For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Christ asks what good it does to gain everything this world offers if the soul is lost, for the soul is worth more than the whole world and nothing earthly can buy it back once it is gone. Gaining the world means wealth, honor, position, pleasure and self-indulgence, all of which are fleeting, perish with use and cannot be carried beyond death. Losing the soul means remaining in unbelief and known sin, separated from God and unfit for His kingdom, thereby forfeiting eternal life and heaven. Its worth is measured by creation and redemption, because human beings belong to God and were bought by the life of His only Son who gave Himself to save them. Therefore the question calls for immediate, decided choice to renounce self, take up the cross and follow Christ, laying up treasure in heaven rather than trading eternal life for temporal gain.
Words and Setting
The verse calls for weighing two scales for time and for eternity, with Jesus meaning eternal treasure, life, truth, heaven, and the joy of redeemed souls in one scale against every attraction the world can offer in the other, and with the loss of one's own soul and of souls one might have helped save set against a life that measures with the life of God. Gaining everything the world offers cannot profit if the soul is lost, and nothing worldly can compensate for or be given in exchange for it, so the choice matters both for the present life and for eternity. God desires the heavenly to be chosen in place of the earthly, with heavenly investment encouraging the loftiest aims and securing imperishable treasure, since riches that moth and rust destroy will be swept away while Christ's followers rejoice in what endures.
It is Christ's loud, trumpet-like cry entering a busy, clamorous, confused world absorbed in getting gain and working at high pressure in buying and selling, to break the spell of earthliness upon minds. Gaining the world is temporary and subordinate while losing the soul is eternal loss, so earthly success must remain subordinate to eternal interests and the world be put where it belongs, with God-given time used to secure heaven's precious treasures and cultivate what is useful and enduring as fruit for the heavenly garner in view of the eternal habitations of the just. The warning exposes worldly piety, turns the mind from earthly things toward God and eternal realities, sets before it the glory of heaven and the threshold of eternity flushed with the glory of God, and shows the wrath coming upon those who disregard God's law, since fixing the heart on present advantages can eclipse heaven and endanger the soul.
It is spoken to men risking everything to secure earthly riches and crazed with the prospect of getting gain, exalting earthly riches above eternal riches until every spiritual sinew and muscle is paralyzed by that infatuating spell. It challenges people absorbed in commerce and trade and consumed by selfish efforts to acquire riches to put the soul's value above gain for self, pointing them instead to the enduring heavenly city and immortal inheritance and to the use of means and abilities to win souls. It looks upon a world filled with merchandise, trade, dishonesty and scheming of buyers and sellers, and upon God-dishonoring scenes such as intense games and horse races attended by thousands where lives bought by Christ's redemption are thrown away, pressing whether wasters of life will be counted worthy of redemption and turning minds from Satan's devices for keeping men from serving God to the nobler world they have lost from view.
It belongs to discipleship and the cross, requiring turning from self-indulgence, renouncing self, bearing the cross and following Christ, being crucified to the world and giving up its pomp, pleasure and attractions to share His glory. Trying to keep life for self loses it because selfishness is death, while losing life for Christ and the gospel saves it, just as no organ of the body could live by confining service to itself and the heart would lose power if it failed to send its life-blood to hand and head, so Christ's love is the life-blood diffused through His mystical body whose members belong to one another. Those pursuing reform may suffer apparent losses, but worldly loss is no exchange for the soul, and it is better to bear the cross and suffer disappointed hopes while gaining eternal life than to live with princes and forfeit heaven, since worldly rank cannot make up for eternal loss.
It stands in the account of Jesus' journey toward suffering and death, where He knew beforehand the cost of His mission and willingly chose to endure it to save the lost. Gaining the whole world is the nearer view of earthly life, poverty, humiliation, suffering, and expectation of an earthly throne with the Messiah's kingdom exalted to the throne of David, while profiting the soul looks beyond the present to Christ's coming in glory, not in earthly splendor but with the glory of God and the hosts of heaven to reward every man according to his works. Eyes fixed on the nearer earthly life fail to comprehend that glory though it seemed far away, bringing sadness and doubt that the Son of God should live as a humble homeless wanderer, be despised and rejected, voluntarily go to Jerusalem to suffer cruel humiliation and be put to death, and leave His followers in greater darkness, with encouragement that some standing there would not taste death till seeing the Son of man coming in His kingdom.
It is joined to Christ's tears on the Mount of Olives showing grief over lost souls and, in prophetic view, the destruction of the nation, since a soul is worth more than the whole world and no possession can be given in exchange for it. Getting the whole world with all its pleasure and glory while losing the soul is eternal loss, while overcoming as Christ overcame is infinite gain, and heaven is cheap at any cost. This is better understood when sinful people discern God's inexpressible love in giving His Son to die on the cross, withholding not His divine Son from the humiliation of humanity and shame and agony in order to bring many sons and daughters to glory.
Value of the Soul
Gaining even the whole world profits nothing if the soul is lost, for the soul is worth more than all money and worldly gain and more than all the worlds could buy. Earthly treasure soon passes away and cannot be carried beyond death, while the world and its glory will be destroyed, so nothing earthly can compensate for a lost soul. Temporal losses, earthly status, approval and prospects are not comparable to its loss, and each person is called to settle without delay what the soul is worth and to live with eternal results in view. To be so engrossed with this life as to have no time to think of heaven is to sell the soul and lose it, leaving money and success useless to their owner. Earthly attractions can eclipse heavenly realities and make attachment to the world supreme until Christ breaks the deception and turns the mind toward heaven.
Nothing on earth can equal the soul's value or be given in exchange for it, and no money, land, possession or worldly advantage can buy it back once lost. Gaining the whole world cannot make up for losing the soul, for worldly gain is no exchange for it. No risk that endangers the soul for worldly gain must therefore be taken, and a holy purpose must be kept in view rather than sacrificing the soul's interests. The heart and soul must be carefully guarded, with Christ abiding within by faith to sustain spiritual life. Each person bears individual responsibility for the soul's salvation, using God's Word as guide and working toward eternal life, fighting the good fight of faith to the utmost now in probation by seeking first God's kingdom and righteousness and becoming gold rather than hay, wood and stubble.
The soul's worth is shown because people belong to God by creation and redemption, have been bought with a price, and cost the life of God's only-begotten Son. Christ's sacrifice shows the worth He places on human beings, for He made infinite sacrifice to save people from sin and knows the higher life He seeks to give them. Every soul is precious to God, who claims people by creation and redemption and does not want them lost, yet worldly wealth can hinder character building and distract from need of Christ. Love of money can ruin a person, so entrusted means are to be used for God's work rather than hoarded as earthly treasure. Though a person may sell the soul to the enemy through selfishness and unfaithfulness, Christ has purchased it with His precious blood and provided probation in which character may be tested and salvation worked out with God's help.
The soul may be lost through unbelief, while eternal life is God's gift and Christ has given His life and made provision so believers need not perish. Jesus alone can fully explain this loss, and therefore no one should treat eternal interests carelessly. The soul is precious and may receive immortality as God's free gift through receiving and believing in Christ. It is capable of purification and sanctification through Christ's offering and of receiving the heavenly treasure of everlasting life. It is valuable also because it may receive spiritual gifts, develop its abilities through God's Word, and obtain immortality through the Life-giver if obedient.
One soul saved is worth more than the whole world and all its wealth, and its salvation is of infinitely greater consequence than temporal affairs. Its worth is seen by considering the joys of the saved in the kingdom of glory, the life that measures with the life of God, and the rich reward laid up for those who overcome. Salvation can elevate and ennoble people degraded by sin, and the Son of God died for the soul, outweighing untold riches hoarded in mansions or bank stock. Winning one soul to Christ is therefore worth every effort, all possible means, and treasure laid up in heaven, using earthly means in the work of saving others and valuing eternal life above material gain. For this reason the truth that leads to salvation must be carried to people in the cities.
Losing one soul is a grave, immeasurable loss deeper than can be sounded, greater than failing to gain anything in the world. It means losing eternal life and the immortal inheritance forever, forfeiting an eternity of joy and bliss. No worldly advantage can make up for it, and the loss of one soul outweighs every earthly gain. Against that loss stands the eternal weight of glory and bliss that every soul saved will surely enjoy, which no one can fully weigh. Those who neglect the work they could do to save others through selfishness, indolence or shame risk losing their own souls and are accountable for the good they failed to do, while misleading souls purchased by Christ's blood endangers what belongs to Him.
Gaining and Losing Defined
Gaining the world means earthly wealth, honor, position, power, and pleasure, with no true advantage if heaven and the soul are lost in the exchange. It also includes high wages and apparently great educational advantages, outward show, pride, and self-indulgence, which bring no lasting profit because worldly treasure is fleeting and eternal riches come only through Christ. Such earthly possessions are temporary, soon pass away and perish with the using, and death takes them away so they cannot be carried beyond death. They cannot make up for losing the soul or losing eternal life, cannot replace integrity, honesty, a pure heart and steadfast purpose to do right, being rich toward God, having Christ's righteousness, or forming a character fit for God's heavenly family and citizenship in His city in harmony with His laws. Those who disregard God's will and follow their own will have no place there, as rebellion began with choosing self-will and will finally be destroyed, and earthly wealth must not be lived with as one's own while neglecting God's call, the needs of the poor, and the enduring incorruptible inheritance worth greater effort and affection. Parents therefore must guard against effaced early religious impressions and love of God taken from the heart by satanic influences and unnecessary temptation as tares sown within, by training children in the fear of God in the home school, guarding them from corrupting associations, and refusing to send them away from home influence even for material or educational profit.
