The Tripartite Man The Tripartite Man

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE



JESSE PENN-LEWIS (1861-1927)

In her article entitled “Spiritual things to the Spiritual,” published in her periodical The Overcomer, Jesse Penn-Lewis comments on 1 Thessalonians 5:23 citing A.R. Fausset on the three parts of man.



Paul says “The God of peace sanctify you…spirit, soul, and body.” God in the spirit sanctifying the soul, controlling and dominating the body. Fausset—a Commentator of authority—says, that “In the threefold division of man’s being, body, soul, and spirit, the due state in God’s design is, that the spirit which is the recipient of the Holy Spirit, uniting man to God, should be first and rule the soul, which stands intermediate between body and spirit….” Penn-Lewis goes on to say, “From this clear statement you will understand that the spirit must be first, and dominate the soul, and through the soul control the body. (5)

In her book Soul and Spirit, Penn-Lewis elaborates on this inward readjustment, effected through God’s work of salvation. “The tripartite nature of man could then be again adjusted, with the spirit once more in domination and the body acting merely as the outward and material vessel—the instrument of the spirit through the soul” (19).

Main
Scriptural Basis
Historical Perspective
The Definition of the Three Parts of Man
The Functions of the Three Parts of Man
God's Salvation
Realizing the Body Life