the apostles is there to revive it. That's not gonna happen
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Fred Exactly. Now. Jesus, in Luke 23:46, we have Jesus on the cross and he says, the translation in the world English Bible is, Jesus crying with a loud voice said Father, into your hands. I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. Now the King James version. You who have those. The King James version says he gave up the ghost. But that word in there is not really in Luke 23:46. So the word there is not spirit. The word there as indicated, Jesus breathed his last. Now the same thing is said by Stephen in Acts 7:59 says, They stoned Stephen calling upon God and and saying Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. So, so these inspired people, Jesus and James, are fully aware that they possess a spirit. And when we die, we make disposition of the body. We put the body in the grave. But when our spirit leaves the body, God makes disposition of our spirit. He's the one that sends the spirit to the place where he has prepared for it, and we'll get there in just a minute. So John four 24 says God is a spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So God is identified as a spirit. I find it interesting that it never says of God, the Father, anything about him having a soul. Now that's a question that that I'm still working on that, I think. But I never, I I haven't found a place that talked about that.
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Arnie The fact that that God is a spirit. Of course we have spirits. That that's the part of us that is made in the image of God.
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Fred Exactly. Now, now and just just think about that. Later on, we'll see that Jesus' soul was not left in Hades, But Jesus was a human being like we are. And, uh, that's something to think about. Human beings have body, soul and spirit. God, the Father, And here next passages, Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us. We gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection onto the Father of spirits and live the Father of our spirits is God. Yeah. You know, a lot of people like to do a lot of genealogy, and they want to know where they came from. to know where., That who their father was, who the grandfather was, where they came from. I'm not much interested in that, because I'm afraid I might find out somebody was a horse thief back in my, uh, my, uh, family history. But I know who the father of my spirit is, and that's God. So that's what's important to me. And we ought to remember that because we have to be subject to him. And then we must be...
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Arnie ...in, interestingly enough, as I'm looking in in Luke, Chapter three, the genealogy here, apparently of of Mary, that that verse 20 Verse 36 takes us all the way back to the Old Testament there and mentions Adam, which was the son of God, exactly. Father of the spirits was was God.
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Fred That's right. Yeah, we we generate physically from our fathers and mothers, but we generate, our spirits, they don't come from father and mother. Our spirits come from God. So now we're on the spirit. The Old Testament, of course, has that that word. And in the Old Testament, it's number 7307 in the Strong's and that's that word is Ruwach, and it's from 7306 which is which is the word for wind and by resemblance, the lexicographer Strong says, breath, a sensible or even violent exhalation, figuratively life, anger unsubstantiality by extension, a region of the sky; by resemblance, spirit, but only of a rational being, (including its expression and functions). And it appears 378 times. In the King James version, sometimes it's translated air. Sometimes anger sometimes blast, sometimes breath, sometimes cool courage, mind, quarter, side, spirit, spiritual or tempest or vain, whirl wind or windy. So again, you have to pay attention to the context that these words appear in the Bible in order to, as Paul says, study to show yourself approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of truth. So So we find that word in Ecclesiastes 12 verse seven, and there Solomon writes, he says, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. So again. When we die, we make disposition of the body. We put it in the grave, and if it stays there long enough, it turns back to dust, which is what what God got it made it from. But then the spirit returns to God who gave it. So God makes disposition of our spirit, and then we'll see where it goes here shortly. But then, in Eccliastes 3:21 there Solomon writes who knoweth the spirit of man that goes upward and the spirit of the beast that goes downward to the earth. Now remember, we talked about Paul talked about the flesh and the fact that the word flesh applies to man, beast, fish and birds. But even though the same word flesh is used the flesh of each one of them is different. So here, So here. Now the spirit of man goes upward. The spirit of beast goes downward. I would submit to you that my little dog, Sashi, that I love a lot when she dies. As they say, Rover, she's dead all over. So when she goes in the ground, the spirit that she has goes with her
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Arnie Bible doesn't mention anything about doggie heaven.
