Spirit, Soul, Body, Mind

Exploring Spirituality in the Writings of Paul

Reductive Materialism• ‘You, your joys and your sorrows,

your memories and your ambitions, your sense of identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules’

Francis Crick

Dictionary.com• “spirituality” is • 1. the quality or fact of being spiritual; • 2. incorporeal or immaterial nature; • 3. predominantly spiritual character

as shown in thought, life, etc.; spiritual tendency or tone;

• 4. Often, spiritualities. property or revenue of the church or of an ecclesiastic in his or her official capacity.

Living Words of Wisdom• “The definition of spirituality is

that which relates to or affects the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.”

Body, Flesh, Spirit and Soul

Body

Flesh

Spirit

Soul

Examples of Uses of Body

• Romans 6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

• Romans 6:12 Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.

• Romans 7:4 In the same way, my friends,1 you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

• 1 Corinthians 6:13 "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,"1 and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Examples of Uses of Body

• Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,1

by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual2 worship. (Rom 12:1 NRS)

Examples of Uses of Body

Examples of Uses of Flesh

• Romans 1:3 the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh

• Romans 8:4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom 8:4 NRS)

Examples of use of Flesh• 1 Corinthians 3:1 And so,

brothers and sisters,1 I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.

Paul’s Duality• Old Creation• Adam• Flesh• Law

• Body

• New Creation• Christ• Spirit• Grace

• Body

Nephesh in Genesis• Genesis 2:7 then the LORD God

formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (neshmah) of life; and the man became a living (nephesh) being

• Genesis 9:4 Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life (nephesh), that is, its blood.

Nephesh elsewhere• Genesis 19:19 your servant has

found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I die.

• Psalm 30:3 O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.

Psuche in Paul• Romans 2:9 There will be

anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,

• Colossians 3:23 Whatever your task, put yourselves (doing it from the psuche) into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters

Psuche in Paul• Philippians 1:27 Only, live your

life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind (psuche) for the faith of the gospel

Spirit• John 3:8 The wind blows where

it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

• Ezekiel 37:14 4 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD."

Dale Martin• ‘in the ancient world, the human

body was not like a microcosm; it was a microcosm – a small version of the Universe at large’

The Corinthian Body p. 16)

God’s Spirit or Our Spirit?• 1 Corinthians 14:15 What

should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.

• Ephesians 1:17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him,

Analogy between our Spirit and God’

• 1 Corinthians 2:11 For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 15.44-45• 44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised a

spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

• It is sown a psuchikos body and raised a pneumatikos body. If there is a psuchikos body there is also a pneumatikos body. Thus it is written ‘The first man, Adam, became a living psuche; the last Adam became a life making pneuma.

Heart/Mind• Deuteronomy 29:4 But to this

day the LORD has not given you a mind (heart) to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.

• Proverbs 19:8 To get wisdom is to love oneself; to keep understanding is to prosper. (lit. The one acquiring the heart is loving himself)

Ephesians 4.17-24• 17 I saw this and I bear witness in the Lord:

no longer to walk around as the Gentiles walk around (i.e. behaviour), in the pointlessness of their minds. 18 Being darkened in thought, having no connection to the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, through the stubbornness of their hearts… 21 For if you have heard him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. 22 to put off the former way of life, the old self, corrupt according to the passions of deceit, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Paul and Integration• 1 Corinthians 14:15 What

should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also.

Romans 12.1-2• Romans 12:1 I appeal to you

therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and perfect.