May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIV

We are three-part beings, which made sense when I took notes a long time ago in a psychology class. Since then, I’ve heard our three parts referred to in sermons and counseling and by keynote speakers. However, the three parts were seldom the same. Even if they were, the explanation was muddy. I couldn’t keep one part straight from another. 

Counseling typically refers to our body, mind, and spirit. Religion speaks about body, soul, and spirit. People like me interchange soul and spirit. If I had been pressed to name our three parts, I would have said soul or spirit and then pulled two more parts of us from this random list: mind, emotions, body, free will, thoughts, intellect, and desires. 

I never thought to look for an answer in the Bible. It didn’t seem worth my time to get it straightened out. I didn’t know how thinking straight about God’s view of us would settle me down and straighten my path. Maybe it’ll do the same for you. 

Here’s what I recently learned. 

We’re made up of three parts: body, spirit, and soul. 

Our body is our most obvious part. Because of that, we could easily focus most of our attention on healthy eating, exercise, sleep, and how we look. Keep in mind, though, that our bodies begin dying the day we’re born. This reminds us to balance all three parts, not just what we can see. 

Our soul includes our mind, our emotions, and our desires. Simply put, our soul is made up of what we think, what we feel, and what we want. Here is where our struggle happens. Unlike our spirit that stays focused on God, our soul is easily distracted from Him. It flips to self-centeredness because that’s what it’s known since birth.  

Our spirit is the part of us that connects and communicates with God. It’s our perfect part. It doesn’t require any work for our spirit to focus on Him.  

My takeaway is this, keep a close connection with my spiritual part because I need all the help I can get with my body and soul. I’d love to hear your ideas. 

In This Together, 
Kim