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Fred No, there's no doggie heaven, When beasts die their spirit goes downward to the earth. It's not. It doesn't continue, but the spirit of man goes upward. Of course, it goes to God who gave it, and he makes the disposition of it. So that, of course, in the Old Testament, we also have the word soul and that word is number 5315 and that is Nephesh, and according to Strong's, I believe it is. It's It's a feminine noun, meaning breath, the inner being with its thoughts and emotions. It's used 753 times in the Old Testament. It has a broad range of meanings, like a lot of these words and most of its uses fall into these categories. it's Ah, breath, literally or figuratively, in Jeremiah 15:9; the inner being with its thoughts and emotions in Judges 10:16 and Proverbs 14:10. Also Ezekiel 25:6; and, by extension, the whole person in Genesis 12:5 and Leviticus four two and Ezekiel, 18:4. Moreover, the term can cover the animating force of a person or his or her dead body in the Leviticus 21:11 and Numbers 6:6 and Jeremiah 2:34. It's even applied to animals in a number of the above senses. The breath in Job 41:21 and 13; the inner being in Jeremiah 2:24; the whole creature, Genesis 1:20; the animating force Leviticus 17:11. So when this word is applied to a person now, notice what he says, it doesn't refer to a specific part of a human being. The Scriptures view a person as a composite whole, fully relating to God and not divided in any way Deuteronomy 6:5, 1st Thessalonians, 5:23. But in First Thessalonians 5:23, Paul makes a distinction between the body, the soul and the spirit. So so again, we have to watch what the le.. in the lexicons say. Paul would disagree with this fellow that wrote this, and I'm convinced that I think I'm gonna go with Paul
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Arnie Now. They're scholars, but they're not perfect.
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Fred They're not inspired and they're not perfect. So if there's a difference between what the scholar says and what the Bible says, that we've got to go with the Bible
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Arnie well, and just just to add a little lesson on that is I think that we need to be careful when we use human sources, commentaries and lexicons and dictionaries and all those kinds of things, and recognize that while these might be experts, as, far as we're concerned, they're not 100% right. So we have to make sure that what they're saying agrees with what the Bible says. That's the standard that we need to be operating on.
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Fred Exactly. Of course, that standard applies to us. That's right. Fred's not inspired. Freds Freds, just like everybody else. He, has he has his Bible and he has the Bible to study and everything that Fred decides, he thinks the Bible says, not necessarily so. It's only true if God God says it in his word, It's not true just because Fred says so, and that's true of us all. So So. We've got to keep an open mind when we study the Bible and be willing to accept what it says and change what we might think, that might not be correct. So so in Genesis 2:7 there of course, it's it's, ah, the account of the Lord creating man, It says. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Of course, our, the word soul, that's, that's our word that we're looking at. And he says he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. So and man became a living soul. So so then, in Psalm 16:10 we have this same word there. David writes, for you will not leave my soul in sheol,, nor will you allow your Holy one to see corruption.
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Arnie That's a passage that that in fact, Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost with regard to Christ,
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Fred That's right. We're going to see that here in a little bit. If
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Arnie this is a prophecy of Christ
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Fred If we have time to get there, we'll see that again. So in the New Testament, So since we're on soul in the New Testament that word soul is number 5590 in Strong's and It's Ah, Psuche. It's from 5594, Breath i. e. by implication, spirit. And again, here's our here's our Lexicon. The word is not spirit. Spirit is Pneuma, remember, But this is soul This is 5590 Psuche, abstractly or concretely, the animal sentient principle only; thus distinguished on the one hand from New Testament 4151. And he's right there. That's Pneuma, which is the rational and immortal soul. well, but then again Pneuma and and Psuche are two different words. Soul, and spirit are two different indications in the human, as Paul says it so., and on the other from new testament word 2222. That's the word Zoa that is translated life in most cases, that we get the word zoo from which is mere vitality, even of plants. So these terms thus exactly correspond, respectively, to the Hebrew OldTestament 5315 on and those are listed as ah Nephesh and 7307 which is Ruwach and 2416 which is Chi, I think is that's That's one the word for life. So in the King James version, you'll find soul translated heart, heartily, life, mind, soul us or you. And again, you've got to pay attention to the context where these words appear. So Jesus in Matthew 10 Verse 28 he says it be not afraid of those killing the body and are not able to kill the soul but fear, rather him, who is able both soul and body to destroy in Gehenna. And that's the final Hell. So the interesting thing here is Jesus is telling us that in Gehenna there's a soul