THE NATURAL MAN AND THE SPIRITUAL MAN:  In 1 Corinthians 2:13 - 3:4, the converted Jewish Pharisee Saul of Tarsus (now the Apostle Paul) describes two basic kinds of human beings in terms of their relationship with God. Paul shares this analysis with a troubled church, his goal seems to be that they can examine and understand their own spiritual state.

 

The Bible seems to present humans as spiritual beings, possessing bodies and souls.  I am a spirit with identity, self-awareness, and volition.  I have a body with which I interact with the physical world around me (including other people), and I have a soul (reason and emotional capacity to analyze and interact with our surroundings, including others with soulish capacity).  Believers have the mind of Christ (see Phillipians 2), meaning we have died to the former self-absorbed life and by faith in Jesus, the Messiah, we have been "born again" spiritually , a "new creation", now rightly related to God.  As such, we are presently learning to die daily as the Spirit teaches and enables us to resist the habits and patterns of our former life (called the Flesh or Old Nature) and obey the impulses of the New Nature which the Holy Spirit has planted and is nurturing within us.  Understanding the process of transformation can help us be more intentional in our growth.  Click below for what has been for me a helpful diagram.