What people esteem highly may be abhorrent to God, for wealth and honor are not His measure and do not secure standing with Him without riches toward God. Worldly success that leaves a person poor toward God is terrible failure, with fleeting earthly treasures an exorbitant price paid for the soul.
Gaining the world at the cost of the soul includes acquiring wealth or position by giving up truth and duty, for such gain costs the soul which cannot be exchanged for worldly advantage, though wealth wisely used is valuable and loving or hoarding it at the expense of principle is selling the soul for what the world offers. It includes turning from God's truth and refusing light to protect business success, which is selling the soul cheaply, bringing the fruit of disobedience and leaving a compromised conscience that cannot be trusted, while a pure upright conscience is worth more than the whole world and eternal destiny must be valued above worldly interests. It includes letting worldly concerns or neighbors' choices absorb the mind to abandon what conscience shows true, living to please others at the cost of truth and heaven in a ruinous exchange, and yielding to worldly inducements and associations rather than continuing in service to God and advancing His work even amid poverty. Those given evidence must not turn from it but place influence on the side of righteousness irrespective of worldly loss or gain, changing course for their own souls and their children's rather than sacrificing heaven.
Losing the soul means unbelief, while eternal life is God's gift with provision made so believers need not perish, and nothing on earth equals the soul's value or can be given in exchange for it. It means knowing what sin is as transgression of the law yet continuing in it, and refusing to bear the cross and share a life of self-denial and self-sacrifice to protect worldly prospects and gain, which brings great loss of eternal life. It is to remain untruthful, impure, and unrighteous with an evil nature that cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, separated from God and forfeiting heaven, and to be destroyed because sin if not destroyed will destroy the sinner. Gaining the soul instead requires making Christ a personal Saviour and cooperating with God, working out salvation with fear and trembling while God works to will and do of His good pleasure, striving earnestly, resisting wrong, subduing evil temper, selfishness and pride, and becoming true, pure, holy, a partaker of the divine nature, complete without spot and blameless, rising in moral value and attaining Christ's righteousness. The loss demands decided immediate choice for time and eternity between serving Christ and serving Satan, with religion in practice as well as faith, regulation of life as well as rectification of heart, in strictest integrity with purest devotion.
Losing the soul also affects others whom one might help save, for eternal life, truth, heaven, Jesus, and the joy of redeemed people outweigh all earthly gain for this life and eternity when attractions are weighed against eternal treasure. It wastes the infinite sacrifice of Jesus given to shameful death to save eternally in His kingdom, makes Him to have died in vain, and turns away as unworthy of notice the sanctified influence made possible from Him, through loving the world, its friendship, practices, display, and the opinions of those without connection to truth and righteousness above pleasing God, which is selling oneself to the enemy and throwing away the soul at last. It injures others through pursuing selfish interests at another's expense, harmful words, example, and false teaching that draws them from Christ, when life's work should heal and save rather than wound and destroy. Refusing God's call and failing to do possible good brings answer before the judgment seat, and unfaithfulness through selfishness, indolence, or shame can lead others to be lost, making neglect to save even one person more costly than failing to gain anything in the world. To lose one's own soul is terrible, but to cause other souls to be lost is still more terrible, requiring ministers and workers to guard thoughts, words, habits, dispositions, and characters in deep personal holiness, lest influence become a savor of death unto death instead of cooperating with God in saving souls.
Selfish gain is no profit because selfishness is death; trying to keep life for self loses it, while losing life for Christ and the gospel saves it. A soul that refuses to give to others perishes, as no organ of the body could live by confining service to itself and the heart would lose power if it failed to send life-blood to hand and head. The love of Christ is the life-blood diffused through His mystical body, believers are members one of another, and gaining everything worldly while forfeiting the soul leaves nothing of value to give in exchange for it.
Worldly Dangers Warned Against
Mark 8:36 warns those absorbed in commerce, merchandise, buying and selling, and feverish eagerness to store earthly treasure that gaining the whole world cannot profit anyone who loses the soul. Being so engrossed with business and things of time makes spiritual prosperity secondary, dismisses God from thought, leaves prayer scarcely offered, and leaves eternity out of the reckoning. Such high-pressure pursuits and care and perplexity leave no time or desire for eternal riches, mold thoughts and motives earthward, and defile the soul with covetousness and selfishness, while claiming large money compensation for finite wisdom without heart devotion and true piety robs God, robs one's own soul and family, and exchanges the hope of heaven for worldly gain by accepting Satan's tempting bribe. Without Christ nothing so done is acceptable to God, and should life end in that state the person is lost, eternally lost, for eternal interests must never be made inferior to temporal interests nor commercial interests absorb all the mind and occupy all the time. Instead of confining truth to self and family, those who hear it are to communicate it, hunt up people in the vicinity, and bring souls ready to perish like lost sheep into the fold, because time is passing into eternity and little has been done to save perishing souls who know not the truth, valuing heavenly treasure above earthly riches and using means and abilities to win souls for Christ and the enduring heavenly city and immortal inheritance.
Mark 8:36 warns ministers against giving themselves to commercial business and enterprises promising great gain, for gaining even the whole world is no profit if the soul is lost and earthly riches cannot outweigh eternal life. A minister tempted by such an enterprise must give priority to serving God and leading people to the Saviour rather than letting business turn heart and mind from that sacred calling, lest he prove false to his trust. Crowding business interests into sanitarium work to gain earthly success while losing sight of its main object is gaining the whole world and losing the soul, which profits nothing and is stupidity of soul and great loss. Spiritual interests must never be displaced by business interests, but proclamation of present truth, daily devotion, exaltation of the Word of God as bread of life above all common earthly considerations, strong religious influence, and the glory of God and uplifting of Christ placed before all else must remain prominent as the main line of work. To gain the whole world and lose the soul is a poor bargain for a minister who uses the tongue to teach how to bury money in the earth instead of how to invest safely in the bank of heaven, who works away from Christ and lacks spiritual discernment, for without converting power and a changed spiritual condition he will make shipwreck of faith and let go his hold on truth, since even one soul outweighs all the world and temporal concerns must not draw ministers from saving souls.
Mark 8:36 warns stewards entrusted with means that gaining worldly wealth cannot compensate for losing the soul, for even all earth's treasures cannot buy the peace, hope, and blessings offered by Christ through obedience. Those who value worldly gain above eternal things turn from imperishable treasure and endanger their souls, while the right response is to give possessions, talents, and affections to Christ in grateful devotion and live to bless others. Getting all the world offers is worthless if eternal life is forfeited, and the loss falls on stewards to whom God entrusts means to hold for Him and return when He calls, but who keep it for themselves. Hoarding His money, investing it in worldly enterprises to please self or family, turning it into selfish channels for lack of moral courage to stand for Jesus, and withholding it from relieving suffering, advancing the gospel, and establishing memorials, sanitariums, and medical missionary work from which the warning message could arouse candid investigation hinders truth from going to earth's dark places and leaves fellow beings unprepared to become members of the royal family. Such covetousness estranges stewards from God, cramps His faithful servants for lack of means and facilities until they are worn out, and will leave many professed believers found wanting when judgment sits and books are opened, with nothing to give to recover the soul, for consecrated humble service and faithful use of entrusted means serve salvation of self and others and bring reward in God's kingdom, while burying those means instead of advancing God's work is like the unfaithful steward failing to lay up treasure in heaven. Earthly possessions are entrusted by God to serve Him and care for the needy, and neglecting that duty for selfish gratification, spending on gaining property while neglecting salvation and service, leaves a person without the eternal riches that matter, since earthly treasure is too small a price for the heavenly reward.
Mark 8:36 warns that obtaining money through unfair dealing, sharp dealing, oppression, fraud, double dealing, and advantage at another's expense is a fearful loss that forfeits heaven and the overcomer's crown. Enduring disappointment and hardship is better than that exchange, for property and profit gotten by using others for self makes the soul callous to the Spirit of God. Every act breaking the golden rule and taking advantage of another, saint or sinner, abuses Christ in the person of His saints and stands as fraud in heaven's books. God designed human lives to copy Christ in doing good, lifting others up, a work holding true dignity and glory not seen in this life but fully valued in the future life, where the record of kind and generous deeds reaches into eternity, and just as far as a person builds himself up by tearing his fellow down, the soul loses power to feel God. To gain the whole world by clever schemes, withholding God's entrusted money and talents of tact, skill, and treasure from relieving suffering, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping widow and fatherless, and advancing the gospel profits nothing, leaving such a receiver but not producer robbing Christ of glory, failing to cooperate with Him, magnifying self, finding no peace in transactions, becoming poorest on earth, and losing heavenly treasure because gospel treasure lost value through the tempter's corruption. Seeking advantage through underhand dealing, deception, or customs built on false basis is not justified by serving God's work, for God does not approve such conduct, and losing the soul means forfeiting an eternity of joy.
