For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Spoken to the disciples as the terms of coming after Him, the teaching calls all who would follow to deny self and take up the cross and follow Him through reproach and suffering as well as glory. To try to save life is to shun the cross and preserve present security, comfort, property, standing and self-interest at the cost of loyalty and obedience, and that course ends in losing eternal life. To lose life for His sake is to surrender heart, will and all God-given powers to Him as Saviour and Ruler, giving in service and obedience even at loss in business, liberty or temporal life itself. He opened that way by coming from heaven in infinite sacrifice to give His life to win the world back, enduring the cross for the joy set before Him. Those who so lose temporal life find a life that measures with the life of God, amply recompensing cross, persecution and even death with immortal reward in the kingdom of glory.
Setting and Call
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples as the terms of coming after Him, joined inseparably to the call to deny self and take up the cross and follow Him, where holding on to life brings its loss and giving up life for His sake brings its recovery.
He gave this teaching as He faced His own coming suffering and death, gathering the disciples to open their minds to His future humiliation and shameful death at the hands of His persecutors. It was special instruction to prepare the first disciples for the trial of faith they must endure in His rejection and crucifixion by the Jews. This came after Peter insisted that the prophecy of the sacrifice of the Son of God could not be fulfilled. Its purpose was to show them the cost of following Him and the responsibility they would carry on after He left.
The disciples must suffer for His name just as He suffers, bearing the cross in following Him and enduring corresponding humiliation, reproach and shame with their Master, or they can never share His glory. His sufferings must be followed by theirs, and His crucifixion teaches that they must be crucified to the world, resigning all hope of its pomp and pleasure and all expectation of temporal aggrandizement under the Messiah. His experience is thus the experience of Christians through all time, for His suffering must be completed in all who believe in Him. The warning therefore belongs to all who would follow Christ, that trying to preserve temporal life by avoiding the cross of reproach brings eternal loss, including loss of the soul, heaven, and the life that measures with the life of God, while losing life for His sake in self-denial and self-sacrifice, following Jesus and bearing the cross, leads to finding eternal life. This call to costly discipleship concerns eternal realities and stands alongside the warning that gaining the whole world cannot compensate for losing the soul and the promise that He will reward each person at His coming.
Saving Life Brings Loss
To save life is to shun the cross and refuse self-denial, seeking to preserve temporal life and avoid its reproach at the cost of loyalty to Christ and following Him, and the result is to lose life. Clinging to life instead of following Christ brings loss, while surrendering life for His sake through denying self, taking up the cross and following Him brings finding, for self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of all journeying heavenward after Him. The promise stands as comfort and strength amid suffering and wakeful nights, calling for keeping close communion with the Saviour so as to endure by faith in the unseen rather than turn from Him.
Striving to preserve present life through self-serving choices to protect self and property rather than live self-sacrificingly leads to losing eternal life, as shown in efforts to save life here at the cost of surrender for His sake. Working to keep present security, comfort and harmful habits instead of denying self, taking up the cross and obeying brings eternal loss, for the choice is between life and death. Evading responsibility and burdens for fear of blame or loss of esteem to preserve what is sought brings loss of what is sought, while bearing hardship for Christ and His cause brings reward.
Saving earthly life by following the majority, turning to the right or left from known duty, refusing to lift the cross, and yielding to surrounding influence causes loss of life, final destruction and failure to see heaven. Preserving life or interests, temporal interests, liberty, convenience and life itself by disobeying God and transgressing even the least commandment leads to loss, while surrendering even life rather than disobey leads to finding. Refusing obedience to avoid its cost loses life, and accepting the call despite the cross is essential to finding it, a choice whose motives will be revealed when deeds are examined in judgment. The opposite course is to stand alone for God's commandments and depend on God without cowardice even when death threatens, as Daniel did when he would not be turned from God but prayed firmly as before with window opened toward Jerusalem after the leading men of the realm conspired against him, willing to lose life and thereby finding it.
Trying to save life by forsaking God and yielding the truth to preserve earthly life, safety or ease loses eternal life, while faithfulness even at such cost leads to life. To save life is to abandon truth and to refuse truth when clearly presented and clearly set before the mind because a cross and sacrifice are involved, which shows failure to value eternal life enough to sacrifice for it. Such protecting of present life by turning away from truth loses eternal life, for salvation requires pressing against darkness, relying on God and overcoming in preparation for eternity. To lose life is to accept truth though a cross is involved, to give heart and all God-given faculties to God and His service because He has right to them and it is for one's own good, to meet crosses, to let nothing stand in the way of duty even at loss in business, and to obey God so His death is not in vain.
