I once read the following definition of anatomy given by a very small boy.
“Your head is kind of round and hard, and your brains are in it. Your neck is what keeps your head out of your collar. Your back is always behind you no matter how quick you turn around. Your fingers stick out of your hand so you can throw a curve ball. Your feet are what you run on. Your toes are what always get stubbed. And that’s all there is to it except what’s inside and I never saw it.”
The boy’s definition is classic—a person is more than eyes and a nose, hands, and toes. We are more than flesh and blood. The Bible says, “God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). God made man both flesh and spirit, body and soul. We have a tendency to forget this. The needs of the body are so pressing and evident that we are apt to completely neglect the needs of the soul. This is the greatest of all tragedies.
Jesus said, “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) This verse is not so much a question as it is verdict. The person who gains the world to the neglect of his soul has profited nothing. He has lost life’s most priceless possession. There is nothing anyone can give in exchange for his soul once he has lost it.
God made the body and he cares about its needs. But he also made man a soul and he cares about it too. This is why he says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
The body lives on bread. The soul lives on the word of God. Don’t feed one and starve the other.