"I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23b).
The body is easily understood as our torso, limbs and interior organs, but how does one decipher between the spirit and soul? Some have defined the soul as our will, mind and emotions and our spirit as the essence of who we are. Scripture seems to use the words soul and spirit interchangeably (Genesis 17:14; Matthew 10:28; Acts 2:27; Romans 1:9; 1Corinthians 2:11, 12:13; Philippians 4:23).
Our soul and our spirit are as closely associated as the marrow with the bone and our thoughts and our motives (Hebrews 4:12). Yet God is able to distinguish one from the other.
The point of Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians is that every part of us is committed to being and acting in a blameless manner.