Choosing the world's approval and friendship at the cost of following Christ means losing eternal life, while surrendering worldly friendship and living in humble obedience leads to life hereafter, a choice made during probation and shown by conduct, for seeking both God's approval and the world's friendship loses heaven. Trying to preserve standing and good name by conforming to the world and choosing convenience over God's will loses life, while denying self, enduring reproach, and choosing Christ above the world and earthly friends finds life. Seeking worldly advancement, honor, gain, status, wealth and recognition while avoiding the cross and treating faith as a barrier to success by making the cross less prominent is not the way to preserve life, and temporal advantages are not worth risking the soul's highest interests or losing faith in God, truth and duty. Those who cling to worldly advantage ultimately lose what matters most, while those who accept loss for His sake gain life with God, for the cross and disappointed hopes are better than worldly honor at the cost of heaven.
Trying to save and exalt self by defending self against perceived blame or injury, standing in self-defense, holding to self-interest, and indulging a hasty, self-protective spirit leads to losing life, while dying to self brings finding through patience, forbearance, nearness to God, humility, confession of defects and hiding life in Christ in meekness and lowliness. A life spent building up self and protecting one's own interests comes to nothing and ends in loss, as seen in lifelong efforts to build up and preserve self which failed each time. Trying to preserve life by concealing wrongdoing brings its loss and sacrifices eternal interests, while humbling self before God, confessing wrongs and returning to Him is the way to find life and hope. Seeking to save life in this self-vindicating way dishonors God, whereas vindicating His cause instead of self brings victory and His guarding of His work and cause.
Saving life by choosing one's own course and holding to one's own will and way to preserve the life one wants leads to loss of eternal life, while surrendering the will to God and accepting suffering with Him leads to eternal life, for a will ruled by self and following Jesus cannot remain together if there is to be hope. Coming after Him requires denying self, taking up the cross and following Him by accepting Him not only as Saviour but as King and Ruler, and trying to save life leaves defects of character uncontrolled, causing unhappiness, disharmony with Christ and dishonor to Him through unreasonable and unholy passion. Whoever would save life by selfish keeping will lose the soul, whose worth is measured by what was paid for it with blood through laying aside royal robe and kingly crown, leaving heaven, and giving Himself to self-denial, self-sacrifice, consecration and obedience, becoming poor that men might be made rich and be fitted for the mansions prepared for those who love Him. Clinging to old habits and practices of self-indulgence and refusing to carry the burden of souls causes loss of one's own soul and failure to value it, while losing life for His sake in self-denial, sufferings and reproach as one's portion here becomes a pledge of eternal life in the kingdom of glory.
Losing Life Finds Life
To lose life for His sake is to deny self, take up the cross and follow Him, for self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of all journeying heavenward after Christ. There is no neutrality and no divided heart in this following, but walking in His footsteps through evil and good report, in sunshine and storm, making any and every sacrifice for the privilege of advancing the truth. Only those willing to do this are His disciples, showing an obedient heart open to receive truth in order to walk in safe paths. The way of escape was made by Christ coming from heaven to earth in a great infinite sacrifice, that those who lose life for Him may be saved and find life.
Losing life means coming after Him by accepting Him not only as Saviour but as King and Ruler. It means placing every defect of character under His control in submission to Him, rather than leaving defects uncontrolled to cause unhappiness, disharmony with Christ and dishonor to Him by unreasonable and unholy passion. That surrendered life finds true life in harmony with Christ, made holy and pure by His abiding presence speaking peace to the soul. It requires self-denial and self-sacrifice on the narrow road leading to life rather than the broad road to destruction, refusing personal inclinations and natural desire to spare self and put self first, and choosing Jesus instead of the world at any cost. Trying to preserve temporal life by avoiding the cross of reproach brings eternal loss of soul, heaven and the life that measures with God's life, while losing life for Christ's sake and bearing the cross leads to finding eternal life, and gaining the whole world at cost of the soul is no gain because a soul is worth more than the world.
