1 THESSALONIANS 5:23 “And 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.”
There is much debate over the Holy Trinity which consists of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Some try to say it does not exist while others have varying opinions on how it exists. Personally I think the infinite God is far too complex for the finite human brain to comprehend.
As far as the Trinity’s existence I think some of the best evidence can be found by looking at humans. God made us in His image and as such we too have three distinct features – spirit, soul, and body – which Paul makes reference to in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica.
Our spirit (pneuma) can be described as what makes us go. Not the rudimentary elements we receive from food and nourishment or even the air we breathe but the will to live. Our spirit is what motivates us and directs us. If you were to compare our spirit to an object you would not use a solid like a battery but rather a liquid or gaseous matter, both of which are capable of being mixed or contaminated.
When we pray for God to fill us with His Spirit we are asking Him to fill our tank with His brand of gas and purge out all the fumes from His competitor’s petrol. Our spirit is what keeps us alive. When someone is low or out of spirit they are described to have “lost the will to live”.
Our soul (psyche) is, to put it plainly, us: our thoughts, feelings, memories, and desires. When we lose the spirit to live our soul goes on to the next life. What houses both our spirit and soul is the body (soma). Our bodies are nothing but a shell made of dirt (for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return – Genesis 3:19). When the soul passes from the body it will decompose back into dirt while the soul will pass on to another body, presumably one made of another substance.
To compare the bodily trinity to a car would be to say the car is the body, the soul is the driver, and the spirit is the fuel. The body of a computer is the wires, boards, covering, and hardware such as the monitor, keyboard, and mouse while its soul is the data it holds. The spirit which keeps it all going is electricity.
When Paul prays for God to sanctify us and preserve us blameless he is essentially requesting God to surround us and fill us with the Holy Spirit. With the Spirit as our guide our mind (soul) will direct the body to follow after God’s will and not after the temptations of the world which will in turn leave us righteous and blameless.
We too can pray for this same sanctification and God is ready and waiting to give it to us.
Mount Nebo Baptist Church - Fred, Texas 