Deuteronomy 6:5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Before we can discuss the make up of the soul of man we need to first establish the fact that the mind indeed forms part of the soul. In the above quoted passage of scripture from the Old Testament the Holy Spirit refers to the three main components of mankind which we have already mentioned, for He refers to the heart, soul and strength of man. The scripture we quoted earlier from the New Testament referred to the spirit, soul and body of man (1 Thessalonians 5:23). And so both passages of scripture are in fact referring to the same parts of man, for what the Old Testament calls the heart, the New Testament calls the spirit, and what the Old Testament calls the strength of man, the New Testament calls the body, and both passages refer to the soul. The word translated soul in both New and Old Testaments can also be translated mind, depending on the context of the passage.
Mark 12:29-30 “Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, (30) and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”
When our Lord Jesus walked in the flesh there was an occasion, which is recorded for us in the above quoted passage of scripture, when He quoted the passage of scripture from the book of Deuteronomy. And so in this passage we can see that Jesus gave us a bit more insight into the make up of the soul of man. The context of the passage is that our Lord was having an exchange with one of the Jewish scribes about which was the first commandment of all. But the point that I want bring up is that when Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy, He expanded the term “soul” from that passage to include the mind, thus indicating to us that the mind is part of the soul.
Mark 12:32-34 “So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. (33) And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." (34) Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." But after that no one dared question Him.”
The above quoted passage of scripture is a continuation of the same discourse that the Lord Jesus had with the Jewish scribe. And so we see that when the scribe answered the Lord he quoted the same scripture in agreement with the Lord, but he quoted it slightly differently, for he used the word “understanding” in place of the word “mind” that the Lord had used. Our Lord did not dispute his answer and in fact the Holy Spirit teaches us that he answered wisely. And so the fact that the both the Lord Jesus and the scribe quoted the same scripture, by adding the words “mind” or “understanding” alongside the soul, teaches us very clearly that the mind forms part of the soul of man. In fact strictly speaking the mind of man and the soul of man are one and the same. The reason we separate them in this series is to make it easier to teach on the various components of the soul and mind.
Michael E.B. Maher
Kommentare