Mark 8:36 warns against speculating for riches, abandoning honest work for mining stock, trusting wealth for security, and pursuing riches at the cost of faithfulness. Gaining wealth, even the whole world, is no profit if the soul is lost, and business choices made for greater money can put the soul in danger. Trusting in wealth brings sorrow, while material gain is no benefit if it costs the soul, for greed and treating riches as security lead to fraud, discontent, and sorrow. The hope of gain leads those who could earn an honest living to abandon work to speculate in mining stock, effectively selling souls for possible gain and putting souls in peril unto spiritual ruin.
Mark 8:36 warns parents against valuing worldly pleasures, standards, ease, comfort, city business advantages, high wages, and educational advantages above righteousness. Business drawing a person from God and leading children to set hearts on worldly things is not worth the cost of the soul through separation from God. Acquiring everything the world offers brings no real gain if the soul is lost, for losing the soul means early religious impressions effaced and love of God taken from the heart through satanic influences and unnecessary temptation, as tares sown in the heart. Parents must be wide-awake guardians, train and discipline children in fear of God in the home school during early years, guard them from corrupting associations, and refuse to send them from home influence to schools where they will meet such temptation, even for material or educational profit. That choice risks their own salvation and children's eternal life, since the soul is worth more than all earthly gain and its salvation is of infinitely greater consequence than temporal affairs, calling parents to earnest efforts to save their own souls and their children's. Ease, comfort, and convenience are worth less than children's souls, so parents should not expose them to city temptations for business or worldly benefits, nor choose city investments for ease and convenience over spiritual welfare, but place them where they can receive best influences and be prepared for heaven.
Mark 8:36 warns against Satan's bribes of worldly kingdoms, power, protection, prolonged life, and temporal gain. Gaining wealth, power, or protection at cost of faithfulness brings no true profit because the soul is lost, for Satan's offers of kingdoms and security are bribes leading people to abandon God, including by yielding in the final conflict over the Sabbath. His offers tempt people to trade faithfulness for earthly gain, but Christ's victory over this temptation proves followers can resist the enemy. Giving oneself to Satan's sorcery for prolonged life or secured temporal gain is unwise and unsafe even when great benefit is boasted, because disregarding God's will never pays in the end and all apparent gain proves at last irrecoverable loss, since no barrier God erected to guard His people from Satan's power can be broken with impunity. No temporal gain is worth imperiling the soul's highest interests, and choosing one's own way, loving money, or seeking selfish gratification can cost what matters eternally, while recovering faith and living with God's presence and favor are worth self-denial and any sacrifice; losing heaven means losing everything, while heavenly treasure of immortal value is given to those loving God supremely and neighbor as self. Loyalty to secret societies must therefore be abandoned rather than risk that loss.
Mark 8:36 warns that self-exaltation, loving praise and prominence, a pushing domineering spirit, indulgence in fiction, worldly excitement, extravagance, and loving the world's friendship, practices, display, and opinions endanger the soul. Worldly excitement and pursuits, including indulgence in fiction weakening spiritual strength and duty, can imperil the soul, and no worldly gain is worth that loss. Worldly interests and outward display are no substitute for integrity, honesty, pure heart, and unwavering purpose to do right, for gaining worldly greatness cannot make up for losing the soul. The whole world sinks into insignificance beside one soul, so those professing Christ must humble themselves, bear the cross, walk in His footsteps, practice self-denial and suffer reproach to save souls for whom Christ died, instead of sparing self and seeking glory, continually keeping just appreciation of one soul's worth. A self-righteous, pushing, domineering spirit seeking to be first, loving prominence, and lording over God's heritage disregards that worth, shuts souls from the kingdom, and does great harm resulting in loss of souls. Self-exaltation can place a person in peril of losing the soul, with influence and abilities used to deceive others and lead them into false paths. Loving praise puts a man in great danger, and gaining money to escape difficulties, keeping influence by silence when evils should be corrected, and doing worldly labor not glorifying God is worthless if the soul is lost, leaving one unable to receive reproof rightly because spiritual things are not spiritually discerned, liable under temptation not to stand proving but to apostatize. A person can also lose the soul through use of means, and extravagance in spending is a danger calling for careful study.
Choosing Christ Fully
The question calls every person to stop and make an honest reckoning without delay, weighing two scales for time and for eternity, with Jesus meaning eternal treasure, life, truth, heaven and the joy of redeemed souls in one scale against every attraction the world can offer and the loss of the soul in the other. Each must settle with God what the soul is worth and take individual responsibility for its salvation, using God's Word as guide and working toward eternal life with the Lord, since gaining every worldly advantage cannot compensate for losing one soul. The choice is between the heavenly and the earthly, between enduring principles and possessions and a life plan reckoning only with the brief years of this world, and it is made by choosing heavenly investment and laying up treasure in heaven in preparation for the unending future. Living with eternal results in view and a life that measures with the life of God does not impoverish earthly life but enriches and ennobles it, while riches that moth and rust destroy will be swept away and Christ's followers will rejoice in imperishable treasure.
Preserving eternal life with Jesus is worth more than every earthly gain, and obtaining it calls for obedience, the use of one's powers, and if necessary the giving of one's life, for nothing can be given in exchange for the soul. God's commandments must be obeyed exactly and not changed to suit convenience, business, or worldly advantage, for departing even a little from what God has said is rebellion and stubbornness that forfeits the soul, and to obey is better than sacrifice. Citizenship in God's city is open to all who live in harmony with God's laws and accept His law as guide rather than following their own will, while those who disregard His will have no place there, as Satan's rebellion began with choosing his own will and he and those who join his work will finally be destroyed. The safe course is to surrender self and accept Christ's way and will rather than follow a supreme desire for one's own way and self-interests despite truth and evidence, which destroys the truth's saving power to convert the soul.
Because nothing can be given in exchange for the soul, the heart and soul must be carefully guarded and kept healthy, with Christ abiding in the heart by faith and sustaining spiritual life. Its harmonious health is preserved when Christ is trusted with the whole heart and honored with love and devotion, fed by His Word as the bread of life and the water of salvation through constant communion with God and trust in His Word. By eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ the soul gains spiritual strength, receives lifeblood for the heart and nerve power from Christ and the Holy Spirit, is begotten to a lively hope with the quickening power of a new nature, and is enabled to rise higher and still higher. He alone supplies all necessities for time and for eternity and must be needed every moment, and to speak understandingly, Lord, to whom shall we go, Thou hast the words of eternal life, brings wonderful blessings.
No risk that endangers the soul for worldly gain must be taken, for the soul is worth more than the whole world, and probation is now; therefore the good fight of faith must be fought to the utmost now to win eternal life by seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and hungering and thirsting after righteousness and becoming gold rather than hay, wood and stubble. In the perils of the last days the enemy uses natural traits of character and tricks of business advantage to imperil the soul and cause shipwreck of faith, so for his soul's sake a man must let no profitable investment imperil him, but must watch diligently unto prayer and strive for the Holy Spirit's working in and by and through him. No earthly reward of money, honor, or other advantage is worth exposing the soul to temptation or endangering its vital interests, and it is better to lose money, possessions, or even life, to break up family relations and change location to a safer atmosphere, than to risk eternal loss.
Gaining the whole world at the expense of the future world is no profit because a man loses his own soul at a price more than he can afford to pay, and this exposes Satan's discouraging lie that serving God does not pay and that worldly pleasure and enjoyment are just as good. It is dangerous to give time, thought, and strength to the pursuit of worldly gain even when persevering effort brings success, because doing so makes God and His righteousness secondary, sets heart and soul on worldly enterprises, and, since no one can serve God and mammon, leads to giving up the service of God. Therefore the discouraged are to hold fast to the comfort, faith, and hope given in God's Word and live up to all light received from heaven rather than give up God for this world. It is better to endure poverty, disappointment, rejection, shattered earthly hopes, and the world's disapproval, and to bear the cross and suffer disappointed hopes while gaining eternal life, than to live with princes, gain worldly status, and forfeit heaven, for successive passions and projects can take possession of the heart, drive out the Holy Spirit, blind to the future world and eternal treasure, and cause eternity to be lost from the reckoning.
The Life-giver personally asks each person to weigh gaining the whole world against losing the soul, and losing the soul means throwing away the happiness, peace, joy, and eternal riches He pledged by giving His life and becoming poor, and refusing membership in His royal family. Without delay this requires giving Jesus the whole heart, appreciating His sacrifice, cooperating with Him in the saving of one's own soul, using means to spread the knowledge of His grace, and living so He is honored and His name glorified. To gain the soul requires making Christ a personal Saviour and cooperating with God, working out salvation with fear and trembling while God works to will and do of His good pleasure, striving earnestly, resisting all wrong, subduing evil temper, selfishness and pride, becoming true and pure and holy, a partaker of the divine nature, complete in Christ without spot and blameless, rising in moral value with God and attaining His righteousness, rather than departing from the Lord and misrepresenting Christ in character. Every person has a soul to save or a soul to lose, and it is not too late to buy of Christ what is needed for salvation by coming into close relation with God, wrestling for the crown of immortality, for life that measures with the life of God and the eternal weight of glory promised to every overcomer, coming out from the world and being separate and touching not the unclean, walking humbly with a humble and contrite spirit whom God will revive and help, committing the soul's keeping to God as faithful Creator who gives strength, grace, salvation and health of countenance, laying aside selfish worldly principles, building character by looking to Jesus as pattern, and getting ready to meet the Lord in peace at His very soon coming.
