"For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
Hebrews 4:12
A friend recently asked me to explain the difference between the human soul and spirit. I'd never really given it much thought, so I began to investigate. I started with Hebrews 4:12, where Scripture makes a clear distinction between them, as it does between joints and marrow, and the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
I love teaching kids because if you can't explain something to little ones such as these, then you don't understand it yourself. The illustration I landed on was a coffee mug. A coffee mug is distinct from coffee, just as our soul (coffee mug) is distinct from our spirit (contents).
There is only one eternal Spirit, and that is the Holy Spirit, who is a wholly distinct member of our God of Holy Triunity. Every other spirit is always the expression of a relationship with the Holy Spirit. That spirit can either be degenerate, rebellious, prideful, corrupt, foolish, antagonistic, bitter, contentious, and destructive -or- it can be regenerate, submissive, humble, contrite, joyful, wise, discerning, peaceful, and constructive.
To avoid authentic submission, many choose counterfeit spirituality. Many pursue a spirit of self-improvement rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to conform them to the image of Christ. Others seek solace via a spirit of religious legalism rather than rebirth by the Spirit of God. Still, others embrace a spirit of information and intellect rather than a spirit of godly sorrow that leads to repentance.
Lucifer, aka the deceiver, the accuser, the Devil, etc., is neither an eternal nor omnipotent being. The Bible reveals that the Devil and his followers are always subject to God's sovereign authority. Like a dog on a leash, Satan must come and appear before God when called (Job 1), has limits imposed by God (Luke 4:5-7), is cast out from heaven (Isa 14:12; Luke 10:18; Rev 12:7-9), is only capable of counterfeiting rather than creating (Exodus 7), and will all ultimately be tossed into the lake of fire like garbage (Rev 20:10).
While the Bible doesn't explicitly state that spiritual beings (angels and demons) have souls, we should recall they are never the focal point of the biblical narrative. If our analogy of the soul as a receptacle and the spirit as its contents is plausible, then souls would be essential.
The Bible reveals various types of spirits. Some are the expressions of the Spirit of God as pure, just, wise, discerning, good, patient, courageous, honorable, and true. Meanwhile, others are the expression of the world and flesh that are corrupt, impure, evil, wicked, deceitful, and inclined to selfishness, vengeance, bitterness, dizziness, stupor, and folly.
God created both angels and humans as good. The Bible reveals in Isaiah 14 that the king of Babylon is referred to as "Lucifer, son of the dawn." It seems that Satan's sins of pride and vanity drove him to establish a throne "above the stars of God." Meanwhile, Ezekiel 28 seems to establish a correlation between the king of Tyre and a "guardian cherub" who was "the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty... blameless in your ways—until wickedness was found in you." The point is that the spirit of Lucifer, the spirit of unbridled hubris, vanity, rebellion, and autonomy, rather than the Spirit of the LORD, was present in these earthly kings.
1 Timothy 4:1 states, "Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons..." Demons are great teachers because they have a profound comprehension of the material. The deceitful spirits are the impact and interaction of those teachings within the human soul. When we choose to entertain those teachings of false doctrines, myths, endless genealogies, and empty speculations rather than God's plan which operates by faith, we take that which is pure, just, wise, discerning, good, patient, courageous, honorable, and true of the Holy Spirit and discard it from our souls like garbage and replace it with that which is corrupt, impure, evil, wicked, deceitful, and inclined to selfishness, vengeance, bitterness, dizziness, stupor, and folly.
The Bible reveals that the physical bodies we now inhabit are corruptable and perishable, but at the last trumpet, "the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality." Like the resurrected LORD, we will all have imperishable and immortal resurrected bodies housing our souls. For those souls filled with and sealed by the Holy Spirit, they will be the sheep of Matthew 25 inheriting the kingdom. For those souls filled with anything and everything else... they will be the goats of Matthew 25 going away into everlasting punishment.
We can have all the right information and have our souls still filled with deceiving spirits. We can have all the morality, externals, and all the religious rituals and ceremonies down and have our souls still filled with deceiving spirits. Striving to honor Christ Jesus by edifying His Body doesn't save us; it merely exposes what's in our cup.
King Jesus said it like this in John 12:47-48, "As for anyone who hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not receive My words: The Word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day."
The Word of God is living and active. It's sharper than any double-edged sword and pierces even to dividing soul and spirit. So what's in your soul's mug? Will the Word find the Spirit of God - a beautiful and unbridled compulsion desiring to honor Christ Jesus for His extravagant grace and mercy displayed at the Cross?
Will the Word find a spirit of endless thanksgiving expressed in humble service as a commissioned, foot-washing, Gospel testifying, slave of righteousness to the ends of the earth? Or, as with the Pharisees, will the Word find a soul mug that's only clean on the outside but filthy within? As with the kings of Babylon and Tyre, will the Word find your soul filled with the byproduct of demonic teachings compelling you, like Lucifer, to establish a throne and kingdom above the stars of God?
The final trumpet will sound. One day soon every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is LORD to the glory of God the Father. The Word will be the judge regarding the contents of our souls. The Shepherd's sheep will inherit the kingdom. Meanwhile, the goats will inherit everlasting torment. If that trumpet sounded right now, are you ready?
Blessings,
Kevin M. Kelley
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