Spirit, Body & Soul

[GrowUpDeep]

Luk 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.

I have always understood that we are spirit, we have a soul and live in a body. And, that the soul is our mind our will and our emotions. If this is the case then I wonder why mind and soul are listed seperately in this command. Would the heart be part of the soul too? I understand that we are to love the Lord with all that's in us. Whenever I read this verse I wonder about it :)

[graceforme]

Luk 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.

I have always understood that we are spirit, we have a soul and live in a body. And, that the soul is our mind our will and our emotions. If this is the case then I wonder why mind and soul are listed seperately in this command. Would the heart be part of the soul too? I understand that we are to love the Lord with all that's in us. Whenever I read this verse I wonder about it :)


The spirit is the spiritual principle embodied in human beings. The soul is the immaterial essense of us. We will always have a soul, but we can choose to ignore the spiriual aspect of ourselves. I think He said it this way because we have free will - that is - we can make the decision to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, or we can choose not to. It is always our choice. Maybe that's why He put emphasis on each one separately - to make us understand that we had a choice to make, and He desires that we make the right one.

[GrowUpDeep]

That's good. I can see your meaning. If I were trying to emphasize the use of the whole body I might say... use your head, your arms, your knees.. all of it! Like that. Hmmmmmmmm :thumb

[LaMontre]

Luk 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.

I have always understood that we are spirit, we have a soul and live in a body. And, that the soul is our mind our will and our emotions. If this is the case then I wonder why mind and soul are listed seperately in this command. Would the heart be part of the soul too? I understand that we are to love the Lord with all that's in us. Whenever I read this verse I wonder about it :)

It helps to go back to the beginning, and see what we are according to the creation narrative:

Gen 2:7 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.

Here we can see that, the spirit of man, when it came into contact with the body, created the individual.....the soul.

Soul (psuche in the greek) in the scripture is really what man is in total.

Man has a spirit, and a body, and the two together make him a living soul.

[Joel]

Bingo.