The loss of a soul is of more consequence than the loss of a world and demands a decided choice at once for time and eternity whether to be the servant of Christ or the servant of Satan. Choosing rightly requires religion in practice as well as faith, the regulation of the life as well as the rectification of the heart, with the strictest integrity combined with the purest devotion, without which no one can be a correct citizen. What serves Satan as a snare to deceive and destroy must be refused, the soul must be kept right and God made one's strength, and those given evidence from God must not turn away from it or sacrifice vital interest in holy things to escape temporal hardship, but must place influence on the side of righteousness irrespective of worldly loss or gain. Whoever will not become converted and humble as a little child risks losing the soul.
Saving Other Souls
The question of profit in gaining the whole world while losing the soul is the clear, distinct message to be proclaimed in the highways to all who have an active part in the world's work. It is to be carried first to teachers and leaders of the people, to those bearing heavy responsibilities in public life, including physicians and teachers, ministers, lawyers and judges, public officers and businessmen, men who have influence and authority in the world. It is God's voice heard in the highways and byways of life, calling attention away from temporal interests to spiritual realities and eternal life, upholding the laws of the kingdom of heaven as what must be honored and obeyed to inherit eternal life and become princes and kings in the heavenly courts, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. It calls those hearers to repent and be converted, asking what can be given in exchange for the soul.
Thousands of rich men are starving for spiritual food, and many in official life feel their need of something which they have not. Few go to church because they receive no benefit there, and the teaching they hear does not touch the soul, yet peace and rest are found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. These neglected rich of the higher classes must receive special warning or perish, and publications alone will not reach them. They need personal effort and a plain Thus saith the Lord, by earnest, humble workers who obtain qualifications to reach them. If converted, God will use them in His cause, and men who gave generously to the work must be reached and saved to take their stand under the banner of Prince Emmanuel.
Because souls cost the life of God's only-begotten Son and people have been bought with a price, the worthlessness of gaining the whole world at the cost of the soul is a reason to work faithfully to save sinners and set them a right example. Compared with the value of one soul the whole world is insignificant, so earthly resources, means and abilities should be used to advance God's kingdom and win souls for Christ rather than risk the soul for temporary wealth. Entrusted talents of means and influence are to be put to work to advance truth and help others, rather than spent on gaining property while neglecting salvation and service, for earthly treasure is too small a price for the heavenly reward. Commercial and temporal interests must not absorb all the mind and occupy all the time nor be made superior to eternal interests. Truth is not to be confined to self and family like light under a bed or hidden under a bushel, but communicated to others, hunting up people in the vicinity and bringing souls ready to perish like lost sheep into the fold, because time is passing into eternity and little has been done for perishing souls who know not the truth.
Recognizing that one soul is worth more than the whole world, which sinks into insignificance by comparison, calls for earnest, determined efforts to save even one person, including seeking more favorable surroundings for that person. Those working for Christ must at the very beginning renounce self, lift the cross, follow where Christ leads and walk in His steps, relying on the power of the Mighty One rather than undertaking too much and losing ground, assured that He is with them as they strive to save souls. They must humble themselves, practice self-denial and suffer reproach to save souls for whom Christ died, instead of sparing themselves and seeking their own glory, and continually keep a just appreciation of the worth of one soul. A self-righteous, pushing, domineering spirit that seeks to be first, loves prominence, and lords it over God's heritage disregards that worth, shuts souls out of the kingdom, and does great harm resulting in loss of souls.
Every soul saved is worth more than the wealth of the whole world, because salvation can elevate and ennoble people degraded by sin. The ruin of one soul is so deep that no line can sound it, and no worldly advantage can make up for losing Christian experience and going into infidelity, while every soul saved will surely enjoy an eternal weight of glory and bliss which no one can fully weigh. That cost therefore forbids giving youth any encouragement to go where their faith will be leavened by misrepresentations and falsehoods about the testimonies and the work and character of ministers of the gospel. Self-serving use of God-given time and neglect of preparation for heaven can end in loss of eternal life, so each person is to choose the treasures of eternal life, put God and His righteousness first, and use time and faculties in faithful service and good works.
Eternity and Judgment
Earthly attractions can eclipse heavenly realities and make attachment to the world supreme, yet Christ alone can break that deception and turn the mind toward heaven. Feverish eagerness for earthly treasure causes higher interests to be forgotten, leaving no time or desire to value eternal riches, molding thoughts, plans and motives earthward and defiling the soul with covetousness and selfishness. The world and its glory will be destroyed, so nothing can compensate for a lost soul. The loss becomes plain in the coming day when idols of silver and gold are thrown to the moles and bats and rich men weep and howl over the miseries coming upon them.
Death settles the question by ending all ambitious human projects, leaving only whether the soul is hid with Christ in God. Death soon separates people from chosen possessions and idols, and at death they must part with it all while others take what they gained. Worldly riches and what people esteem cannot replace being rich toward God or having Christ's righteousness, and possessions cannot be taken beyond death when probation ends. The rich man's comforts did not make him rich toward God because he forgot accountability for what was entrusted to him, and when his probation ended his wealth could not secure Christ's righteousness or restore what he had lost. Those who sell their souls for earthly treasures will lose those treasures and forfeit eternal bliss, bartering away hope of eternal life in a cheap market though Christ will accept all who come to Him.
The question is urgent because each person must prepare for judgment and consider whether the name is written in the book of life, and worldly cares must not consume time needed for that preparation. Hoarding entrusted means, investing it in worldly enterprises to please self or family, turning it into selfish channels for lack of moral courage, and withholding it from establishing memorials and medical missionary work hinders truth from going to dark places and leaves fellow beings unprepared to become members of the royal family. Such covetousness estranges stewards from God and cramps faithful servants for lack of means until they are worn out, and will leave many professed believers found wanting when judgment sits and the books are opened, with nothing to give to recover the soul. Every act breaking the golden rule and taking advantage of another stands as fraud in heaven's books, abuses Christ in the person of His saints, and makes the soul callous and powerless to feel God, while kind and generous deeds reach into eternity and the work of doing good holds dignity fully valued only in the future life. Those who refuse God's call and fail to do the good they could have done will answer before Christ's judgment seat, and their unfaithfulness can lead others to be lost through example and influence. God's law condemns evildoers with a warning that cannot be silenced, destroying peace, following to the grave, bearing witness at judgment as quenchless fire at last consuming soul and body, while a life built on perishable things will be consumed and one entrusted to God can rest in faith in His faithfulness.
Gaining the world while losing the soul is infinite and irrecoverable loss, while winning Christ is infinite gain. The soul was redeemed by Christ's blood, and serving Christ through self-sacrifice even in trial and adversity is worth more than worldly wealth or honor, leaving one who chooses worldly gain at the cost of higher concerns truly poor. Apparent benefits such as prolonged life or temporal gain cannot make it worthwhile to disregard God's will, and giving oneself to Satan's sorcery for secured gain is unwise and unsafe even when great benefit is boasted. No barrier God erected to guard His people from Satan's power can be broken with impunity, and disregarding His will never pays in the end.
Eternal life is citizenship in God's city open to all who live in harmony with God's laws and accept His law as guide rather than following their own will. It requires forming a character fit for God's heavenly family, honoring and obeying the laws of the kingdom of heaven to inherit eternal life and become a prince and king in the heavenly courts, an heir of God and joint heir with Christ. To lose the soul is to remain untruthful, impure and unrighteous with an evil nature that cannot inherit the kingdom, and to be destroyed because sin if not destroyed will destroy the sinner. To gain the soul requires making Christ a personal Saviour and cooperating with God, working out salvation with fear and trembling while God works to will and do, striving earnestly, resisting wrong, subduing evil temper, selfishness and pride, becoming true, pure, holy, a partaker of the divine nature, complete without spot and blameless, rising in moral value and attaining Christ's righteousness. Those who disregard God's will have no place there, for Satan's rebellion began with choosing his own will, and Satan and those who join his work will finally be destroyed.
Conviction of the soul's worth creates earnest desire to be free from sin and to find peace with God and purity of heart to stand approved, for which no sacrifice is too great. That value can drive a person to endure humiliation, menial drudgery, loss of sleep and food, fasting, vigils, scourgings and loss of strength and health even to the verge of death, seeking by own works to obtain pardon and peace, yet with all such rigorous discipline the burdened soul finds no relief. Faithfulness to Christ even when threatened with death is more precious than a world of cowardly professors, warning against gaining the world at the cost of the soul and calling to forsake all to become His disciples. Rejecting Christ means losing everything of lasting worth, while Christ receives those who believe and follow His self-denying, cross-bearing life and offers help and healing for both body and soul.
Life must be measured by eternal loss or gain, not merely by this world. Gaining worldly wealth or success through worldly choices cannot compensate for losing the soul, and seeking temporal enrichment while neglecting spiritual life exchanges the hope of heaven for worldly gain and can bring eternal loss. Israel's desire for an earthly king brought the trouble God had warned of, and likewise Christians who pattern themselves after the world for gain risk losing their highest interest. Those entrusted with responsibility must not be bought or sold for worldly gain, since faithfulness to Christ and eternal life matter more than any earthly reward, and business choices made for greater money can put the soul in danger with no exchange to compensate. Remaining in a perilous spiritual condition leaves no future blessedness, and trusting wealth and pursuing riches at the cost of faithfulness bring sorrow.