and a body and he says that it could be killed there. And of course, he's talking about God. But he doesn't say that God does so. in that you were able to, he's able to and and the same thing. We find the same saying idea. In Matthew, 26 53 there, Jesus was speaking to Pilate, and he told Pilate, he says. Basically, he says, think not that I can, uh get 12 legions of angels and basically stop what you're doing. And of course, that Jesus could have done that. But he didn't do that in the same way God is able to kill both soul and body in Gehenna. But he doesn't do that. And, uh, there are a number of people that believe that he can and does, but the Bible doesn't teach it. So Matthew 16: 26- 27 Jesus there says for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? So again, uh, the soul of man is very valuable, a matter of fact, it's one soul of one individual is more valuable than the whole world, according to Jesus. So he says, What will a man give in exchange for his soul? So how would one lose his soul? Of course he would lose it if he gave it to Satan. Basically, it's it's ah, it's my soul. Of course, I could give it up if I want to. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from feshly lusts, which war against the soul. So the soul was something that can be waged, war against and those things that what they referred to is fleshly lusts are what is bad for the soul. Then in Acts. 2:31 32 Here we have David being quoted by Peter and he says he and that's David foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ that his soul was not left in Hades. Nor did his flesh see corruption. So here we have Jesus in Hades and his soul was there that remember Jesus said Father unto thee, I commit my spirit. So remember where Paul talks about how closely associated the soul and the spirit is, and I would submit to you that where the soul where the spirit goes, the soul goes and Jesus' soul was not left in Hades, and his spirit was gave his spirit to God for disposition and disposition of souls and spirits is made by God and they go to Hades. And of course, in one of our lessons, it might have been a couple of months ago. We talked about the, uh, the resurrection and what occurs then. Now first Thessalonians, 5: 23 -24 Again, Here's what Paul says. 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, Faithful is He that calleth you who also will do it. The word preserved there, By the way. It's not preserved, like the fig preserves that I make.
: 25:09
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Arnie which are very good.
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Fred And then they last about 18 months. The word preserved there says that has the idea of watching over. So, uh, Paul is praying that God watches over their souls and keeps them and their spirits from from being harmed. And he says, Now God's able to do that. You know, God knows God knows who we are. From a physical standpoint, everybody has a DNA coding and they're unique and each soul and each spirit belongs in one particular body, and there will come a time when there is going to be a resurrection, and God's gonna put all that back together. It's no problem to him. He he knows it, Paul says faithful is He that called you, who is able and will do it. So in Second Thessalonians, 2 :14 and Paul references that he that calleth you in second Thessalonians two 14 says Whereunto. He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are all accountable beings. We're accountable to God about what we do. And so, uh, everybody is not going, not going to be saved. Only those who obey God will. And he calls us, Paul says by the gospel. So, he says in Romans 1:16 I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, where it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it to the Jew first and also to the Greek. That's why in these programs we talk about the Gospel a lot of times, and the gospel is, uh, that which is in the New Testament. The Gospel of Christ is, and that's what God uses to call us to back to him. Of course, we're all sinners, and we all have to obey him at some point. It's the gospel that he uses to call us in Mark 16:15 and 16, Jesus, there says. He said unto them Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he that believeth in his baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned. And of course, that's the great commission as we have said. and Arnie It looks to me like we're getting close to the end here on this. Only have a minute or two left.
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Arnie You know, we have about a minute. Okay,
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Fred Let me do one more Acts. 8 :35 to 37. Here we have Philip. He's ah teaching the eunuch. And he opened his mouth and began at the same scripture. In Isaiah 53. And he preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on the way they came into a certain water in the eunuch said, See, Here is water What doth hinder me to be baptized. And Philip said if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and it's except now. When he heard this so, they stop the chariot and they went down into the water. And then Philip was preached, he baptized the eunuch.
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Arnie Fred, thank you for for sharing that with us and and with our readers. This is What Does the Bible Say, and it's presented by the Woodland church of Christ here in Sumter, South Carolina, and we worship every Lord's Day and have bible study on Wednesday evenings, and we hope if you're in the Sumter area that you'll that will come and be with us. We hope that you tune us in again next Lord's Day and we wish you a happy and healthy week.