MAN AS BODY AND SOUL

GENESIS 2:7–25

And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being

(Genesis 2:7).

The intrusion of Greek philosophy into Christian thought has been extremely significant in the area of the nature of man. Nowhere has the church been more influenced by Greek thinking than in the area of the relationship of body and soul.

The Greek View of Man

Plato made a radical divorce between the world of the ideal and the world of the receptacle; that is, the world of soul or spirit and the world of matter and time. For Plato, anything in the physical world is at best an imperfect copy of the ultimate reality. Therefore, there is something intrinsically wrong with the physical world. For Plato, the man who rises to the highest point of humanity is the contemplative man, the man who is ruled by his mind rather than by his body.

Thus, for the Greeks, redemption is the salvation of the soul from the body. The body is regarded as the prison of the soul, causing all of man’s problems. This was not only the view of the ancient Greeks, but is common in all Eastern thought and has greatly influenced the church historically.

The Biblical View of Man

Christianity, however, teaches that the body was created “very good” by God in the beginning. The Bible uses many words to describe man: body, soul, spirit, mind, heart, will, strength, bowels, etc. Biblical theologians have pointed out that these terms are not concerned with various sections of a man, but rather are speaking of the whole man in various dimensions.

Man’s problem is not his body, but his rebellion against God. Through Christ, not only is the soul saved but the body is redeemed as well.

CORAM DEO

God requires faith-filled obedience, first and foremost. Do you read over these studies each day and then just think about them without doing anything? Coram Deo means to bring all of life into the presence of God. Today, along with your reading and reflection, engage God in authentic prayer and wholehearted obedience. In particular, try to bring your body, His temple, into subjection to His sovereignty and the whole of your life wholly into His presence.

For further study: Deuteronomy 6:1–15; Proverbs 3:1–8; Colossians 4:2–6

thursday

april