Christ asks what good it does to gain everything this world offers if the soul is lost, for the soul is worth more than the whole world and nothing earthly can buy it back once it is gone. Gaining the world means wealth, honor, position, pleasure and self-indulgence, all of which are fleeting, perish with use and cannot be carried beyond death. Losing the soul means remaining in unbelief and known sin, separated from God and unfit for His kingdom, thereby forfeiting eternal life and heaven. Its worth is measured by creation and redemption, because human beings belong to God and were bought by the life of His only Son who gave Himself to save them. Therefore the question calls for immediate, decided choice to renounce self, take up the cross and follow Christ, laying up treasure in heaven rather than trading eternal life for temporal gain.
Words and Setting
The verse calls for weighing two scales for time and for eternity, with Jesus meaning eternal treasure, life, truth, heaven, and the joy of redeemed souls in one scale against every attraction the world can offer in the other, and with the loss of one's own soul and of souls one might have helped save set against a life that measures with the life of God. Gaining everything the world offers cannot profit if the soul is lost, and nothing worldly can compensate for or be given in exchange for it, so the choice matters both for the present life and for eternity. God desires the heavenly to be chosen in place of the earthly, with heavenly investment encouraging the loftiest aims and securing imperishable treasure, since riches that moth and rust destroy will be swept away while Christ's followers rejoice in what endures.
It is Christ's loud, trumpet-like cry entering a busy, clamorous, confused world absorbed in getting gain and working at high pressure in buying and selling, to break the spell of earthliness upon minds. Gaining the world is temporary and subordinate while losing the soul is eternal loss, so earthly success must remain subordinate to eternal interests and the world be put where it belongs, with God-given time used to secure heaven's precious treasures and cultivate what is useful and enduring as fruit for the heavenly garner in view of the eternal habitations of the just. The warning exposes worldly piety, turns the mind from earthly things toward God and eternal realities, sets before it the glory of heaven and the threshold of eternity flushed with the glory of God, and shows the wrath coming upon those who disregard God's law, since fixing the heart on present advantages can eclipse heaven and endanger the soul.
It is spoken to men risking everything to secure earthly riches and crazed with the prospect of getting gain, exalting earthly riches above eternal riches until every spiritual sinew and muscle is paralyzed by that infatuating spell. It challenges people absorbed in commerce and trade and consumed by selfish efforts to acquire riches to put the soul's value above gain for self, pointing them instead to the enduring heavenly city and immortal inheritance and to the use of means and abilities to win souls. It looks upon a world filled with merchandise, trade, dishonesty and scheming of buyers and sellers, and upon God-dishonoring scenes such as intense games and horse races attended by thousands where lives bought by Christ's redemption are thrown away, pressing whether wasters of life will be counted worthy of redemption and turning minds from Satan's devices for keeping men from serving God to the nobler world they have lost from view.
It belongs to discipleship and the cross, requiring turning from self-indulgence, renouncing self, bearing the cross and following Christ, being crucified to the world and giving up its pomp, pleasure and attractions to share His glory. Trying to keep life for self loses it because selfishness is death, while losing life for Christ and the gospel saves it, just as no organ of the body could live by confining service to itself and the heart would lose power if it failed to send its life-blood to hand and head, so Christ's love is the life-blood diffused through His mystical body whose members belong to one another. Those pursuing reform may suffer apparent losses, but worldly loss is no exchange for the soul, and it is better to bear the cross and suffer disappointed hopes while gaining eternal life than to live with princes and forfeit heaven, since worldly rank cannot make up for eternal loss.
It stands in the account of Jesus' journey toward suffering and death, where He knew beforehand the cost of His mission and willingly chose to endure it to save the lost. Gaining the whole world is the nearer view of earthly life, poverty, humiliation, suffering, and expectation of an earthly throne with the Messiah's kingdom exalted to the throne of David, while profiting the soul looks beyond the present to Christ's coming in glory, not in earthly splendor but with the glory of God and the hosts of heaven to reward every man according to his works. Eyes fixed on the nearer earthly life fail to comprehend that glory though it seemed far away, bringing sadness and doubt that the Son of God should live as a humble homeless wanderer, be despised and rejected, voluntarily go to Jerusalem to suffer cruel humiliation and be put to death, and leave His followers in greater darkness, with encouragement that some standing there would not taste death till seeing the Son of man coming in His kingdom.
It is joined to Christ's tears on the Mount of Olives showing grief over lost souls and, in prophetic view, the destruction of the nation, since a soul is worth more than the whole world and no possession can be given in exchange for it. Getting the whole world with all its pleasure and glory while losing the soul is eternal loss, while overcoming as Christ overcame is infinite gain, and heaven is cheap at any cost. This is better understood when sinful people discern God's inexpressible love in giving His Son to die on the cross, withholding not His divine Son from the humiliation of humanity and shame and agony in order to bring many sons and daughters to glory.
Value of the Soul
Gaining even the whole world profits nothing if the soul is lost, for the soul is worth more than all money and worldly gain and more than all the worlds could buy. Earthly treasure soon passes away and cannot be carried beyond death, while the world and its glory will be destroyed, so nothing earthly can compensate for a lost soul. Temporal losses, earthly status, approval and prospects are not comparable to its loss, and each person is called to settle without delay what the soul is worth and to live with eternal results in view. To be so engrossed with this life as to have no time to think of heaven is to sell the soul and lose it, leaving money and success useless to their owner. Earthly attractions can eclipse heavenly realities and make attachment to the world supreme until Christ breaks the deception and turns the mind toward heaven.
Nothing on earth can equal the soul's value or be given in exchange for it, and no money, land, possession or worldly advantage can buy it back once lost. Gaining the whole world cannot make up for losing the soul, for worldly gain is no exchange for it. No risk that endangers the soul for worldly gain must therefore be taken, and a holy purpose must be kept in view rather than sacrificing the soul's interests. The heart and soul must be carefully guarded, with Christ abiding within by faith to sustain spiritual life. Each person bears individual responsibility for the soul's salvation, using God's Word as guide and working toward eternal life, fighting the good fight of faith to the utmost now in probation by seeking first God's kingdom and righteousness and becoming gold rather than hay, wood and stubble.
The soul's worth is shown because people belong to God by creation and redemption, have been bought with a price, and cost the life of God's only-begotten Son. Christ's sacrifice shows the worth He places on human beings, for He made infinite sacrifice to save people from sin and knows the higher life He seeks to give them. Every soul is precious to God, who claims people by creation and redemption and does not want them lost, yet worldly wealth can hinder character building and distract from need of Christ. Love of money can ruin a person, so entrusted means are to be used for God's work rather than hoarded as earthly treasure. Though a person may sell the soul to the enemy through selfishness and unfaithfulness, Christ has purchased it with His precious blood and provided probation in which character may be tested and salvation worked out with God's help.
The soul may be lost through unbelief, while eternal life is God's gift and Christ has given His life and made provision so believers need not perish. Jesus alone can fully explain this loss, and therefore no one should treat eternal interests carelessly. The soul is precious and may receive immortality as God's free gift through receiving and believing in Christ. It is capable of purification and sanctification through Christ's offering and of receiving the heavenly treasure of everlasting life. It is valuable also because it may receive spiritual gifts, develop its abilities through God's Word, and obtain immortality through the Life-giver if obedient.
One soul saved is worth more than the whole world and all its wealth, and its salvation is of infinitely greater consequence than temporal affairs. Its worth is seen by considering the joys of the saved in the kingdom of glory, the life that measures with the life of God, and the rich reward laid up for those who overcome. Salvation can elevate and ennoble people degraded by sin, and the Son of God died for the soul, outweighing untold riches hoarded in mansions or bank stock. Winning one soul to Christ is therefore worth every effort, all possible means, and treasure laid up in heaven, using earthly means in the work of saving others and valuing eternal life above material gain. For this reason the truth that leads to salvation must be carried to people in the cities.
Losing one soul is a grave, immeasurable loss deeper than can be sounded, greater than failing to gain anything in the world. It means losing eternal life and the immortal inheritance forever, forfeiting an eternity of joy and bliss. No worldly advantage can make up for it, and the loss of one soul outweighs every earthly gain. Against that loss stands the eternal weight of glory and bliss that every soul saved will surely enjoy, which no one can fully weigh. Those who neglect the work they could do to save others through selfishness, indolence or shame risk losing their own souls and are accountable for the good they failed to do, while misleading souls purchased by Christ's blood endangers what belongs to Him.
Gaining and Losing Defined
Gaining the world means earthly wealth, honor, position, power, and pleasure, with no true advantage if heaven and the soul are lost in the exchange. It also includes high wages and apparently great educational advantages, outward show, pride, and self-indulgence, which bring no lasting profit because worldly treasure is fleeting and eternal riches come only through Christ. Such earthly possessions are temporary, soon pass away and perish with the using, and death takes them away so they cannot be carried beyond death. They cannot make up for losing the soul or losing eternal life, cannot replace integrity, honesty, a pure heart and steadfast purpose to do right, being rich toward God, having Christ's righteousness, or forming a character fit for God's heavenly family and citizenship in His city in harmony with His laws. Those who disregard God's will and follow their own will have no place there, as rebellion began with choosing self-will and will finally be destroyed, and earthly wealth must not be lived with as one's own while neglecting God's call, the needs of the poor, and the enduring incorruptible inheritance worth greater effort and affection. Parents therefore must guard against effaced early religious impressions and love of God taken from the heart by satanic influences and unnecessary temptation as tares sown within, by training children in the fear of God in the home school, guarding them from corrupting associations, and refusing to send them away from home influence even for material or educational profit.
