In the inductive study of biblical psychology/anthropology, the primary faculties of the human soul are identified as mind, will, and emotions. The primary faculties of the human spirit are intuition (the ability to discern spiritual truth – 1 Cor. 2:14-16), conscience (Rom 2:15) and communion (John 4:24; Rom. 8:16). Other conscious creatures which Adam named do not have these spiritual faculties since only man was created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26,27).
One of the New Testament passages that indicates how the soul and spirit are distinct from each other (and not mere synonyms for the immaterial side of man) is in the context of the apostle Paul correcting the Corinthian church of their immature use of spiritual gifts (chapters 12-14).
“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind [a faculty of the soul] is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.” 1 Cor. 14:14,15 NASB 1995
Vocabulary notes:
“Tongue” is glossa: an unlearned language given by God’s Spirit
“Unfruitful” is akarpos: metaphorically, without fruit, barren, not yielding what it ought to yield. Here it means meaning without comprehension/understanding.
“Mind” is nous: mind, cognitive ability
Commentaries on “praying with my spirit”
Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament on 1 Corinthians 14:13-14
“With the possibility before them of a non-understood tongue, Paul now argues that its interpretation must be sought. He urges this not only so that those who hear but do not understand may know the meaning, but also that the speaker himself may be benefited by getting an intellectual as well as a spiritual blessing from the exercise. The expression “my mind is unfruitful” means that the mind does not intelligently share in the blessing of the person’s spirit. The mind is that faculty in a person that is involved in conscious, meaningful reasoning. Paul desires the Corinthians to have a complete blessing here, both in their spirits and in their minds.“
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary 1 Corinthians 14:14
“spirit—my higher being, the passive object of the Holy Spirit’s operations, and the instrument of prayer in the unknown tongue, distinguished from the “understanding,” the active instrument of thought and reasoning; which in this case must be “unfruitful” in edifying others, since the vehicle of expression is unintelligible to them. On the distinction of soul or mind and spirit, see Hebrews 4:12.
[On Hebrews 4:12 the commentary notes, “piercing—Greek, ‘coming through.'”
“even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit—that is, reaching through even to the separation of the animal soul, the lower part of man’s incorporeal nature, the seat of animal desires, which he has in common with the brutes; compare the same Greek, 1Cor. 2:14, “the natural [animal-souled] man” (Jude 1:19 ), from the spirit (the higher part of man, receptive of the Spirit of God, and allying him to heavenly beings).]
I Corinthians 14:15. “What is it then?—What is my determination thereupon?
and—rather as Greek, “but”; I will not only pray with my spirit, which (1 Cor. 14:14) might leave the understanding unedified, BUT with the understanding also…”
Conclusion
In this passage Paul is speaking of the believer’s human spirit. Whatever one’s view of speaking in tongues originally, and in some contemporary contexts, these verses distinguish the person’s mind (understanding) from his spirit.
Although 1 Corinthians 14:14-15 is not presented here as exclusive proof of the trichotomy of man, it clearly aligns with it.
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JBW
