The Life of the Soul — The Spiritual Man

The Life of the Soul

Some Bible readers have pointed out that in Greek there are three words for “life”: (1) bios, (2) psuchē, and (3) zōē. Although all three refer to “life,” they each have distinct meanings. Bios refers to physical or bodily life. When the Lord Jesus said that the widow gave all she had to live on, the word used is bios. Zōē refers to the highest life, the life of the spirit. Every place in the Bible that speaks of “eternal life” uses the word zōē. Psuchē refers to the life that makes a person a living being—it is the natural human life, the life of the soul. When the Bible refers to human life, it uses this word.

What we need to note now is that in the Bible, the word for “soul” and the phrase “life of the soul” are the same word in the original language. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. In the Old Testament, the word for soul is nephesh. But when speaking of the “life of the soul,” the word nephesh is still used. In the New Testament, the word for soul is psuchē. When referring to the life of the soul, it also uses psuchē. Thus, we see how the soul is one of the three elements of man, and how the soul is man’s life—his natural life.

There are many places in the Bible where the word psuchē (soul) is translated as “life” or “soul-life.” Here are a few examples:

“Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.” (Genesis 9:4–5)“For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Leviticus 17:11)“For those who sought the child’s life are dead.” (Matthew 2:20)“Is it lawful to save life or to destroy it on the Sabbath?” (Luke 6:9)“Who risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 15:26)“But I do not account my life of any value.” (Acts 20:24)“To give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11, 15, 17)

In all the above passages, the words translated “life,” “soul,” or “soul-life” are originally the same word—psuchē (soul). But they are not translated as “soul” in English, because if they were, the text would become unreadable or confusing. This is because the soul is human life.

The soul is one of the three elements of man, as previously discussed. The “life of the soul” is man’s natural life—the life that enables human existence, that gives man vitality. It is the life by which we live, the empowering life that enables us to function as humans. Since the Bible uses nephesh and psuchē to refer both to the soul and to human life, we know these two are distinguishable in concept yet inseparable in essence. They are distinguishable because in some passages, psuchē can only be translated as “soul” or “life,” not interchangeably. For instance, in Luke 12:19–23 and Mark 3:4, though the original word is the same, translating them all as either “soul” or “life” would result in nonsensical renderings. Yet they are inseparable because within man, they are fully unified. Apart from the soul, man has no vitality. The Bible never speaks of a man of flesh having life apart from the soul. Human life is simply the soul permeating the body. When the soul is united with the body, the soul becomes man’s life. Life is simply the manifestation of the soul. It is because our bodily life is the life of the soul that the Bible refers to our present body as a “soulish body” (psychikos sōma). (1 Corinthians 15:44)

This soul, which is the life of man, is critically important because it is directly related to whether we live as spiritual or soulish Christians. We will discuss this more later.

We have already seen through many passages that the soul encompasses the faculties of the mind, emotions, and will. We know that all human thoughts, imaginations, decisions, feelings, emotions, impulses, and affections originate from the soul. Therefore, human life is nothing more than the life formed by the union of the mind, emotion, and will. A person’s lifestyle is simply the expression of these three faculties. Everything contained in human personality at the natural level is composed of these parts of the soul. The life of the soul is man’s natural, fleshly life. All the activities described in the aforementioned Scriptures—desires, aversions, knowledge, reasoning, restlessness, joy, resolutions—are manifestations of the soul-life.