To lose life is to give the heart and all the faculties the Creator has given to God and to His service, because He has right to them and it is for one's own good. It is to accept truth when clearly set before the mind even though a cross and sacrifice are involved, to meet crosses, to let nothing stand in the way of duty even if it brings loss in business, and to obey God so that Christ's death will not be in vain on one's behalf. The life thus yielded to God in surrender of self and one's own will, accepting the sacrifice of service to Christ rather than preserving self-interest, is not lost, for God fills the surrendered person with His Holy Spirit and His fullness, while hesitation to yield to the call to follow leaves one failing to take the life offered in Christ.
Losing life means giving it in service rather than living for oneself. It is to give out in word and action what is received from God to supply the necessities of other souls, and to find life is to gain increased power to take in. The Christian lifework is this constant interchange of taking in and giving out, receiving and restoring, expressing known truth without any word of unbelief even under hardest trial. This giving links workers together with God, brings heaven nearer to earth, and alone keeps up capacity to receive fresh daily supplies of the holy oil. Such self-denial and sacrifice in following duty and seeking God's glory are precious to God, faithfully recorded, and will bring their reward.
Losing life for Christ's sake in order to find it is the terms of salvation for securing eternal life in the kingdom of heaven, requiring so thorough a surrender as to be wholly on the Lord's side. It means not letting love of property turn one away from Christ, but using means now to work, to give, and to support missionaries in foreign fields, schools, sanitariums and help for colored people in need, calling every soul, believer and unbeliever, to believe and do works of righteousness and keep the commandments in truth. It means refusing to devote time, means, energies, speech and influence to service of self, but using them as the Lord's goods to be traded and multiplied in the Master's service during this period of stewardship, increasing capabilities and returning more than was entrusted. Accepting even martyrdom for Christ's sake is the fullest expression of this self-denial and receives the promise of eternal life.
Following Christ may require giving up earthly treasures and bearing the cross despite its reproach and stigma, yet the cross is also the hope of life and exaltation. Those willing to follow through self-denial, sacrifice, suffering and reproach for His name gain spiritual riches and greater joy and immortal reward in the kingdom of glory. Those who lose temporal life for Christ's sake gain a life that lasts through eternal ages and measures with the life of God, so whatever crosses, losses or persecution they endure, even death, is amply recompensed by this eternal life. Keeping eternal life requires working out salvation with fear and trembling, pressing against darkness, taking hold of the mighty arm of God, and using the little time left to prepare for eternity, for shunning truth to save life loses eternal life since each has a soul to save or to lose, while those who overcome instead of saving their lives win the crown, see the King in His beauty, and have not lived in vain.
Christ's Sacrifice and Worth
The way of escape was made by Christ coming from heaven to earth in a great infinite sacrifice to save sinners. He gave His life to win the world back to loyalty to God, and endured the cross for the joy of the result set before Him, so that those who lose their life for His sake may be saved and find life. Trying to save life by shunning the cross causes loss of life, for self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of everyone journeying heavenward in following Him.
Before taking human form He knew every pain and insult ahead of Him, yet chose to do God's will and give Himself to save the lost. He trod the hard, self-denying, humble path through temptation in the wilderness and suffering in Gethsemane and on Calvary to show the way and to bring the divine help without which sinners perish. Winning eternal life costs everything and requires refusing personal inclinations and choosing Jesus instead of the world, with overcoming calling for hardship, trial, conflict, self-denial, privation, weariness, toil, anxiety and any sacrifice without complaint or shrinking back. Since youth willingly suffer hardship without complaint to serve themselves and gain temporary objects in this life, they should willingly endure hardship to serve Christ and gain eternal life.
Every person has a soul to save or a soul to lose, and its worth is measured by what Christ paid for it with His own blood. Men and women are not their own but are bought with a price beyond computation, and are therefore under obligation to do what pleases God and to place a right estimate on their own souls and the souls of others. He showed the value of the soul by laying aside His royal robe and kingly crown, leaving heaven, and giving Himself to a life of self-denial, self-sacrifice, consecration and obedience to God's law, becoming poor so that through His poverty men might be made rich. Whoever will save his life by selfish keeping will lose his soul, and whoever will lose his life for His sake by denying self, taking up the cross and following His example of self-denial and self-sacrifice will find his soul and be fitted for the mansions prepared for those who love Him.