What people esteem highly may be abhorrent to God, for wealth and honor are not His measure and do not secure standing with Him without riches toward God. Worldly success that leaves a person poor toward God is terrible failure, with fleeting earthly treasures an exorbitant price paid for the soul.
Gaining the world at the cost of the soul includes acquiring wealth or position by giving up truth and duty, for such gain costs the soul which cannot be exchanged for worldly advantage, though wealth wisely used is valuable and loving or hoarding it at the expense of principle is selling the soul for what the world offers. It includes turning from God's truth and refusing light to protect business success, which is selling the soul cheaply, bringing the fruit of disobedience and leaving a compromised conscience that cannot be trusted, while a pure upright conscience is worth more than the whole world and eternal destiny must be valued above worldly interests. It includes letting worldly concerns or neighbors' choices absorb the mind to abandon what conscience shows true, living to please others at the cost of truth and heaven in a ruinous exchange, and yielding to worldly inducements and associations rather than continuing in service to God and advancing His work even amid poverty. Those given evidence must not turn from it but place influence on the side of righteousness irrespective of worldly loss or gain, changing course for their own souls and their children's rather than sacrificing heaven.
Losing the soul means unbelief, while eternal life is God's gift with provision made so believers need not perish, and nothing on earth equals the soul's value or can be given in exchange for it. It means knowing what sin is as transgression of the law yet continuing in it, and refusing to bear the cross and share a life of self-denial and self-sacrifice to protect worldly prospects and gain, which brings great loss of eternal life. It is to remain untruthful, impure, and unrighteous with an evil nature that cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, separated from God and forfeiting heaven, and to be destroyed because sin if not destroyed will destroy the sinner. Gaining the soul instead requires making Christ a personal Saviour and cooperating with God, working out salvation with fear and trembling while God works to will and do of His good pleasure, striving earnestly, resisting wrong, subduing evil temper, selfishness and pride, and becoming true, pure, holy, a partaker of the divine nature, complete without spot and blameless, rising in moral value and attaining Christ's righteousness. The loss demands decided immediate choice for time and eternity between serving Christ and serving Satan, with religion in practice as well as faith, regulation of life as well as rectification of heart, in strictest integrity with purest devotion.
Losing the soul also affects others whom one might help save, for eternal life, truth, heaven, Jesus, and the joy of redeemed people outweigh all earthly gain for this life and eternity when attractions are weighed against eternal treasure. It wastes the infinite sacrifice of Jesus given to shameful death to save eternally in His kingdom, makes Him to have died in vain, and turns away as unworthy of notice the sanctified influence made possible from Him, through loving the world, its friendship, practices, display, and the opinions of those without connection to truth and righteousness above pleasing God, which is selling oneself to the enemy and throwing away the soul at last. It injures others through pursuing selfish interests at another's expense, harmful words, example, and false teaching that draws them from Christ, when life's work should heal and save rather than wound and destroy. Refusing God's call and failing to do possible good brings answer before the judgment seat, and unfaithfulness through selfishness, indolence, or shame can lead others to be lost, making neglect to save even one person more costly than failing to gain anything in the world. To lose one's own soul is terrible, but to cause other souls to be lost is still more terrible, requiring ministers and workers to guard thoughts, words, habits, dispositions, and characters in deep personal holiness, lest influence become a savor of death unto death instead of cooperating with God in saving souls.
Selfish gain is no profit because selfishness is death; trying to keep life for self loses it, while losing life for Christ and the gospel saves it. A soul that refuses to give to others perishes, as no organ of the body could live by confining service to itself and the heart would lose power if it failed to send life-blood to hand and head. The love of Christ is the life-blood diffused through His mystical body, believers are members one of another, and gaining everything worldly while forfeiting the soul leaves nothing of value to give in exchange for it.
Worldly Dangers Warned Against
Mark 8:36 warns those absorbed in commerce, merchandise, buying and selling, and feverish eagerness to store earthly treasure that gaining the whole world cannot profit anyone who loses the soul. Being so engrossed with business and things of time makes spiritual prosperity secondary, dismisses God from thought, leaves prayer scarcely offered, and leaves eternity out of the reckoning. Such high-pressure pursuits and care and perplexity leave no time or desire for eternal riches, mold thoughts and motives earthward, and defile the soul with covetousness and selfishness, while claiming large money compensation for finite wisdom without heart devotion and true piety robs God, robs one's own soul and family, and exchanges the hope of heaven for worldly gain by accepting Satan's tempting bribe. Without Christ nothing so done is acceptable to God, and should life end in that state the person is lost, eternally lost, for eternal interests must never be made inferior to temporal interests nor commercial interests absorb all the mind and occupy all the time. Instead of confining truth to self and family, those who hear it are to communicate it, hunt up people in the vicinity, and bring souls ready to perish like lost sheep into the fold, because time is passing into eternity and little has been done to save perishing souls who know not the truth, valuing heavenly treasure above earthly riches and using means and abilities to win souls for Christ and the enduring heavenly city and immortal inheritance.
Mark 8:36 warns ministers against giving themselves to commercial business and enterprises promising great gain, for gaining even the whole world is no profit if the soul is lost and earthly riches cannot outweigh eternal life. A minister tempted by such an enterprise must give priority to serving God and leading people to the Saviour rather than letting business turn heart and mind from that sacred calling, lest he prove false to his trust. Crowding business interests into sanitarium work to gain earthly success while losing sight of its main object is gaining the whole world and losing the soul, which profits nothing and is stupidity of soul and great loss. Spiritual interests must never be displaced by business interests, but proclamation of present truth, daily devotion, exaltation of the Word of God as bread of life above all common earthly considerations, strong religious influence, and the glory of God and uplifting of Christ placed before all else must remain prominent as the main line of work. To gain the whole world and lose the soul is a poor bargain for a minister who uses the tongue to teach how to bury money in the earth instead of how to invest safely in the bank of heaven, who works away from Christ and lacks spiritual discernment, for without converting power and a changed spiritual condition he will make shipwreck of faith and let go his hold on truth, since even one soul outweighs all the world and temporal concerns must not draw ministers from saving souls.
Mark 8:36 warns stewards entrusted with means that gaining worldly wealth cannot compensate for losing the soul, for even all earth's treasures cannot buy the peace, hope, and blessings offered by Christ through obedience. Those who value worldly gain above eternal things turn from imperishable treasure and endanger their souls, while the right response is to give possessions, talents, and affections to Christ in grateful devotion and live to bless others. Getting all the world offers is worthless if eternal life is forfeited, and the loss falls on stewards to whom God entrusts means to hold for Him and return when He calls, but who keep it for themselves. Hoarding His money, investing it in worldly enterprises to please self or family, turning it into selfish channels for lack of moral courage to stand for Jesus, and withholding it from relieving suffering, advancing the gospel, and establishing memorials, sanitariums, and medical missionary work from which the warning message could arouse candid investigation hinders truth from going to earth's dark places and leaves fellow beings unprepared to become members of the royal family. Such covetousness estranges stewards from God, cramps His faithful servants for lack of means and facilities until they are worn out, and will leave many professed believers found wanting when judgment sits and books are opened, with nothing to give to recover the soul, for consecrated humble service and faithful use of entrusted means serve salvation of self and others and bring reward in God's kingdom, while burying those means instead of advancing God's work is like the unfaithful steward failing to lay up treasure in heaven. Earthly possessions are entrusted by God to serve Him and care for the needy, and neglecting that duty for selfish gratification, spending on gaining property while neglecting salvation and service, leaves a person without the eternal riches that matter, since earthly treasure is too small a price for the heavenly reward.
Mark 8:36 warns that obtaining money through unfair dealing, sharp dealing, oppression, fraud, double dealing, and advantage at another's expense is a fearful loss that forfeits heaven and the overcomer's crown. Enduring disappointment and hardship is better than that exchange, for property and profit gotten by using others for self makes the soul callous to the Spirit of God. Every act breaking the golden rule and taking advantage of another, saint or sinner, abuses Christ in the person of His saints and stands as fraud in heaven's books. God designed human lives to copy Christ in doing good, lifting others up, a work holding true dignity and glory not seen in this life but fully valued in the future life, where the record of kind and generous deeds reaches into eternity, and just as far as a person builds himself up by tearing his fellow down, the soul loses power to feel God. To gain the whole world by clever schemes, withholding God's entrusted money and talents of tact, skill, and treasure from relieving suffering, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping widow and fatherless, and advancing the gospel profits nothing, leaving such a receiver but not producer robbing Christ of glory, failing to cooperate with Him, magnifying self, finding no peace in transactions, becoming poorest on earth, and losing heavenly treasure because gospel treasure lost value through the tempter's corruption. Seeking advantage through underhand dealing, deception, or customs built on false basis is not justified by serving God's work, for God does not approve such conduct, and losing the soul means forfeiting an eternity of joy.
