What are spiritual beings?
Answered from the commentary of Frederick William Grant, Frederick W. Grant, Arno Clemens Gaebelein and 15 others
Spiritual beings are the class of creatures called "spirits," of whom God is the Father, so that they stand in a relationship to Him that no lower creature can have, as Hebrews 12:9 shows. For this reason the angels are "sons of God" as spirits (Job 1:6). Angels are spirits only, never souls; they are "pure spirits," a spiritual race, as "He maketh His angels spirits" (Psalm 104:4; Hebrews 1:7) declares of their nature. They are higher in power and glory than man and are not cumbered by a body of clay. Yet they are creatures and nothing more. Their spirit substance is created, while God's is uncreated and underived. God is a Spirit as well (John 4:24), but His spirituality is set in contrast with all the hosts of spiritual beings who are His creatures. Whether angels have bodies is held with differing degrees of caution. One writer says they are spirits "not hampered by a bodily condition". Another says only that they are not necessarily incorporeal, since Scripture knows a spiritual body. A third holds that their appearing as men proves no corporeality, because it was the assumption of a human form. Man too has a spirit, which the beast has not, and by it he is linked with God. A man apart from the body is himself called a "spirit," as with "the spirits of just men" (Hebrews 12:23) and the "spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19). Even so, the departed are a class distinct from angels.
These spirits are good or evil. The good keep their allegiance to the Creator. They are "ministering spirits" sent forth for those who shall inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14). They are also the executors of God's providence and judgment, ordered in ranks under princes such as Michael. The evil ones are in revolt, following Satan. Of these, the principalities, powers and "wicked spirits in heavenly places" of Ephesians 6:12 are a highly organized host against whom the Christian wrestles. They try to keep believers from enjoying their heavenly blessings, and they darken the world. The fallen angels are called demons or unclean spirits, and they seek to possess men's bodies to ruin their souls. Most writers distinguish two classes of fallen angels. Some are kept in chains until the judgment (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4). Others still roam and even have access to heaven until they are cast out. One writer allows that Scripture does not plainly speak of two falls, though he too separates the chained angels from the active demons. The voices heard at séances are not the dead but demons personating them. The warning drawn from this is not to pry into or seek intercourse with the spirit world. The comfort drawn is that Christ is far above all principality and power and holds the keys of the unseen world.
Verses: Hebrews 12:9, Hebrews 12:23, 1 Peter 3:19, Hebrews 1:14, Ephesians 6:12, Colossians 1:16, John 4:24, Psalms 104:4, Hebrews 1:7, Psalms 103:20, Psalms 103:21, Luke 24:39, Hebrews 12:22, Matthew 18:10, Psalms 91:11, Psalms 91:12, Luke 20:36, Matthew 22:30, Isaiah 6:1, Isaiah 6:2, Isaiah 6:3, Ezekiel 10:20, Genesis 3:24, Daniel 10:13, Daniel 10:20, Daniel 10:21, Jude 1:6, Jude 1:9, 2 Peter 2:4, Revelation 12:7, Revelation 12:8, Revelation 12:9, Matthew 25:41, John 8:44, 1 Peter 5:8, 2 Corinthians 11:14, Ephesians 2:2, Mark 5:9, Matthew 12:43, Matthew 12:44, Matthew 12:45, Luke 8:2, 1 Timothy 4:1, 1 John 4:1, Romans 8:38, Romans 8:39, Colossians 2:15, 1 Kings 22:19, 1 Kings 22:20, 1 Kings 22:21, 1 Kings 22:22, Job 1:6, Job 38:7, Luke 2:13, Luke 2:14, Hebrews 13:2, 1 Corinthians 6:3, Revelation 5:11, Luke 15:10, Acts 23:8
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
Man differs from other created beings in that he is made up of "spirit, and soul, and body" (1 Thess. 5:23). Angels are spirits only (Heb. 1:7); animals, etc., consist of soul and body (Gen. 1:20, see margin). The spirit is the seat of the will and of the intelligence — the mental and moral faculties (1 Cor. 2:11); the soul is the seat of the affections and desires (1 Sam. 18:1; Luke 2:35); the body is the vessel by means of which these express themselves. The word "mortal" is only applied in Scripture to the body; never to either soul or spirit. It is sometimes objected that the term "immortal soul" is not found in Scripture. This is admitted; but what is the force of the objection if that which the orthodox mean by the expression is found there? Moreover, it should be remembered that "immortal" is a negative term; and could only properly be applied to that in man which at some time was "mortal." Since the soul never was mortal; there was no need for the Spirit of God to specifically describe it as immortal.
