He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
He that finds his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for Christ's sake shall find it, was spoken together with the demand to love father or mother, son or daughter less than Christ and to take the cross and follow Him on pain of being unworthy of Him, and what was spoken to the disciples is spoken to all believers today in the unwearied conflict that must be waged on earth as long as time lasts. It stands among Christ's instructions calling for self to be surrendered and for trust in God while accepting the truth. In general it means that protecting or pursuing this present life at the cost of following Christ loses the soul, while faithfully serving Christ with self-denial even to losing life in this world finds life in God's kingdom and receives eternal life when Christ comes.
Finding life is seeking to save a good name in the world by dressing, talking, and acting like the world and uniting with professed Christians for influence and approval, serving the world, being ashamed of the cross, and studying personal convenience rather than God's will. Those who find life in that worldly sense lose it beyond redemption when every case passes in review before Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, with names repeated by the recording angel and acts weighed. They are then pronounced unworthy of Christ's protection and love and disowned before the Father and holy angels, with the cherished name left out of the book of life and written in the book of death to be cut down by the destroying angel.
Finding life is asserting one's own will, following one's own course and way, and refusing to humble oneself under God's reproofs, warnings, correction, and chastening, and it results in losing eternal life. Finding life is preserving life by disobeying God, while losing life is being willing to surrender even life rather than disobey Christ, which requires loyalty to God's commandments above every temporal interest, including liberty and life itself. Finding life includes smothering conviction of the Spirit, trampling the commandments, and rejecting truth to avoid disunion in family relations, which loves a peace that is not of Christ but of the world and prefers harmony with the world to unity with Christ; to have Christ's peace, Christ and His service must be placed first and no person placed before Him in affection. Those who yield convictions of truth to please father or mother, sister or brother, husband or wife, or children prove unworthy of Christ, fail to estimate His excellency and to view Him as the Son of God given for the sins of the world that they might not perish but have everlasting life, and so shun the cross, whereas everyone who by faith accepts a crucified and risen Saviour has a cross to lift.
Losing life for Christ's sake is leaving all to follow Christ, denying self, enduring reproach, choosing Christ before the world and every earthly friend, and esteeming the cross greater riches than any worldly treasure. Those who lose life in that faithful sense find and save their lives by being counted worthy of everlasting life, having every error and past sin blotted out and covered, having their names repeated by Jesus and acknowledged as His jewels before the Father and heavenly host, and receiving the mark on the forehead from the angel with the writer's inkhorn so the destroying angel passes over them. Losing life for Christ's sake is humbling oneself, submitting to chastening, giving up one's own will, and choosing God's way rather than one's own, and it finds salvation and eternal life as a son of God who overcomes. Those who give up their lives for Christ will find eternal life, which includes accepting martyrdom for His sake and reflects the call to deny self in order to follow Him.
Following Jesus may mean giving up worldly honor and accepting suffering for His sake, for He promised His disciples no large salary or worldly honor but that they would share in His sufferings. Faithfulness may cost the comfort of home and family ties, yet obedience to God must not be abandoned to preserve them, as illustrated when a woman and her daughter accepted separation from home rather than give up the Sabbath and the mother would not promise to stop attending meetings, and her steadfastness led her husband to recognize his wrong and restore them without restrictions. Losing one's life for Christ's sake does not end in loss, for even if life is lost in the coming conflict, faith may rest on the promise that it will be restored.
He that finds his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for Christ's sake shall find it, was spoken together with the demand to love father or mother, son or daughter less than Christ and to take the cross and follow Him on pain of being unworthy of Him, and what was spoken to the disciples is spoken to all believers today in the unwearied conflict that must be waged on earth as long as time lasts. It stands among Christ's instructions calling for self to be surrendered and for trust in God while accepting the truth. In general it means that protecting or pursuing this present life at the cost of following Christ loses the soul, while faithfully serving Christ with self-denial even to losing life in this world finds life in God's kingdom and receives eternal life when Christ comes.
Finding life is seeking to save a good name in the world by dressing, talking, and acting like the world and uniting with professed Christians for influence and approval, serving the world, being ashamed of the cross, and studying personal convenience rather than God's will. Those who find life in that worldly sense lose it beyond redemption when every case passes in review before Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, with names repeated by the recording angel and acts weighed. They are then pronounced unworthy of Christ's protection and love and disowned before the Father and holy angels, with the cherished name left out of the book of life and written in the book of death to be cut down by the destroying angel.
Finding life is asserting one's own will, following one's own course and way, and refusing to humble oneself under God's reproofs, warnings, correction, and chastening, and it results in losing eternal life. Finding life is preserving life by disobeying God, while losing life is being willing to surrender even life rather than disobey Christ, which requires loyalty to God's commandments above every temporal interest, including liberty and life itself. Finding life includes smothering conviction of the Spirit, trampling the commandments, and rejecting truth to avoid disunion in family relations, which loves a peace that is not of Christ but of the world and prefers harmony with the world to unity with Christ; to have Christ's peace, Christ and His service must be placed first and no person placed before Him in affection. Those who yield convictions of truth to please father or mother, sister or brother, husband or wife, or children prove unworthy of Christ, fail to estimate His excellency and to view Him as the Son of God given for the sins of the world that they might not perish but have everlasting life, and so shun the cross, whereas everyone who by faith accepts a crucified and risen Saviour has a cross to lift.
Losing life for Christ's sake is leaving all to follow Christ, denying self, enduring reproach, choosing Christ before the world and every earthly friend, and esteeming the cross greater riches than any worldly treasure. Those who lose life in that faithful sense find and save their lives by being counted worthy of everlasting life, having every error and past sin blotted out and covered, having their names repeated by Jesus and acknowledged as His jewels before the Father and heavenly host, and receiving the mark on the forehead from the angel with the writer's inkhorn so the destroying angel passes over them. Losing life for Christ's sake is humbling oneself, submitting to chastening, giving up one's own will, and choosing God's way rather than one's own, and it finds salvation and eternal life as a son of God who overcomes. Those who give up their lives for Christ will find eternal life, which includes accepting martyrdom for His sake and reflects the call to deny self in order to follow Him.
Following Jesus may mean giving up worldly honor and accepting suffering for His sake, for He promised His disciples no large salary or worldly honor but that they would share in His sufferings. Faithfulness may cost the comfort of home and family ties, yet obedience to God must not be abandoned to preserve them, as illustrated when a woman and her daughter accepted separation from home rather than give up the Sabbath and the mother would not promise to stop attending meetings, and her steadfastness led her husband to recognize his wrong and restore them without restrictions. Losing one's life for Christ's sake does not end in loss, for even if life is lost in the coming conflict, faith may rest on the promise that it will be restored.