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Scripture Reading: Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10; Psa. 51:6; 1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12; Luke 1:46-47; Phil. 1:27; Mark 12:30
In this chapter we will continue to see the details of the parts of man as the vessel of the Lord. We have seen clearly that God’s intention is to work Himself into us to be our life and our everything. In other words, He has to be our content. For this purpose, God created us as His vessels with many parts. The word parts is not a term used only by us; rather, it is in the Word of God. Jeremiah 31:33 says, “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law in their inward parts and write it upon their hearts.” The outward parts are the members of our body, but within our body there are the inward parts. We need to know what these inward parts are. Hebrews 8:10, a quotation of Jeremiah 31:33, says, “I will impart My laws into their mind.” The inward parts in Jeremiah 31 becomes “their mind” in Hebrews 8. This indicates that the mind is one of the many inward parts.
Psalm 51:6 says, “Behold, You delight in truth in the inward parts; / And in the hidden part You would make known wisdom to me.” Here again we see the inward parts. Besides these, there is also the hidden part. Truth is in the inward parts, but wisdom is in the hidden part. We must find out what the inward parts and the hidden part are.
First Thessalonians 5:23 tells us that we are tripartite, of three parts: the spirit, the soul, and the body. This verse gives us the right order of these three parts. It says “spirit and soul and body,” not “body and soul and spirit.” The following diagram illustrates the parts of man.
Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This shows us that the spirit and the soul can and must be divided. In order to know Christ and enter into Him as our rest and good land, we have to discern our spirit from the soul. The spirit is the very place where Christ dwells in us (2 Tim. 4:22). If we are going to know Christ in an experiential way, we must learn to divide our human spirit from our soul.
Luke 1:46 and 47 say, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has exulted in God my Savior.” Here again there is a difference between the soul and the spirit. Philippians 1:27 speaks of standing firm in one spirit and striving with one soul. This one spirit is not the Holy Spirit but our human spirit. In this verse also we see a difference between the spirit and the soul.
Hebrews 4:12 not only speaks of the dividing of soul and spirit; it also mentions the joints and the marrow. Joints and marrow are something of the body. This verse also speaks of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Even in the heart there is also the difference between the thoughts and the intentions. Mark 12:30 says, “You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.” This verse speaks of four parts: the heart, the soul, the mind, and the strength. All these parts have to be discerned by the living word of God. This proves that in order to know the Lord in a practical and real way, we have to discern all these items. We must know the thoughts of the heart, the intentions of the heart, and all the many parts of the heart.
The soul is of three parts, and the spirit also has three parts, or functions. We need to know the three parts of the soul and the three parts of the spirit. Moreover, we also should know what the heart is. First Thessalonians 5:23 speaks of our whole being, telling us that we are tripartite — spirit, soul, and body — but it says nothing about the heart. Therefore, we must see what the heart is, what it is composed of, and how we can locate it with respect to the inward parts and the hidden part.
If we put all these verses together, we can realize that there are many different inward parts within the many outward parts of the body. What are these parts? According to 1 Thessalonians 5:23, within the body we have a soul and a spirit. Psalm 51 tells us that we have the inward parts with the hidden part. According to Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8, the mind is one of the inward parts, and as we shall see, the mind is a part of the soul. Therefore, the inward parts must be all the parts of the soul. The hidden part must be the spirit, because our spirit is hidden within all our other parts; it is the inmost part hidden, not within the body, but within even the soul. In summary, we have the outward part of the body, the inward parts of the soul, and the spirit as the hidden part.
The soul is of three parts — the mind, the will, and the emotion. This is clearly and definitely proved by the Word of God. Proverbs 2:10 gives us the spiritual ground to prove that the mind is a part of the soul. This verse says, “Wisdom will enter your heart, / And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” Because knowledge is a matter of the mind, this proves that the mind is a part of the soul. Proverbs 19:21 and 24:14 also indicate that knowledge and wisdom are related to the soul. In addition, Psalm 139:14 says, “My soul knows it well.” Since to know is a matter of the mind, this also proves that the mind must be a part of the soul. Psalm 13:2 speaks of bearing concern in the soul. This concern must be something considered in the mind. Lamentations 3:20 says, “My soul remembers them well,” indicating that the soul can remember things. By these verses we can be clear that the mind as the organ to know, to consider, and to remember is a part of the soul.
