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I don't think we can seperate those elements to know which of our qualities come from where. But from the bible it seems there is an active war going on within us. That the flesh despises what the Holy Spirit desires, and the Spirit despises what the flesh desires. If that's right then our character is mixed up between both the flesh and the Spirit, but if we are able to draw close to God, hopefully we will have less qualities of the flesh and more of the Spirit.
So that would mean that, our character resides in our soul?
That's kind of what I was thinking...
I was thinking maybe the mind. Thats what gets programmed and brainwashed.
Naw, you're thinking about habits and knowledge. Character is something different. I would attribute character to the fruit of the spirit. You know the passage that a person is known by their fruit. (Both good and bad). So I'd attribute character in that bundle of stuff. One of the fruits we offer others.
I've heard it said that our character is the one thing we take with us in the hereafter. If that is so, it must be the soul??
Our "Soul" is the total package of body, spirit, and mind.
Our hearts (where our logic and emotions connect to our desires/action/will) is where our character is. It's in our mind.
The soul which makes up the conscious part of ones being is that of thought, action and emotion. The spiritual nature of man regarded as immortal and separable from the body/flesh at death and susceptible to happiness or misery in a future state. Without the spirit/breath from God our soul would not be alive as spirit and soul are connected, Genesis 2:7.
Sounds pretty much what I understand it to be Edward. I think of my conscience being a conviction from the Holy Spirit. And yes, the flesh fights back. This is the battle.
There again it would seem our conscience may be connected to both our spirit and soul and flesh
Yet scriptures state that we are new creations in Christ.Hey. I know. How's this?
(Loosely speaking, in humor and not teaching dogma. Please no one be offended) ...
I have not yet been created...
If soul isva product of character and heart, it is dynamic and forever changing...so I'm not done yet. I have not yet been (finished) created...lol.
We have to abide in Christ for Him to have the time to work inside of us and continue to form us into His image.
When we feed our heart and spirit worldly things and distractions spiritual growth stops and stagnation begins.
Yet scriptures state that we are new creations in Christ.
If we are new creations, then we have already been created, yet what you have spoken are not questions of creation, but rather that which has been not yet finished.
And how can something not yet be finished if it has not yet been created, for that not created cannot exist. And if something does not exist, it has no starting point. And if there is no start, there is no finish.
Yet we are new creations in Christ, and so it is that a good work has been started and because it has been started, it will be finished. And because of this, it has been created.
Enough of my babble. What you speak of is our sanctification. I am saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved.
As C.S. Lewis said, which I believe came from the influence of the late G.K. Chesterton, we do not have a soul, we are a soul.Where does our character reside within us? Spirit? Soul? Flesh?