He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
Spoken as He faced betrayal and death, Christ joined this warning to the dying grain of wheat that bears much fruit and to the call to serve and follow Him. To love one's life is to cling to temporal life at the cost of faithfulness, constantly planning and scheming for self and working by worldly plans where He does not lead. To hate one's life in this world is to refuse a life lived apart from Christ and in transgression of God's law, accepting His requirements and leaving the consequences with Him. Those who put their own life and safety above loyalty to Him will lose eternal life, while those who deny self and are willing to lose their lives for Him will keep them unto life eternal. His servants must therefore serve in His self-sacrificing way rather than the world's self-serving way, giving their lives like grain cast into the ground to bring forth fruit in service to God and others.
Meaning and Setting
Jesus spoke these words on one occasion just before His betrayal and death, as He anticipated His own death on the cross and its victorious fruit. The saying belongs together with the image of a grain of wheat that dies in order to produce much fruit and together with the call to serve Him and to follow Him so that where He is His servant will be. His own death illustrates the principle stated, for by giving up His life He would bring a great harvest of people to God.
To love one's life is to love temporal life in this world so much that one clings to it at the cost of faithfulness and obedience to God. It is to be constantly planning to benefit self, to scheme for self, and to work by worldly plans and human methods. It is to walk in paths where Christ does not lead the way, and that course loses life and leaves one at last bankrupt without the eternal riches. Loving life in this world means serving in the world's way, which is worthless because it is all for self and controlled by the selfishness of human nature. That clinging includes good name, reputation, money, property, and business held at the cost of obedience.
It also means protecting oneself from reproach and shame even at the cost of faithfulness to Christ, as when those who believed denied Him to preserve their standing. It means choosing one's own course in order to avoid unpleasantness, reproach, or inconvenience. This includes dissembling in the work of delivering God's people and waiting for a more reasonable time in order to keep influence and power, as in waiting to take the throne of Egypt to help afterward.
To hate one's life in this world is to choose death rather than life without Christ. It is to refuse to follow the impulse of one's own natural heart. It is to reject a life lived in transgression of God's law and to accept God's requirements, leaving Him to care for the consequences, and such a course keeps life unto life eternal and wins eternal life in the kingdom of God. Hating life in this way means loving God supremely and neighbor as self, making God's will one's will, and taking Christ's example as guide in all circumstances of life. It means revealing the transforming power of grace while living as a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
Loss and Eternal Gain
To put one's own life and safety in this world above loyalty to Christ is to lose eternal life, while to deny self and be willing to lose life for Christ is to preserve it unto eternal life. Clinging to present life instead of following Christ ends in its loss, but giving it up for Him secures it forever. Sharing His sufferings through faith and obedience leads to sharing His glory in heaven, for as He endured suffering and death looking beyond to glory at His Father's right hand, so His true followers deny self, obey God, share His sufferings, and will finally share His glory.
The rulers who believed in Jesus yet feared being expelled from the synagogue denied Him to preserve their standing, protecting themselves from reproach and shame even at the cost of faithfulness. In choosing human praise over God's approval they lost their chance, indeed their only chance, for eternal life. The warning was spoken especially for them, showing that prizing worldly standing and safety above faithfulness to Christ brings loss of eternal life. Choosing self-preservation at the cost of faithfulness leads to that loss, because apostasy and betrayal of God's cause are more serious than physical death. Anyone who gives up righteous principles and truth to avoid persecution or hardship may gain the world's friendship but loses God's favor and eternal welfare, while whoever obeys Christ, puts truth before personal comfort, and is willing to sacrifice temporal life rather than turn from the light will receive immortal life.