The second part of the soul is the will. Job 7:15 says, “My soul would choose,” and 6:7 says, “My soul refuses.” To choose and to refuse are both decisions and functions of the will. These passages prove that the will must be a part of the soul. First Chronicles 22:19 says, “Now set your heart and your soul to seek after Jehovah your God.” Just as we set our mind to think, this verse says that we set our soul to seek. This is, of course, to make a decision. That the soul makes a decision also proves that the will is a part of the soul. Numbers 30:2 says, “When a man vows a vow to Jehovah or swears an oath to bind himself by pledge...” The term to bind oneself, which occurs eleven times in this chapter, literally means “to bind one’s soul.” To bind the soul is to make a decision. This chapter in Numbers deals with vows made to the Lord. Since we must make a decision to bind our soul to vow to the Lord, this also proves that the will must be a part of the soul. It would be good for the brothers and sisters, especially the young ones, to remember all these verses. They should pick up the burden to learn this.
The emotion comprises many things, including love, hatred, joy, and grief. Song of Songs 1:7 and Psalm 42:1 show us that to love is a function of the soul. This proves that within the soul there is the organ, the function, of the emotion. Second Samuel 5:8, Psalm 107:18, and Ezekiel 36:5 show us that hating, loathing, and despising are also in the soul. Despising in the soul is the hatred of the soul. Since these are emotions, this also proves that the emotion must be a part of the soul.
Joy is a great part of the emotion. Isaiah 61:10 and Psalm 86:4 tell us that joy is in the soul. This again proves that the emotion is a part of the soul. Deuteronomy 14:26 and Jeremiah 22:27 tell us that the soul desires. According to the better translations and Strong’s or Young’s concordances, desire in Jeremiah 44:14 and set their heart in Ezekiel 24:25 are literally lift up the soul. These verses tell us that the desire of the emotion is something in our soul. In addition, 1 Samuel 30:6, Judges 10:16, and Job 30:25 speak of bitterness, misery, and grief in the soul.
The verses of the Scriptures above are the ground to say that within the soul there are three parts — the mind as the leading part with the will and the emotion. These are the best verses to prove this, but they are not the only ones. If we study the entire Scriptures, it is hard to find anything other than these three parts in the soul. These three parts comprise all the functions of the soul.
Now we come to our human spirit. With God there are three persons, with man there are three parts, and with the soul there are also three inward parts. In addition, the spirit is of three parts, or functions. According to the Scriptures, the tabernacle and the temple were of three parts. In the building of God, three is a basic figure. The ark of Noah had three stories, and in the tabernacle there are many threes. The width of a standing board, for example, was one and a half cubits; two boards in a pair were a whole measurement of three cubits. This proves that we can never be independent. We always need another half, just as the Lord Jesus sent His disciples two by two. By ourselves we are one and a half, but two together make three cubits, a whole unit. By this we can see that the number three is a whole unit in God’s building.
The three functions of the spirit are the conscience, the fellowship, and the intuition. It is easy to understand what the function of the conscience is, which is to know right and wrong and to condemn or justify before God. It is also easy to know what the fellowship is, which is for us to commune with God, to contact God. Within our spirit there is a function, or a part as an organ, which we have so that we can fellowship with God, commune with God, and contact God, or simply put, touch God. It is not as easy, however, to know what the intuition is. It is a direct sense or a direct knowing. In our spirit there is such a part that many times has a direct sense, regardless of the reason, circumstance, background, or environment. We call this organ, or this function, the intuition of the spirit, with a direct sense and direct knowledge from God.
Romans 9:1 says, “My conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit.” We should compare this verse with Romans 8:16, which says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” On the one hand, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit, and on the other hand, our conscience bears witness with the Holy Spirit. By this we can locate the conscience in the human spirit. In 1 Corinthians 5:3 the apostle Paul says, “I, on my part, though being absent in the body but present in the spirit, have already judged, as if being present, him who has thus done this.” This means that in his spirit Paul judged the sinful one. To judge is either to condemn or to justify. This is a matter of the conscience, but the apostle said that he judged in his spirit. This also proves that the condemning or justifying function, that is, the conscience, is in the spirit.
Psalm 51:10 speaks of a steadfast spirit, and 34:18 speaks of being contrite in spirit. To be contrite is to realize that we are wrong, to accuse and condemn ourselves. Right or wrong is something related to the conscience. This verse says, “Contrite in spirit,” which again proves that the conscience is related to the spirit.
Deuteronomy 2:30 says of Sihon the king of Heshbon that God “hardened his spirit.” To be hardened in the spirit is to be hardened in the conscience, to be careless about the conscience, not caring about what the conscience says. All the above verses are strong ground to show that the function of the conscience is in the human spirit.
