“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’” Luke 16:19-24 (NIV)
Our souls are immortal – they never die. Souls have sensibility and awareness forever. Even though our bodies die and decay, the soul lives on. If anything could kill the soul it would be death, Amen? Yet, death cannot do it, neither the first death nor the second. In our verses today, when the rich man died, his soul was alive and conscious in hell – where “the worm does not die” but continually tortures. Jesus tells us in Mark 9:47-48 (NIV): “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ Everyone will be salted with fire.”
Our souls are to be God focused. God desires wholehearted devotion and a willing mind from His children. It is easy for us to entertain sin and push out God, right? The soul is capable of falling before sin in a flame of ardent desire and passionate love. Remember, God is the great lover of the soul, valuing it so much that He sent forth Christ to save it – bearing our sins for us, suffering God’s just wrath for us and fulfilling the law for us. Presently, believers in sweet Jesus are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. When God looks down upon believers in Jesus, He sees the perfect life of Christ. Jesus is to be the bent and leaning of our souls. When Jesus was asked in Luke 10:25 (NIV): “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds in Luke 10:26-28 (NIV): “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered:“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
Remember, our souls are the most excellent things under heaven – making us gracious here and glorious forever in our Heavenly home. When the soul is about many things it can do nothing well. We receive strength when we mind the one thing we are told to mind and that is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and our neighbor as ourselves. Holy desires come from choice. Words and actions can possibly be counterfeit but the desires and affections cannot as they flow freely from the soul. Our desires demonstrates the condition of the soul more than anything. And our souls are made for the most excellent things.
“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” Luke 12:4-5 (NIV)