We must mark the difference between the physical creation and the moral order of life placed therein. The first gives the sphere in which God's eternal counsels are worked out and the latter those whom those counsels concern. The higher intelligences — angels — are purely spirit beings, but man is complex in his being, partaking of both spirit and matter. Immortal in his spirit and mortal as to his body, he joins in himself both the moral and the physical parts of creation. Man is unique in the creation of God. As a spirit being he is the lowest in the scale of the moral order, the higher intelligences being much greater in power and glory. As to his physical being he is above the whole range of the animal creation.
More than this, He "makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire." Thus, angels are far above our natural understanding, spiritual beings, not hampered by a bodily condition, but moved by the flaming fire of holiness.
The conflict, then, is against Satan and his hosts, whatever the instrument used. Principalities and powers are spiritual beings in a position of rule with power to carry out their will. They may be good or evil beings; here they are evil beings, and their wickedness would seem to take a twofold direction. In reference to the world they are the rulers of the darkness of this world; in reference to Christians they are the “spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies”. The world is in darkness, in ignorance of God, and these spiritual beings rule and direct the darkness of paganism, philosophy, science falsely so-called, and infidelity, as well as the superstitions, corruptions and modernism of Christendom. The Christian is brought into the light, and blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. The opposition to the Christian takes, then, a religious character by spiritual beings who seek to rob him of the truth of his heavenly calling, beguile him into a path that is a denial of the truth, or into conduct that is inconsistent with it.
There is no doubt whatever that we are surrounded by a vast world of spirits, some good, and some evil. The good are those who continue in their proper allegiance to the Creator; the evil are those who are in revolt against Him, following the leadership of Satan. But both good and evil are deeply interested in the affairs of men; the one delighting in their blessing, and the other seeking to compass their ruin.
Scripture clearly intimates that in the spiritual realm there are good principalities and powers as well as those that are evil (Eph. 1:21; Eph. 6:12, etc.): and that even as God has deputed certain angelic beings, under the direction of an angelic prince, to guard His people, so Satan has evil spiritual powers, under an arch-enemy, deputed to carry out his opposition to God among the nations of the world.
When our Lord tells the woman of Samaria that "God is spirit" (John 4:24), He is teaching her that while the substance of God is immaterial and invisible, it is of the nature of spirit: He is not characterizing the spirit substance in God, not distinguishing it from the spirit substance in other spirit beings. There can be no doubt that the spirit substance of angels is not identical with the spirit substance in God, which is uncreated, underived, subsisting from everlasting to everlasting. Not so in angels. In them it is a created substance. But this distinction or difference is not the point in our Saviour's conversation with the Samaritan woman. He is emphasizing the fact that God being of a spirit substance, it is unsuited to worship Him with material things — with shadows. He should be worshiped in spirit and reality.
There are three notices of the spirit world in the Epistle to the Ephesians to which I would refer for a moment. In Eph. 1:20-21 we have Christ's position in relation thereto. He is seated "far above all principality and power." However mighty the spirit forces in the universe, Christ is superior to them all, and all must yet acknowledge His Lordship. In Eph. 3:10 we are told that "now to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies is make known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God." These are holy spirits, who observe with unselfish interest what God is doing for His redeemed, and they admire the wisdom of His ways therein. Then in Eph. 6:12, we learn that our conflict is against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in the heavenlies." Here we have that malignant host, which is ever opposed to God and to His saints.
Thus man's littleness is seen as compared with the infinitude of God's creation above him. Passing now to the heavenly beings, compare him with angels: "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels." They are pure spirit, whose abode is in the heavens, and who excel in strength. They are not cumbered by the body of clay which would link them with the earth. Man carries about with him the witness of his weakness, his link with the animal life, yea, with the very earth below him, as well as his link with God.
They form a spiritual race, for Psalm 104:4, quoted in Hebrews 1:7, says: “Who makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flaming fire.”
Though angels are spirits it does not follow that they are incorporeal, for Scripture speaks of a spiritual body. In the resurrection the saints will have spiritual bodies. We mention this simply to show that there is such a thing, a body not subject to the limitations of our earthly condition. Angels often appeared in bodily form. We do not assert that they are corporeal. We merely point out that they are not of necessity incorporeal.
Verses
- Hebrews 12:9Moreover we have had the fathers of our flesh as chasteners, and we reverenced [them]; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
- Hebrews 12:22–2322but ye have come to mount Zion; and to [the] city of [the] living God, heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels, 23the universal gathering; and to [the] assembly of the firstborn [who are] registered in heaven; and to God, judge of all; and to [the] spirits of just [men] made perfect;
- 1 Peter 3:19in which also going he preached to the spirits [which are] in prison,
- Hebrews 1:14Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation?
- Ephesians 6:12because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual [power] of wickedness in the heavenlies.
- Colossians 1:16because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities all things have been created by him and for him.
- John 4:24God [is] a spirit; and they who worship him must worship [him] in spirit and truth.