VI. GOD BREATHED THE BREATH OF LIFE INTO MAN
God created man with the breath of life that man might have a spirit as a kind of receptacle to receive God.
VII. TO PRODUCE THE SOUL THAT MAN MAY LIVE THROUGH THE MIND, EMOTION, AND WILL
The producing of man’s soul is also recorded in Genesis 2:7. Genesis 2:7 says that when the breath of life was breathed into the nostrils of the body of man, man became a living soul. God used two kinds of materials—the dust for making man’s body and the breath of life for producing man’s spirit. When these two things came together, right away man became a living soul. That means the soul is the issue of the breath of life getting into the physical body of man.
It is clear that man was made in three parts: the outward body, the inward spirit, and the soul as the very being of man. This is why 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says that our whole being is composed of our spirit, soul, and body. We are a tripartite man. The soul is our being with our body as the outward organ and with our spirit as the inward organ. The soul as our being is composed of the mind, emotion, and will. This is according to the revelation of the Bible. The Bible shows us that in our soul we have our mind to think, to consider things (Psa. 13:2), we have our emotion to love and to hate (1 Sam. 18:1; 2 Sam. 5:8), to like and to dislike things (Isa. 61:10; Psa. 86:4), and we also have our will to make decisions, to make choices (Job 7:15; 6:7; 1 Chron. 22:19). These are the functions of the soul.
VIII. THE INTENTION OF GOD’S CREATION OF MAN
The intention of God’s creation of man is that man may understand God’s desire with his mind, like God’s desire with his emotion, choose to take, to receive, God with his will, and eventually exercise his spirit to receive God as his life. God created a mind for man. By this mind man may understand God’s desire. God also created man with an emotion. By this emotion man may like God’s desire. God created man with a free will, and man may exercise this free will to choose, to make a decision, to take and to receive God into him as his life. Eventually, man may exercise his spirit to receive God as his life. This is the intention of God in His creation of man.
God created man in a way that was good for man to take God, to receive God, into man as his life. Man was created by God with a mind, an emotion, and a will, and also with a spirit in the center of man’s being as a receptacle for him to receive God. Thus, by his mind man can understand what God wants; by his emotion man can like, can love, can prefer, what God wants; and by his free will man can make a decision to choose God, to take God. Furthermore, man has a spirit as an organ, even a receptacle, to receive God into him as his life. This is God’s intention in His creation of man.
(Basic Lessons on Life, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
