✝ Bible Prophecy Explorer

The Whole Person

What people see, what we think, what we do, and the One who knows all of it

The Pharisee and the Publican — one stood on his appearance, the other on God’s mercy (Luke 18:10-14) · Gustave Doré · public domain

A dossier can hold a person’s name, history, habits and photographs and still miss the person. A mirror shows a face and still misses the man. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?” (1 Corinthians 2:11).

What a person is made of

The body: what is seen
The cover of the book. We know less about it than we think: a man “beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was” (James 1:24). And it does not last: “though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).
The soul: what we think
The hidden you: thoughts, desires, will. This is where wickedness takes root. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts…” (Mark 7:21).
The spirit: the part that can know
“The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly” (Proverbs 20:27). It is also where God meets us: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit” (Romans 8:16). Soul and spirit are close, but not the same; God’s word pierces “even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit” (Hebrews 4:12).
The works: what is revealed
What is hidden comes out. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). A man of his word is a man whose actions match what he said. “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).

God made all of it, and He means to keep all of it: “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Others cannot know us

People see the cover. “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). We fall in love with what we see and what we hope a person is, without ever knowing the whole person.

From Reider

Not knowing others is what made me afraid to pick out a wife. I would have gone by sight alone. So I prayed, “God, don’t let me marry the wrong one.”

We cannot fully know ourselves

That is what shocks us in a pinch. Peter said, “Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee” (Matthew 26:35), and the pressure showed him a Peter he had never met. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults” (Psalm 19:12).

God knows the whole person

“O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.”
Psalm 139:1

He sees what no dossier records and what we cannot see in ourselves, and He still calls us.

He gives His Spirit so we can see

When His Spirit comes in, the candle is lit. “Now we have received… the spirit which is of God; that we might know” (1 Corinthians 2:12). He does not only show us the heart; He changes it: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). It begins the way Peter preached it: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).

One day, fully

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

This study captures something of what can never truly be captured of a person in this life. Until then, the prayer is David’s: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts” (Psalm 139:23).

Related studies
Past Finding Out →
Soul & Spirit →
What Is a Spirit? →
The Incarnation and His Ridicule →
The New Birth — Acts 2:38 →
How to Receive the Holy Ghost →
He knows the whole person, and He still calls.
What must I do to be saved? → How to Receive the Holy Ghost →
A King James study of the whole person: body, soul and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Corinthians 4:16; Hebrews 4:12; Proverbs 20:27; Romans 8:16); the hidden heart and its fruit (Mark 7:21; Matthew 7:20; 12:34; James 1:24); the limits of knowing others and ourselves (1 Samuel 16:7; Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 19:12; Matthew 26:35; 1 Corinthians 2:11); God who searches and knows (Psalm 139:1, 23); the Spirit and the new heart (1 Corinthians 2:12; Ezekiel 36:26; Acts 2:38); knowing as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12). Engraving: Gustave Doré, The Pharisee and the Publican, public domain.