Choosing friendship with the world while seeking God's approval leads to losing heaven, while those who find no satisfaction in the world choose life through humble obedience and entire consecration and receive eternal reward. Whoever loves life in this selfish way, choosing his own course to avoid unpleasantness, reproach, or inconvenience and dissembling in the work of delivering God's people while waiting for a more reasonable time to keep influence and power, as in waiting to take the throne of Egypt to help afterward, loses God's shield and is left to his own planning without God's protection and favor in his selfish course. He will eventually lose the influence he was anxious to retain and lose the life he was anxious to save, gaining nothing and losing everything as a traitor and apostate working his own ruin. By contrast, hating life means refusing selfish advantage and a ruler's position and linking oneself with God's oppressed people at the cost of scorn, loss, and suffering.
The verse calls for repentance, surrender of pride, and bringing the will into subjection to God rather than living for personal inclination, for one who tries to preserve life for self will lose it while one who gives it up for Christ will keep it for eternal life. It supports denying self and following Christ even when doing so means accepting martyrdom, since those who give up their lives for Christ will be saved to eternal life. Devotion to self instead of following Christ leads to loss, while those who give up self-serving interests and even accept death for Christ's sake will keep their lives unto eternal life. One who so hates life may lose life in service, but when Christ comes to gather His people and His jewels he will find it again unto life eternal. Living very near the Lord is the only safety amid many accidents, and if life is lost it is preserved unto eternal life, for the righteous dead shall come forth from their graves to eternal life.
Self-Denial in Service
Acceptable service has its condition in hating one's life in this world, which is to serve in Christ's method by following His example in life and death, looking to Jesus and living His life, and loving life in this world is to serve in the world's way, which is worthless because it is all for self and controlled by the selfishness of human nature. Following Christ in His work calls for wholehearted self-surrender, and those who give themselves as light-bearers to carry truth to the world may meet struggle, yet by relying on Christ's strength and advancing in faith they receive divine help and overcome. His lifting up on the cross is joined to the work of His people, who are to serve in that same spirit.
As grain cast into the ground must die to bring forth fruit, so life must be given in service to bear fruit, for self-love and self-interest must perish and clinging to personal gain brings loss. The life that is preserved unto eternal life is the life freely spent in service to God and others for Christ's sake, meeting the world's needs rather than holding to self-interest. Hating life in this world is being a true, self-sacrificing worker willing to spend and be spent for others, showing love for God and fellow beings by earnest, thoughtful efforts to help where help is needed. Such a life loves God supremely and neighbor as self, makes God's will its will, takes Christ's example as guide in every circumstance, reveals transforming grace as a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men, and is changed in character from thorns and thistles to flowers and fruit.
Honoring God is made the aim and purpose of life, refusing Satan control of thoughts, will, and endowments, and using every capability lent in trust in sacred service to His glory for increase. The opposite is robbing God like the slothful, unprofitable servant who hid his talent, constantly planning to benefit self and walking in paths where Christ does not lead, which loses life, whereas refusing to follow the impulse of the natural heart keeps life unto eternal life. Being saved in the appointed way is becoming willing subjects of Christ's kingdom as God's chosen, with the promise that where He is His servant will be and the Father will honor whoever serves Him through self-surrender and self-denial, while being lost is choosing one's own way and will, refusing discipline and captivity to Christ, serving at will and working away from Him, which loses the soul. Seeking personal or group advantage as an end in itself, especially by overriding justice, leads to loss, while sacrificing self-interest to do what is right brings life and uplift. Applied to relations between races, this calls the white race to work honestly and justly for the moral and social uplift of the colored people, with the result that those who so serve are themselves uplifted.
Gaining eternal life requires surrendering self and dying to self, though this is the hardest thing, and those who receive the excellent reward sacrifice to obtain it. Keeping it unto eternal life requires dying to self by giving up natural and cultivated traits of character that would separate from Christ, for to cherish traits that separate from Him would bring a second apostasy if such persons entered heaven. God gives a probationary opportunity to receive through Christ the power to become His children. This means entire surrender to God of body, soul, and spirit, purification from every unrighteous thought and unholy action, giving up cherished self-righteousness, diligent thorough work in humbling self, putting away old habits and practices and all evil speaking, and dying to self in order to live to God. In Christ's strength, while the light of mercy still shines, the surrendered ascend heavenward step by step.
