Adapted from an article by Scott Hubbard, “Do You See Your Soul?,” May 7, 2025 at: http://www.desiringgod.org
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Picture yourself facing one of your typical temptations. Someone catches you in a little lie, and you are embarrassed; but another bigger lie would explain it all away and save you the embarrassment. A loved one wrongs you, and you know what Jesus says about forgiveness; but in your angry bitterness, you would like to plan a fitting revenge—a good, long, punishing silent treatment, if nothing else. A stranger’s beauty catches your eye, and your eye would like to gaze a little longer.
But now imagine saying to yourself, right in the midst of the temptation, “I have a soul.” Does anything change? Would you find the strength to speak the truth, to forgive, or to look away? Or would remembering you have a soul have no impact on your heart whatsoever? Remembering that you have a soul should make a difference.
When Jesus walked among us, he met many people who were inattentive to their souls. Sure, if you asked them, they would have said, “Yes, I know I have a soul.” But their lives often said otherwise. For if they knew, really knew, really considered that they had a soul — a precious, immortal, endangered soul — they would not surrender to sin so easily. They would do whatever they could to avoid endangering their soul. So, Jesus says repeatedly, to them and now to us, “You have a soul! Do you know it and believe it? Do you see the importance of that? Do you feel the weight and worth of it? Let me tell you about your soul.”
Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” The first, most foundational fact we need to know is that our soul is not limited to our body. Old age, accidents, diseases, and disasters may kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul. It is, by God’s design, immortal.
Temptation has a way of obscuring this immortal future. Temptation says, go ahead and tell that lie, go ahead and indulge in that desire, go ahead and avoid that duty, go ahead and hate– hang to that grudge and refuse that forgiveness; do all that without any thought for tomorrow, much less for eternity. But Jesus relentlessly brings the now into the context of eternity. Resist lust now, put away your deceitfulness now, overcome fear now, fight bitterness now– because of how they threaten your forever. “For what will it profit you,” Jesus asks, “if you gain the whole world by your sin, but lose your own eternal soul?” (Mark 3:36).
A proper concern for your body will lead you to sacrifice many passing pleasures. Some will deny themselves a second, or even a first, dessert; others, will discipline themselves go for a walk (or a run) every day, even when they don’t feel like it; another will engage in a difficult, daily struggle to stop smoking or drinking. We do these things in order to care for the body God gave us. But after seventy or eighty years, when this body wears out and returns to dust, our soul will have barely begun. And when God raises our body to likewise live forever, its eternal future will rest on the state of the soul. Jesus said, “A time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out; those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.” (John 5:28-9). Should we not then care much more for our soul’s welfare? Should we not then live primarily for the part of ourselves that will never die? (I Timothy 4:8 — Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.)
Our present life is like the first inch of the ocean, the first foot of the universe, the first half-second of the whole world’s history — only far less. So, meet your temptations with this thought for eternity: “I have a soul that will never die.” If you believe in Jesus, then do what he says, and pay attention to your soul.
The immortality of the soul becomes deadly serious when we grasp a second fact. Though your soul is not limited to your body, it can be lost, forfeited, destroyed. One day, perhaps at a moment you do not expect, God will require your soul from you. In the parable of the man who was all set to enjoy retirement, God said to him, “This very night your soul will be demanded of you” (Luke 12:20). Then what? Jesus, the great lover of souls, has gone to the greatest lengths so eternal delight, and not destruction, might be ours. He took on a human body and soul, and then suffered the utmost sorrow of soul and pain in his body, in order to save our souls. Now he lives and reigns forevermore to keep safe the souls that come to him.
But this same Jesus, from the same great love, warns us in the strongest terms not to treat such safety lightly. When Jesus spoke of the soul’s potential destruction, he was addressing his disciples, his closest followers; and even one of them yielded to an awful temptation and was lost. We modern disciples do not live beyond such warnings. The same temptations Jesus warned them about — lust, deceit, love of money, bitterness — claw at our souls as well. Our hearts still deceive. The world still allures. The devil still charms. So, meet your temptations with fear, remembering you have a soul that can be lost.
Your soul was made for Jesus, who promises that he, and he alone, can give the deep-down rest your soul longs for. Listen to Jesus who bids you to come and rest, with a joy that deepens into eternity. So, meet temptation with hope, remembering that you have a soul that can rest in Jesus, who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29).
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O Lord, help me to remember that I have a soul, so that I may be wise, patient, understanding, faithful, and courageous.
O Lord, help me to remember that I have a soul, so that I may be full of devotion to serve you.
O Lord, help me to remember that I have a soul, so that I may have the strength to resist all temptations;
O Jesus Christ, my Lord, may my soul find its rest in you. Amen.
–Adapted from a prayer by William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1573-1645)
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