Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
Trying to keep life by holding on to self loses it, while giving up life for Christ preserves it for eternal life. The call is to surrender the self to Christ instead of living for personal wishes. Trying to build oneself up and preserve one's own life through self-seeking ends in loss, for making self-preservation and self-exaltation the aim defeats the effort, and humility requires giving up self. Life is preserved not by self-protection but by self-giving, since the life freely given in service to God and others is the life that endures. Self-love and self-interest must perish, as grain is cast into the earth so that it can bear fruit.
Trying to preserve life by holding back from faithful obedience loses it, while willingness to risk or surrender life for faithfulness preserves it. The test is whether to venture upon the proclaimed truth of Christ's near coming rather than retreat from it out of fear or doubt, and meeting it requires faith like that of Abraham, Noah, Lot, Daniel, and the three Hebrews. The saying belongs to the warning that the day of the Lord is coming, and to those who are not watching and praying and working it will come as a thief in the night. Readiness means watching, praying, working, following in the footsteps of Jesus, and for those who have the light, working out salvation with fear and trembling. Its warning about losing life applies to the time of trouble, when the faithful flee from cities and villages while pursued by the wicked and face danger to life under persecution.
Trying to keep life by holding on to self loses it, while giving up life for Christ preserves it for eternal life. The call is to surrender the self to Christ instead of living for personal wishes. Trying to build oneself up and preserve one's own life through self-seeking ends in loss, for making self-preservation and self-exaltation the aim defeats the effort, and humility requires giving up self. Life is preserved not by self-protection but by self-giving, since the life freely given in service to God and others is the life that endures. Self-love and self-interest must perish, as grain is cast into the earth so that it can bear fruit.
Trying to preserve life by holding back from faithful obedience loses it, while willingness to risk or surrender life for faithfulness preserves it. The test is whether to venture upon the proclaimed truth of Christ's near coming rather than retreat from it out of fear or doubt, and meeting it requires faith like that of Abraham, Noah, Lot, Daniel, and the three Hebrews. The saying belongs to the warning that the day of the Lord is coming, and to those who are not watching and praying and working it will come as a thief in the night. Readiness means watching, praying, working, following in the footsteps of Jesus, and for those who have the light, working out salvation with fear and trembling. Its warning about losing life applies to the time of trouble, when the faithful flee from cities and villages while pursued by the wicked and face danger to life under persecution.