Spoken as He faced betrayal and death, Christ joined this warning to the dying grain of wheat that bears much fruit and to the call to serve and follow Him. To love one's life is to cling to temporal life at the cost of faithfulness, constantly planning and scheming for self and working by worldly plans where He does not lead. To hate one's life in this world is to refuse a life lived apart from Christ and in transgression of God's law, accepting His requirements and leaving the consequences with Him. Those who put their own life and safety above loyalty to Him will lose eternal life, while those who deny self and are willing to lose their lives for Him will keep them unto life eternal. His servants must therefore serve in His self-sacrificing way rather than the world's self-serving way, giving their lives like grain cast into the ground to bring forth fruit in service to God and others.
Meaning and Setting
Jesus spoke these words on one occasion just before His betrayal and death, as He anticipated His own death on the cross and its victorious fruit. The saying belongs together with the image of a grain of wheat that dies in order to produce much fruit and together with the call to serve Him and to follow Him so that where He is His servant will be. His own death illustrates the principle stated, for by giving up His life He would bring a great harvest of people to God.
To love one's life is to love temporal life in this world so much that one clings to it at the cost of faithfulness and obedience to God. It is to be constantly planning to benefit self, to scheme for self, and to work by worldly plans and human methods. It is to walk in paths where Christ does not lead the way, and that course loses life and leaves one at last bankrupt without the eternal riches. Loving life in this world means serving in the world's way, which is worthless because it is all for self and controlled by the selfishness of human nature. That clinging includes good name, reputation, money, property, and business held at the cost of obedience.
It also means protecting oneself from reproach and shame even at the cost of faithfulness to Christ, as when those who believed denied Him to preserve their standing. It means choosing one's own course in order to avoid unpleasantness, reproach, or inconvenience. This includes dissembling in the work of delivering God's people and waiting for a more reasonable time in order to keep influence and power, as in waiting to take the throne of Egypt to help afterward.
To hate one's life in this world is to choose death rather than life without Christ. It is to refuse to follow the impulse of one's own natural heart. It is to reject a life lived in transgression of God's law and to accept God's requirements, leaving Him to care for the consequences, and such a course keeps life unto life eternal and wins eternal life in the kingdom of God. Hating life in this way means loving God supremely and neighbor as self, making God's will one's will, and taking Christ's example as guide in all circumstances of life. It means revealing the transforming power of grace while living as a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.
Loss and Eternal Gain
To put one's own life and safety in this world above loyalty to Christ is to lose eternal life, while to deny self and be willing to lose life for Christ is to preserve it unto eternal life. Clinging to present life instead of following Christ ends in its loss, but giving it up for Him secures it forever. Sharing His sufferings through faith and obedience leads to sharing His glory in heaven, for as He endured suffering and death looking beyond to glory at His Father's right hand, so His true followers deny self, obey God, share His sufferings, and will finally share His glory.
The rulers who believed in Jesus yet feared being expelled from the synagogue denied Him to preserve their standing, protecting themselves from reproach and shame even at the cost of faithfulness. In choosing human praise over God's approval they lost their chance, indeed their only chance, for eternal life. The warning was spoken especially for them, showing that prizing worldly standing and safety above faithfulness to Christ brings loss of eternal life. Choosing self-preservation at the cost of faithfulness leads to that loss, because apostasy and betrayal of God's cause are more serious than physical death. Anyone who gives up righteous principles and truth to avoid persecution or hardship may gain the world's friendship but loses God's favor and eternal welfare, while whoever obeys Christ, puts truth before personal comfort, and is willing to sacrifice temporal life rather than turn from the light will receive immortal life.