Mark 8:36 warns against speculating for riches, abandoning honest work for mining stock, trusting wealth for security, and pursuing riches at the cost of faithfulness. Gaining wealth, even the whole world, is no profit if the soul is lost, and business choices made for greater money can put the soul in danger. Trusting in wealth brings sorrow, while material gain is no benefit if it costs the soul, for greed and treating riches as security lead to fraud, discontent, and sorrow. The hope of gain leads those who could earn an honest living to abandon work to speculate in mining stock, effectively selling souls for possible gain and putting souls in peril unto spiritual ruin.
Mark 8:36 warns parents against valuing worldly pleasures, standards, ease, comfort, city business advantages, high wages, and educational advantages above righteousness. Business drawing a person from God and leading children to set hearts on worldly things is not worth the cost of the soul through separation from God. Acquiring everything the world offers brings no real gain if the soul is lost, for losing the soul means early religious impressions effaced and love of God taken from the heart through satanic influences and unnecessary temptation, as tares sown in the heart. Parents must be wide-awake guardians, train and discipline children in fear of God in the home school during early years, guard them from corrupting associations, and refuse to send them from home influence to schools where they will meet such temptation, even for material or educational profit. That choice risks their own salvation and children's eternal life, since the soul is worth more than all earthly gain and its salvation is of infinitely greater consequence than temporal affairs, calling parents to earnest efforts to save their own souls and their children's. Ease, comfort, and convenience are worth less than children's souls, so parents should not expose them to city temptations for business or worldly benefits, nor choose city investments for ease and convenience over spiritual welfare, but place them where they can receive best influences and be prepared for heaven.
Mark 8:36 warns against Satan's bribes of worldly kingdoms, power, protection, prolonged life, and temporal gain. Gaining wealth, power, or protection at cost of faithfulness brings no true profit because the soul is lost, for Satan's offers of kingdoms and security are bribes leading people to abandon God, including by yielding in the final conflict over the Sabbath. His offers tempt people to trade faithfulness for earthly gain, but Christ's victory over this temptation proves followers can resist the enemy. Giving oneself to Satan's sorcery for prolonged life or secured temporal gain is unwise and unsafe even when great benefit is boasted, because disregarding God's will never pays in the end and all apparent gain proves at last irrecoverable loss, since no barrier God erected to guard His people from Satan's power can be broken with impunity. No temporal gain is worth imperiling the soul's highest interests, and choosing one's own way, loving money, or seeking selfish gratification can cost what matters eternally, while recovering faith and living with God's presence and favor are worth self-denial and any sacrifice; losing heaven means losing everything, while heavenly treasure of immortal value is given to those loving God supremely and neighbor as self. Loyalty to secret societies must therefore be abandoned rather than risk that loss.
Mark 8:36 warns that self-exaltation, loving praise and prominence, a pushing domineering spirit, indulgence in fiction, worldly excitement, extravagance, and loving the world's friendship, practices, display, and opinions endanger the soul. Worldly excitement and pursuits, including indulgence in fiction weakening spiritual strength and duty, can imperil the soul, and no worldly gain is worth that loss. Worldly interests and outward display are no substitute for integrity, honesty, pure heart, and unwavering purpose to do right, for gaining worldly greatness cannot make up for losing the soul. The whole world sinks into insignificance beside one soul, so those professing Christ must humble themselves, bear the cross, walk in His footsteps, practice self-denial and suffer reproach to save souls for whom Christ died, instead of sparing self and seeking glory, continually keeping just appreciation of one soul's worth. A self-righteous, pushing, domineering spirit seeking to be first, loving prominence, and lording over God's heritage disregards that worth, shuts souls from the kingdom, and does great harm resulting in loss of souls. Self-exaltation can place a person in peril of losing the soul, with influence and abilities used to deceive others and lead them into false paths. Loving praise puts a man in great danger, and gaining money to escape difficulties, keeping influence by silence when evils should be corrected, and doing worldly labor not glorifying God is worthless if the soul is lost, leaving one unable to receive reproof rightly because spiritual things are not spiritually discerned, liable under temptation not to stand proving but to apostatize. A person can also lose the soul through use of means, and extravagance in spending is a danger calling for careful study.
Choosing Christ Fully
The question calls every person to stop and make an honest reckoning without delay, weighing two scales for time and for eternity, with Jesus meaning eternal treasure, life, truth, heaven and the joy of redeemed souls in one scale against every attraction the world can offer and the loss of the soul in the other. Each must settle with God what the soul is worth and take individual responsibility for its salvation, using God's Word as guide and working toward eternal life with the Lord, since gaining every worldly advantage cannot compensate for losing one soul. The choice is between the heavenly and the earthly, between enduring principles and possessions and a life plan reckoning only with the brief years of this world, and it is made by choosing heavenly investment and laying up treasure in heaven in preparation for the unending future. Living with eternal results in view and a life that measures with the life of God does not impoverish earthly life but enriches and ennobles it, while riches that moth and rust destroy will be swept away and Christ's followers will rejoice in imperishable treasure.
Preserving eternal life with Jesus is worth more than every earthly gain, and obtaining it calls for obedience, the use of one's powers, and if necessary the giving of one's life, for nothing can be given in exchange for the soul. God's commandments must be obeyed exactly and not changed to suit convenience, business, or worldly advantage, for departing even a little from what God has said is rebellion and stubbornness that forfeits the soul, and to obey is better than sacrifice. Citizenship in God's city is open to all who live in harmony with God's laws and accept His law as guide rather than following their own will, while those who disregard His will have no place there, as Satan's rebellion began with choosing his own will and he and those who join his work will finally be destroyed. The safe course is to surrender self and accept Christ's way and will rather than follow a supreme desire for one's own way and self-interests despite truth and evidence, which destroys the truth's saving power to convert the soul.
Because nothing can be given in exchange for the soul, the heart and soul must be carefully guarded and kept healthy, with Christ abiding in the heart by faith and sustaining spiritual life. Its harmonious health is preserved when Christ is trusted with the whole heart and honored with love and devotion, fed by His Word as the bread of life and the water of salvation through constant communion with God and trust in His Word. By eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ the soul gains spiritual strength, receives lifeblood for the heart and nerve power from Christ and the Holy Spirit, is begotten to a lively hope with the quickening power of a new nature, and is enabled to rise higher and still higher. He alone supplies all necessities for time and for eternity and must be needed every moment, and to speak understandingly, Lord, to whom shall we go, Thou hast the words of eternal life, brings wonderful blessings.
No risk that endangers the soul for worldly gain must be taken, for the soul is worth more than the whole world, and probation is now; therefore the good fight of faith must be fought to the utmost now to win eternal life by seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and hungering and thirsting after righteousness and becoming gold rather than hay, wood and stubble. In the perils of the last days the enemy uses natural traits of character and tricks of business advantage to imperil the soul and cause shipwreck of faith, so for his soul's sake a man must let no profitable investment imperil him, but must watch diligently unto prayer and strive for the Holy Spirit's working in and by and through him. No earthly reward of money, honor, or other advantage is worth exposing the soul to temptation or endangering its vital interests, and it is better to lose money, possessions, or even life, to break up family relations and change location to a safer atmosphere, than to risk eternal loss.
Gaining the whole world at the expense of the future world is no profit because a man loses his own soul at a price more than he can afford to pay, and this exposes Satan's discouraging lie that serving God does not pay and that worldly pleasure and enjoyment are just as good. It is dangerous to give time, thought, and strength to the pursuit of worldly gain even when persevering effort brings success, because doing so makes God and His righteousness secondary, sets heart and soul on worldly enterprises, and, since no one can serve God and mammon, leads to giving up the service of God. Therefore the discouraged are to hold fast to the comfort, faith, and hope given in God's Word and live up to all light received from heaven rather than give up God for this world. It is better to endure poverty, disappointment, rejection, shattered earthly hopes, and the world's disapproval, and to bear the cross and suffer disappointed hopes while gaining eternal life, than to live with princes, gain worldly status, and forfeit heaven, for successive passions and projects can take possession of the heart, drive out the Holy Spirit, blind to the future world and eternal treasure, and cause eternity to be lost from the reckoning.
The Life-giver personally asks each person to weigh gaining the whole world against losing the soul, and losing the soul means throwing away the happiness, peace, joy, and eternal riches He pledged by giving His life and becoming poor, and refusing membership in His royal family. Without delay this requires giving Jesus the whole heart, appreciating His sacrifice, cooperating with Him in the saving of one's own soul, using means to spread the knowledge of His grace, and living so He is honored and His name glorified. To gain the soul requires making Christ a personal Saviour and cooperating with God, working out salvation with fear and trembling while God works to will and do of His good pleasure, striving earnestly, resisting all wrong, subduing evil temper, selfishness and pride, becoming true and pure and holy, a partaker of the divine nature, complete in Christ without spot and blameless, rising in moral value with God and attaining His righteousness, rather than departing from the Lord and misrepresenting Christ in character. Every person has a soul to save or a soul to lose, and it is not too late to buy of Christ what is needed for salvation by coming into close relation with God, wrestling for the crown of immortality, for life that measures with the life of God and the eternal weight of glory promised to every overcomer, coming out from the world and being separate and touching not the unclean, walking humbly with a humble and contrite spirit whom God will revive and help, committing the soul's keeping to God as faithful Creator who gives strength, grace, salvation and health of countenance, laying aside selfish worldly principles, building character by looking to Jesus as pattern, and getting ready to meet the Lord in peace at His very soon coming.
