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You have a soul and you have a spirit.
Your spirit is the higher part of your inner person and your soul is lower. The spirit is the life principle bestowed upon man by God and is the part of you that perceives and grasps eternal things. You would never walk by faith and not by sight if you did not have a spirit. Your spirit was made to walk by faith and your soul only has the capacity of walking by sight.
Martin Luther said,”The spirit is the highest and noblest part of man which qualifies him to lay hold of incomprehensible, eternal, invisible things.”
Your soul is the seat of your personality, your feelings, desires, affections and aversions. Quite simply, your soul is the birthplace of the entire spectrum of human emotion. When the Bible references your soul, it is referencing that which influences your emotional responses to life.
In Luke 12, Jesus told a story about a rich farmer who was extremely successful and productive. When this prosperous farmer ran out of room to store his crops because the harvest was so bountiful, he decided to tear down his inadequate barns and build larger, more expensive ones. This man was so outrageously happy about his good fortune that he spoke to his soul and said, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry” (v. 19).
God heard this pompous man’s plans and was sadly disappointed with his decision to live a life of merely material productivity without a thought toward eternity. The farmer, whose soul was filled with mirth and barns were filled with plenty, had a spirit that was empty and dead.
Many Christians make the very same mistake as did our affluent farmer friend in the parable of Jesus. We continuously feed our soul and ration the nutrition of our spirit. If you spend your life focusing on earthly pleasures and emotional desires, then your soul will grow out of control. Allow me to ask you an extremely appropriate and telling question as we deal with our out-of-control emotions, Which is the healthier and stronger part of you? Your soul? Or your spirit? For every Christian, the obvious and passionate answer should be, “My spirit!”