Choosing friendship with the world while seeking God's approval leads to losing heaven, while those who find no satisfaction in the world choose life through humble obedience and entire consecration and receive eternal reward. Whoever loves life in this selfish way, choosing his own course to avoid unpleasantness, reproach, or inconvenience and dissembling in the work of delivering God's people while waiting for a more reasonable time to keep influence and power, as in waiting to take the throne of Egypt to help afterward, loses God's shield and is left to his own planning without God's protection and favor in his selfish course. He will eventually lose the influence he was anxious to retain and lose the life he was anxious to save, gaining nothing and losing everything as a traitor and apostate working his own ruin. By contrast, hating life means refusing selfish advantage and a ruler's position and linking oneself with God's oppressed people at the cost of scorn, loss, and suffering.
The verse calls for repentance, surrender of pride, and bringing the will into subjection to God rather than living for personal inclination, for one who tries to preserve life for self will lose it while one who gives it up for Christ will keep it for eternal life. It supports denying self and following Christ even when doing so means accepting martyrdom, since those who give up their lives for Christ will be saved to eternal life. Devotion to self instead of following Christ leads to loss, while those who give up self-serving interests and even accept death for Christ's sake will keep their lives unto eternal life. One who so hates life may lose life in service, but when Christ comes to gather His people and His jewels he will find it again unto life eternal. Living very near the Lord is the only safety amid many accidents, and if life is lost it is preserved unto eternal life, for the righteous dead shall come forth from their graves to eternal life.
Self-Denial in Service
Acceptable service has its condition in hating one's life in this world, which is to serve in Christ's method by following His example in life and death, looking to Jesus and living His life, and loving life in this world is to serve in the world's way, which is worthless because it is all for self and controlled by the selfishness of human nature. Following Christ in His work calls for wholehearted self-surrender, and those who give themselves as light-bearers to carry truth to the world may meet struggle, yet by relying on Christ's strength and advancing in faith they receive divine help and overcome. His lifting up on the cross is joined to the work of His people, who are to serve in that same spirit.
As grain cast into the ground must die to bring forth fruit, so life must be given in service to bear fruit, for self-love and self-interest must perish and clinging to personal gain brings loss. The life that is preserved unto eternal life is the life freely spent in service to God and others for Christ's sake, meeting the world's needs rather than holding to self-interest. Hating life in this world is being a true, self-sacrificing worker willing to spend and be spent for others, showing love for God and fellow beings by earnest, thoughtful efforts to help where help is needed. Such a life loves God supremely and neighbor as self, makes God's will its will, takes Christ's example as guide in every circumstance, reveals transforming grace as a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men, and is changed in character from thorns and thistles to flowers and fruit.
Honoring God is made the aim and purpose of life, refusing Satan control of thoughts, will, and endowments, and using every capability lent in trust in sacred service to His glory for increase. The opposite is robbing God like the slothful, unprofitable servant who hid his talent, constantly planning to benefit self and walking in paths where Christ does not lead, which loses life, whereas refusing to follow the impulse of the natural heart keeps life unto eternal life. Being saved in the appointed way is becoming willing subjects of Christ's kingdom as God's chosen, with the promise that where He is His servant will be and the Father will honor whoever serves Him through self-surrender and self-denial, while being lost is choosing one's own way and will, refusing discipline and captivity to Christ, serving at will and working away from Him, which loses the soul. Seeking personal or group advantage as an end in itself, especially by overriding justice, leads to loss, while sacrificing self-interest to do what is right brings life and uplift. Applied to relations between races, this calls the white race to work honestly and justly for the moral and social uplift of the colored people, with the result that those who so serve are themselves uplifted.
Gaining eternal life requires surrendering self and dying to self, though this is the hardest thing, and those who receive the excellent reward sacrifice to obtain it. Keeping it unto eternal life requires dying to self by giving up natural and cultivated traits of character that would separate from Christ, for to cherish traits that separate from Him would bring a second apostasy if such persons entered heaven. God gives a probationary opportunity to receive through Christ the power to become His children. This means entire surrender to God of body, soul, and spirit, purification from every unrighteous thought and unholy action, giving up cherished self-righteousness, diligent thorough work in humbling self, putting away old habits and practices and all evil speaking, and dying to self in order to live to God. In Christ's strength, while the light of mercy still shines, the surrendered ascend heavenward step by step.