The loss of a soul is of more consequence than the loss of a world and demands a decided choice at once for time and eternity whether to be the servant of Christ or the servant of Satan. Choosing rightly requires religion in practice as well as faith, the regulation of the life as well as the rectification of the heart, with the strictest integrity combined with the purest devotion, without which no one can be a correct citizen. What serves Satan as a snare to deceive and destroy must be refused, the soul must be kept right and God made one's strength, and those given evidence from God must not turn away from it or sacrifice vital interest in holy things to escape temporal hardship, but must place influence on the side of righteousness irrespective of worldly loss or gain. Whoever will not become converted and humble as a little child risks losing the soul.
Saving Other Souls
The question of profit in gaining the whole world while losing the soul is the clear, distinct message to be proclaimed in the highways to all who have an active part in the world's work. It is to be carried first to teachers and leaders of the people, to those bearing heavy responsibilities in public life, including physicians and teachers, ministers, lawyers and judges, public officers and businessmen, men who have influence and authority in the world. It is God's voice heard in the highways and byways of life, calling attention away from temporal interests to spiritual realities and eternal life, upholding the laws of the kingdom of heaven as what must be honored and obeyed to inherit eternal life and become princes and kings in the heavenly courts, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. It calls those hearers to repent and be converted, asking what can be given in exchange for the soul.
Thousands of rich men are starving for spiritual food, and many in official life feel their need of something which they have not. Few go to church because they receive no benefit there, and the teaching they hear does not touch the soul, yet peace and rest are found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. These neglected rich of the higher classes must receive special warning or perish, and publications alone will not reach them. They need personal effort and a plain Thus saith the Lord, by earnest, humble workers who obtain qualifications to reach them. If converted, God will use them in His cause, and men who gave generously to the work must be reached and saved to take their stand under the banner of Prince Emmanuel.
Because souls cost the life of God's only-begotten Son and people have been bought with a price, the worthlessness of gaining the whole world at the cost of the soul is a reason to work faithfully to save sinners and set them a right example. Compared with the value of one soul the whole world is insignificant, so earthly resources, means and abilities should be used to advance God's kingdom and win souls for Christ rather than risk the soul for temporary wealth. Entrusted talents of means and influence are to be put to work to advance truth and help others, rather than spent on gaining property while neglecting salvation and service, for earthly treasure is too small a price for the heavenly reward. Commercial and temporal interests must not absorb all the mind and occupy all the time nor be made superior to eternal interests. Truth is not to be confined to self and family like light under a bed or hidden under a bushel, but communicated to others, hunting up people in the vicinity and bringing souls ready to perish like lost sheep into the fold, because time is passing into eternity and little has been done for perishing souls who know not the truth.
Recognizing that one soul is worth more than the whole world, which sinks into insignificance by comparison, calls for earnest, determined efforts to save even one person, including seeking more favorable surroundings for that person. Those working for Christ must at the very beginning renounce self, lift the cross, follow where Christ leads and walk in His steps, relying on the power of the Mighty One rather than undertaking too much and losing ground, assured that He is with them as they strive to save souls. They must humble themselves, practice self-denial and suffer reproach to save souls for whom Christ died, instead of sparing themselves and seeking their own glory, and continually keep a just appreciation of the worth of one soul. A self-righteous, pushing, domineering spirit that seeks to be first, loves prominence, and lords it over God's heritage disregards that worth, shuts souls out of the kingdom, and does great harm resulting in loss of souls.
Every soul saved is worth more than the wealth of the whole world, because salvation can elevate and ennoble people degraded by sin. The ruin of one soul is so deep that no line can sound it, and no worldly advantage can make up for losing Christian experience and going into infidelity, while every soul saved will surely enjoy an eternal weight of glory and bliss which no one can fully weigh. That cost therefore forbids giving youth any encouragement to go where their faith will be leavened by misrepresentations and falsehoods about the testimonies and the work and character of ministers of the gospel. Self-serving use of God-given time and neglect of preparation for heaven can end in loss of eternal life, so each person is to choose the treasures of eternal life, put God and His righteousness first, and use time and faculties in faithful service and good works.
Eternity and Judgment
Earthly attractions can eclipse heavenly realities and make attachment to the world supreme, yet Christ alone can break that deception and turn the mind toward heaven. Feverish eagerness for earthly treasure causes higher interests to be forgotten, leaving no time or desire to value eternal riches, molding thoughts, plans and motives earthward and defiling the soul with covetousness and selfishness. The world and its glory will be destroyed, so nothing can compensate for a lost soul. The loss becomes plain in the coming day when idols of silver and gold are thrown to the moles and bats and rich men weep and howl over the miseries coming upon them.
Death settles the question by ending all ambitious human projects, leaving only whether the soul is hid with Christ in God. Death soon separates people from chosen possessions and idols, and at death they must part with it all while others take what they gained. Worldly riches and what people esteem cannot replace being rich toward God or having Christ's righteousness, and possessions cannot be taken beyond death when probation ends. The rich man's comforts did not make him rich toward God because he forgot accountability for what was entrusted to him, and when his probation ended his wealth could not secure Christ's righteousness or restore what he had lost. Those who sell their souls for earthly treasures will lose those treasures and forfeit eternal bliss, bartering away hope of eternal life in a cheap market though Christ will accept all who come to Him.
The question is urgent because each person must prepare for judgment and consider whether the name is written in the book of life, and worldly cares must not consume time needed for that preparation. Hoarding entrusted means, investing it in worldly enterprises to please self or family, turning it into selfish channels for lack of moral courage, and withholding it from establishing memorials and medical missionary work hinders truth from going to dark places and leaves fellow beings unprepared to become members of the royal family. Such covetousness estranges stewards from God and cramps faithful servants for lack of means until they are worn out, and will leave many professed believers found wanting when judgment sits and the books are opened, with nothing to give to recover the soul. Every act breaking the golden rule and taking advantage of another stands as fraud in heaven's books, abuses Christ in the person of His saints, and makes the soul callous and powerless to feel God, while kind and generous deeds reach into eternity and the work of doing good holds dignity fully valued only in the future life. Those who refuse God's call and fail to do the good they could have done will answer before Christ's judgment seat, and their unfaithfulness can lead others to be lost through example and influence. God's law condemns evildoers with a warning that cannot be silenced, destroying peace, following to the grave, bearing witness at judgment as quenchless fire at last consuming soul and body, while a life built on perishable things will be consumed and one entrusted to God can rest in faith in His faithfulness.
Gaining the world while losing the soul is infinite and irrecoverable loss, while winning Christ is infinite gain. The soul was redeemed by Christ's blood, and serving Christ through self-sacrifice even in trial and adversity is worth more than worldly wealth or honor, leaving one who chooses worldly gain at the cost of higher concerns truly poor. Apparent benefits such as prolonged life or temporal gain cannot make it worthwhile to disregard God's will, and giving oneself to Satan's sorcery for secured gain is unwise and unsafe even when great benefit is boasted. No barrier God erected to guard His people from Satan's power can be broken with impunity, and disregarding His will never pays in the end.
Eternal life is citizenship in God's city open to all who live in harmony with God's laws and accept His law as guide rather than following their own will. It requires forming a character fit for God's heavenly family, honoring and obeying the laws of the kingdom of heaven to inherit eternal life and become a prince and king in the heavenly courts, an heir of God and joint heir with Christ. To lose the soul is to remain untruthful, impure and unrighteous with an evil nature that cannot inherit the kingdom, and to be destroyed because sin if not destroyed will destroy the sinner. To gain the soul requires making Christ a personal Saviour and cooperating with God, working out salvation with fear and trembling while God works to will and do, striving earnestly, resisting wrong, subduing evil temper, selfishness and pride, becoming true, pure, holy, a partaker of the divine nature, complete without spot and blameless, rising in moral value and attaining Christ's righteousness. Those who disregard God's will have no place there, for Satan's rebellion began with choosing his own will, and Satan and those who join his work will finally be destroyed.
Conviction of the soul's worth creates earnest desire to be free from sin and to find peace with God and purity of heart to stand approved, for which no sacrifice is too great. That value can drive a person to endure humiliation, menial drudgery, loss of sleep and food, fasting, vigils, scourgings and loss of strength and health even to the verge of death, seeking by own works to obtain pardon and peace, yet with all such rigorous discipline the burdened soul finds no relief. Faithfulness to Christ even when threatened with death is more precious than a world of cowardly professors, warning against gaining the world at the cost of the soul and calling to forsake all to become His disciples. Rejecting Christ means losing everything of lasting worth, while Christ receives those who believe and follow His self-denying, cross-bearing life and offers help and healing for both body and soul.
Life must be measured by eternal loss or gain, not merely by this world. Gaining worldly wealth or success through worldly choices cannot compensate for losing the soul, and seeking temporal enrichment while neglecting spiritual life exchanges the hope of heaven for worldly gain and can bring eternal loss. Israel's desire for an earthly king brought the trouble God had warned of, and likewise Christians who pattern themselves after the world for gain risk losing their highest interest. Those entrusted with responsibility must not be bought or sold for worldly gain, since faithfulness to Christ and eternal life matter more than any earthly reward, and business choices made for greater money can put the soul in danger with no exchange to compensate. Remaining in a perilous spiritual condition leaves no future blessedness, and trusting wealth and pursuing riches at the cost of faithfulness bring sorrow.