It is easy to find the ground to say that the function of fellowship is in the spirit. John 4:24 says that because God is Spirit — the divine, Holy Spirit — we have to worship Him in our human spirit. To worship God in our spirit is to fellowship with God, contact God, and commune with God. Therefore, this verse proves that the worshipping and fellowshipping function is in our spirit. In Romans 1:9 the apostle Paul says, “God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit.” To serve God is also a kind of fellowship with God. Concerning service in the spirit we need to add Romans 7:6, which says that we “serve in newness of spirit.” The service to the Lord, which is fellowship with the Lord, is in our spirit.
Ephesians 6:18 says, “Praying at every time in spirit.” According to the Greek text, this verse does not refer to the Holy Spirit but to our human spirit. To pray is to fellowship with God, so to pray in the spirit means that fellowship with the Lord is a matter in our spirit. Luke 1:47 says, “My spirit has exulted in God my Savior.” This implies that the spirit has contacted God, again proving that fellowship with God is a function of our spirit. As we have seen, Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit.” This makes it very clear that fellowship with God is both in our spirit and in the Spirit of God, again showing that fellowship is a function of our spirit. Finally, 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” That we can be one spirit with the Lord is the real fellowship, and this fellowship is in the spirit. All these give us strong proofs that the fellowshipping function is in our human spirit.
To speak of the intuition is a little more difficult, but we still have the scriptural ground. First Corinthians 2:11 says, “Who among men knows the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him?” Our spirit can know and discern something that the soul cannot. This proves that there is an additional and special ability to know in our spirit. To know something in the soul is to know by reason and circumstances, but our human spirit can discern and know things apart from any reason. It knows directly, with a direct sense. This verse proves that the direct sense, that is, the intuition, is in our spirit.
Mark 2:8 says that Jesus knew fully in His spirit what the scribes were reasoning, and 8:12 says that He groaned deeply in His spirit. This is to realize something in the spirit which makes one sorrowful. John 11:33 says that Jesus was “moved with indignation in His spirit.” To be sorrowful, to groan for certain things, in the spirit is to realize, perceive, and discern those things. These verses are adequate to prove that within our spirit there is a function to realize, discern, and perceive things, to have a direct sense. We call this the intuition, the third function, or part, of our spirit.
What then is the heart? The heart is not a separate part besides the soul and the spirit. As human beings, we have only the spirit, the soul, and the body; we do not have the heart as a fourth, separate part. Rather, the heart is a composition of all the parts of the soul and the first part of the spirit, the conscience. As we have seen, the parts of the soul are the mind, the will, and the emotion. The heart includes all these parts plus one part of the spirit, the conscience.
The mind, the first part of the soul, is a part of the heart. Matthew 9:4 says, “Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why are you thinking evil things in your hearts?” We think in our heart. Since to think is something of the mind, this proves that the mind is a part of the heart. Genesis 6:5 says, “Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The thoughts are something of the mind, but this verse speaks of the thoughts of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 also mentions the thoughts of the heart. These three passages are adequate and very strong to prove that the mind, which is the organ of thought, is a part of the heart.
Concerning the will, Acts 11:23 speaks of “purpose of heart.” To purpose is a matter of the will. It is the function of the will, but this verse says that it is something in the heart. Hebrews 4:12 also speaks of the intentions of the heart. The intentions, like the purposes, are something of the will, but here it says that they are something of the heart. This proves that the will is a part of the heart. These two verses are adequate to prove this. To prove something from the Scriptures requires two verses, because two is the number of testimony.
Concerning the emotion, the Lord said in John 16:22, “Your heart will rejoice.” To rejoice is a matter of the emotion, but here the Lord said that the heart rejoices. This proves that the emotion is also a part of the heart. In the same chapter the Lord said, “Sorrow has filled your heart” (v. 6). Sorrow also is something of emotion, so these two verses prove that the emotion is in the heart.
Hebrews 10:22 says, “Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” The conscience has much to do with the heart. In order to have a pure heart, we must have a conscience without offense. If our conscience is sprinkled, we can have a pure heart. This proves, no doubt, that the conscience is a part of the heart. First John 3:20 says that “our heart blames us.” To blame is the function of the conscience, but here it says that it is a matter of the heart, proving that the conscience is a part of the heart.
By all of the above, we have the ground to prove that these four parts — the mind, the will, the emotion, and the conscience — all the parts of the soul and the first part of the spirit, are composed together to equal the heart.
