First Peter 3:3 and 4 say, “Let your adorning not be the outward plaiting of hair and putting on of gold or clothing with garments, but the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is very costly in the sight of God.” Our adornment must be in the spirit.
The above seven items concerning the condition of the spirit are adequate to represent all the matters of the spirit: to worship God in the spirit, to serve God in the spirit, to pray in the spirit, to live and walk in the spirit, to know the things of God in the spirit, to work for God in the spirit, and to adorn ourselves in the spirit. Are there any passages in the Word telling us to worship in the soul, to serve in the soul, to pray in the soul, or to live and walk according to the soul? Rather, there are verses in the four Gospels in which the Lord Himself tells us to deny the soul, to put the soul on the cross. Likewise, are there any verses telling us that we can know God in the soul? On the contrary, 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us that the soulish man, the man of the soul and living in the soul, cannot understand the things of God and that the things of God are foolishness to him. Moreover, there are no verses telling us to help the brothers in the soul.
By all this we can see the great difference between the spirit and the soul. The teaching of dichotomy says that the soul and spirit are the same. However, they are not the same, just as we cannot say that the ears are the eyes. The ears and the eyes are very close to each other, but they are not the same.
Luke 1:46 and 47 say, “And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has exulted in God my Savior.” This portion of the Word proves that the spirit is not the soul. Here the soul does one thing whereas the spirit does another thing. In addition, to magnify is one thing, but to rejoice is another. To magnify the Lord is something in the soul, and to exult in the Lord is something in the spirit. We cannot say that we magnify the Lord in our spirit. According to the proper meaning of magnify, this is something that is done in our soul. The best way to take the Word is to take the clear words in it. These verses are very clear. We worship God in spirit, serve the Lord in spirit, pray in spirit, live and walk in spirit, know the things of God by the spirit, work for the Lord in the spirit, and even adorn ourselves in the spirit. To be sure, there is a soul and there is a function for the soul, but we have to realize that the spirit comes first.
Therefore, we cannot say that spirit and soul are synonymous terms, that we can use either one in either way. No, the spirit is the spirit, and the soul is the soul. In the Bible these two words are never used interchangeably, just as the eyes and the ears are very close to each other but are different.
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