What do you believe about human nature? What do you believe that consists of according to 1 Thess. 5:23?
“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may the spirit and soul and body of you brothers, sound in every respect, be preserved blameless at the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul is not talking about individuals here, but of the entire body of believers...the congregation he was addressing in Thessalonica. In this context, the three terms can have a different meaning....”spirit”, that is, the dominant attitude of the congregation, as a whole......”soul”, that is, the life, or existence, of the congregation.......and ”body”, that is, the composite group of anointed Christians who make up that congregation.
Confirmation for this is found in Paul’s other writings in 1 Cor 12:12-13...
“For just as the body is one but has many members, and all the members of that body, although many, are one body, so too is the Christ. 13 For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink one spirit.”
Paul’s intense concern for the congregation is evident in his asking that God sanctify them “completely” and that He preserve them “sound in every respect.”
There is no evidence for any tri-existence In man....we are mortals designed to live in a material world, dependant on material support for our lives here. For the human race, death can be a penalty only because of our mortality.....there is no immortal part of us that goes on living because that means that we do not really die. God said we do...and that
we return to the dust, not that only the body dies. There is no immortal part of man to live on anywhere else.
That is the problem with imagining something that the Bible does not teach, and confusing terms that do not apply in the big picture. In the Bible, death is the very opposite of life.....it is not a continuation of it somewhere else.....that does not fit the Bible’s overall narrative at all.
Spirit beings were created to live in a spirit realm....humans were created to live in a material realm, so what happened in order for God to decide to take some humans to heaven, to reign with his son as “kings and priests”? (Rev 20:6)
What does the Bible say about that?
In Hebrews 4:15 Paul tells us...
“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tested in all respects as we have, but without sin”.
Though not subjected to sin in his own flesh, Jesus was surrounded by those who were.
All who make up “the body of Christ”, those who will rule mankind with him for the 1,000 years, have all lived in sinful human flesh, and can also be compassionate “priests” and rulers for those still subject to sin. They have lived this life, and if God had chosen angels to rule us, all they could be over these ages, is observers of the human race, rather than being personally subjected to its trials and tribulations. Only a sinner truly knows what sin is, and what genuine godly sorrow in repentance feels like.
This is why only a relative “few” among humanity are “chosen” for this role. (Rev 14:1-3)
And since God is the one who does the choosing, there is no envy or feelings of jealousy involved with his choices....since it means that we will have the best “government” that mankind has ever had, ruling over us......life will be wonderful in both realms because the “coming” of the Kingdom will mean that God’s will can finally “be done on earth as it is in heaven”...isn’t this what Jesus taught us to pray for?
How many people actually know what the Lord’s Prayer is all about?