The following is based upon a study that I undertook to help myself understand the difference between the Soul and the Spirit. My study was based on the Bible and not human tradition or the current manner in which the words are used today, although that manner is pretty close to truth.
I began with the definitions of the Hebrew and Greek words used in Scripture for Soul and Spirit. The definitions are not definite, and did not help me. The best definition was from pneuma (Strong’s G4151), the Greek word used for Spirit – “the vital principal by which the body is animated.”
Here are my personal conclusions based upon Scripture (all emphasis is my own):
To begin with, the Bible gives us what I call the “human trilogy.”
“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.” – I Thessalonians 5:23We do not have a Soul – we are a Soul, we have a body. The body is the easy part. It is the physical container in which our Soul resides in this world.
More difficult is the Soul. The Soul is our being, our person. When God formed man, he became a living Soul (Genesis 2:7).
In the Bible the Soul is used as a person. “The Soul that touches any unclean thing ... that Soul shall be cut off from his people” (Leviticus 7:21). This describes a physical human that physically touched something.
But the Soul is also used as our immaterial being. “O LORD, thou hast brought up my Soul from the grave” (Psalm 30:3). The statement “the Soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20) is describing the being of a physical person because everyone will experience physical death, whether they sin or not . When Rachel was dying, her Soul was described as departing (Genesis 35:18).
The Soul is our person, our being, that will survive the death of the body.
Today the Soul and the Spirit are sometimes used interchangeably, but Scripture notes that they are separate.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit …” – Hebrews 4:12The Spirit is the life of the physical body. “The body without the spirit is dead …” (James 2:26). The mighty God, the Creator of all things, He gives us the Spirit of life (Isaiah 42:5) When our physical body dies, it returns to the earth, but our Spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). When the Lord Jesus brought a young girl back to life her Spirit, which had gone, returned to her (Luke 8:53-55).
The Spirit is the lifeforce that animates our physical bodies.
Not only does the Most High God give us the Spirit of life, but when that Spirit returns to Him, He also gives us Hope. According to the Covenant confirmed by the Blood of Jesus, when we arrive in Glory the Lord Jesus “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body …” (Philippians 3:20-21). Hallelujah!
Praise the Father and the Lord Jesus for this wonderful Hope! Praise them forever!