Are you a spirit with a soul that lives in a body? Or are you a living soul – a living being? Your answer to this question will reveal whether you define yourself through the teachings of ancient Greek philosophy or the Holy Bible. Most Christians would define themselves as “a spirit with a soul who lives in a body”.
This is because to them the spirit is paramount in their thinking and theology. Others would make the “soul” paramount. But the Apostle Paul defines a person as being composed of “spirit, and soul, and body” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
In Romans 12:3, “and” (a conjunctive) links the three words used by Paul to describe the will of God as “good and acceptable and perfect”. You could describe the one you love as simply “beautiful”, or you could say, “Beautiful and lovely and gorgeous.” (The more such adjectives the better!)
So, saying things three ways does not prove there is more than one aspect to a human being. No more than the commandment: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) This appears to indicate that humans are composed of a number of parts, the soul being but one of them, but it’s simply God’s way of saying “everything” — it’s called a Hebraism.
Most Christians define “soul” as “intellect, will and emotions”. But when we realize that the words of Jesus in Mark 12:30 are quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5, we conclude that we cannot allow ourselves to be defined by ancient Greek philosophy, but rather by the Bible.
In the eyes of many the ethereal human spirit is but one of three aspects of a person – the others being the soul and the body. But to the ancient Hebrews a “soul” was a living person. When God breathed life into the clay form that He had shaped, Adam became a living soul – a “nephesh”: a living human being.
Paul’s desire that the “spirit and soul and body” be blameless is a Hebrew way of saying the whole person, as in 1 Thessalonians 5:23). The “good and acceptable and perfect” will of God does not refer to three stages, but three ways of describing God’s will in its entirety.
The Old Testament makes it clear that “many souls” means many persons (Genesis 46 has eight references to men as “souls”). So, when the psalmist sings “Bless the LORD, O my soul” he is singing, “Bless the LORD, I say to myself.” (Psalm 103:1)