Alright. Here's something I've been wondering about for awhile. I have a few ideas about it, but I really don't know how to express them. I'm just going to ask you guys for help and we can all talk about it:
What is the Soul? And what is the Spirit? Are they different?
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I don't really have much to say about it except that I think the Soul is a human attribute and the Spirit is God's attribute.
I don't know, that's just my stab at the question.
So, the main place where I've been looking at in order to distinguish the difference between "soul" and "spirit" is Hebrews 4:12.
"The word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires."
There's a few ideas that I have from this verse. First of all I know there is a difference between the soul and the spirit, because this verse says that the word of God cuts between them. I'm looking at the comparison to bones. A joint is a place where two bones meet. Marrow is tissue found inside the bones. So... maybe the spirit resides in the soul? This seems to make sense if you look deeper into the original Greek of the two words.
The Greek words for soul and spirit here are psuche and pneuma, respectively. (Interesting fact: NOOMA is the title of Rob Bell's video series.) These words are both Greek words for breath, which is really cool. Remember in Genesis when God "formed man from the dust of the ground and He breathed the breathe of life into the man's nostrils" (Genesis 2:7)? Maybe this is when God set man apart from other animals and gave him a soul and a spirit. "God breathed the spirit of life into the man's nostrils." The Hebrew word used in Genesis there is nshamah which means "divine inspiration or spirit." I think this "breath of life," our soul and spirit is what God gave when he chose to create us "in His image" (Genesis 1:27).
But still, this doesn't tell me the difference between psuche and pneuma. So let's take a look at some related greek words. A word closely related with pneuma (spirit) is the word pneumatikos, which means non-carnal or not pertaining to the flesh or body. A word closely related with psuche (soul) is the word psuchikos, which means natural or physical. So, the difference between the soul in the spirit is physical and non-physical. Here's my idea:
The word "soul" has something to do with each of us. We all individually have a soul. It is something related to our physical being. Not that the soul is something physical inside of us, but the soul is something that has to do with our person existence here and possibly somewhere else after this world passes away. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that once this world does in fact pass away our souls remain. It is something unique to me. My soul will live forever. My soul will live with God in heaven someday. Maybe the soul is what gives a person their personality, maybe it has nothing to do with that. I think the soul is something that directly relates to me and who I am though.
The word "spirit" is talking about something that is entirely non-carnal. It has nothing to do with the physical world or even specifically with me. I think the spirit is something directly related to God. We talk about the Holy Spirit. He is often called the "Wonderful Counselor" (John 14:16). The Holy Spirit is God's way of living inside of us. Not physically living inside of us, but being in our soul, like marrow in a joint. The Spirit seems to be something like a conscience. In fact, they could possibly be the same thing. Does everyone have an individual spirit? I don't know. I know that people certainly have different consciences. But maybe that's just whether or the the Spirit lives within them or not. I'm thinking that everyone takes part in the same Spirit. The Spirit of God. This "Holy Spirit" who lives inside of us and guides us, and counsels us, and helps us to communicate with God (Romans 8:26b). This is what the Holy Spirit seems to be.
So... maybe I nailed it, chances are I didn't. I probably did a terrible job of teaching you anything because this is all still new to me. Please keep the thoughts coming. We can keep this discussion going as we learn and uncover more about God. We add these things to our painting brush stroke after brush stroke.
Basically, Doreen said in one sentence what I said in five paragraphs.
I am also guessing on this, but my way of viewing the soul and spirit
goes like this: the soul is like your consciense--it tells you the difference between right and wrong while you are alive on the earth. But the spirit, to me, is the one that goes up to heaven to be with Jesus after we die. Like Drew said, it's like the breath of life. So, maybe when you lose the breath of life, it's your spirit leaving you. I also think of the spirit as like the after-life thing because they compare spirits to ghosts: when you get baptized, the batized might say "I baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit," or they might say the same thing only with ghost replacing spirit.
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