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A Tripartite Being
When Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers he had a special burden and prayer for them. “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” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
Man is a tripartite being, spirit, soul, and body. The body is the physical part of us, the structure in which the spirit and soul dwell. When they leave, the body is dead according to Scripture. “The body without the spirit is dead” (James 2:26).
The spirit enables a person to have fellowship with God. The soul enables him to interact with his environment, and is the seat of his feelings and emotions. We are perfectly designed by the grace of God, for the complete enjoyment of God’s creation, of one another, and of Himself. No one can deny this marvellous design. So if there is a design, how can anyone deny that there is a Designer? The Bible plainly declares: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).
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