His sufferings and crucifixion teach that His followers must be crucified to the world, resigning all hope in its pomp and pleasures and all expectation of temporal aggrandizement. They must suffer for His name just as He suffers, bearing the cross in following Him and enduring corresponding humiliation, reproach and shame with their Master. Otherwise they cannot share His glory, for they must lose their worldly life to share it.
Faithful Obedience in Practice
The test over earthly life comes to all who obey the truth, for seeking to save earthly life by yielding and abandoning the truth loses it, while willingness to lose earthly life for the sake of truth and for Christ finds eternal life. Heaven is interested in the welfare of those under that test, and Christ and angels look on with intense interest to see whether men appreciate the great sacrifice made in their behalf. Believers should therefore constantly live as in the presence of holy angels.
Losing life to find it is illustrated by refusing to preserve earthly life by following the majority, turning to the right or left from known duty, refusing to lift the cross, or yielding to surrounding influence, since seeking to save life in that way brings loss, final destruction, and failure to see heaven. It means instead standing alone for God's commandments and depending on God without cowardice even when death threatens. Daniel showed this when he would not be turned from God but prayed firmly as before with his window opened toward Jerusalem after the leading men of the realm conspired against him, accepting the risk of death rather than forsaking faithfulness.
Such faithfulness values the cross above electoral crown and ermine, honor, goods, subjects, states, lands, rule, and life itself. It resolves to do what is right and to confess the Lord and hold true doctrine even at the cost of leaving goods and life behind and renouncing lands and rule. It denies self, endures reproach for Christ, refuses to preserve standing and good name by conformity to the world and by choosing personal convenience over God's will, and chooses Him above the world and earthly friends. Their names are acknowledged by Jesus and counted worthy of everlasting life.
The verse is comfort and strength amid suffering and wakeful nights, teaching that trying to preserve life at the cost of loyalty to and following Christ loses it, while surrendering life for His sake finds it. Keeping close communion with the Saviour makes it possible to endure by faith in the unseen rather than turning from Him. Losing life for Him therefore means accepting the cost of discipleship and calls for self-denial and faithful discipleship.
Dying to self for Christ's sake instead of defending self brings life, while trying to preserve life by defending self against perceived blame or injury, standing in self-defense, holding to self-interest, and indulging a hasty, self-protective spirit leads to loss and dishonors God. The way to find life and hope is to get near to God, humble self, confess defects and wrongs rather than conceal them, hide life in Christ, and cultivate patience and forbearance, which makes the heart meek and lowly. Then God gives victory and guards His work and cause when His people vindicate His cause instead of themselves. Failure to overcome such passions and refusal of this course sacrifices eternal interests and puts everlasting life at risk.
Losing life includes surrendering one's own will to God rather than pursuing unconsecrated desire, being willing to leave or sacrifice even dear family ties, since loving others more than Jesus makes a person unworthy of Him. It includes struggling to overcome appetite even if the struggle were to cost life, for such a death would be for a good cause and the victor would receive the first resurrection and the overcomer's reward, won by integrity, determined effort, and moral power through Christ's name in victories money cannot buy. Those who do not overcome as Christ overcame cannot sit with Him on His throne, and those who knowingly destroy mental, moral, and physical health through indulgence sacrifice God-given powers and lose heaven. Holding on to life through selfishness and self-indulgence is opposed to His self-sacrificing spirit, so following Him may require sacrificing even life itself and being willing to lose life if God so orders rather than shrink from duty.
Losing life for His sake means living wholly distinct from the world in self-sacrificing love, heartily and not by halves, rather than living for earthly things, luxury, self-indulgence, selfish aims, pleasures, personal advancement, and worldly honor. Those who cling to such things lose the life they seek to preserve, while those who surrender them for Christ find life. Christians show His self-sacrificing spirit in every branch of work without seeking their own advancement or showing respect of persons, refusing by practice to support oppression or injustice toward the least person. They give up all selfish delights, unholy passions, and love of human applause, are willing to remain humble and unknown, cannot live in luxury while others suffer around them, and by a well-ordered life and godly conduct condemn the folly, impenitence, idolatry, and wicked practices of a world that acts selfishly without regard for His principles, being ready to sacrifice even life itself for Christ.
Spoken to the disciples as the terms of coming after Him, the teaching calls all who would follow to deny self and take up the cross and follow Him through reproach and suffering as well as glory. To try to save life is to shun the cross and preserve present security, comfort, property, standing and self-interest at the cost of loyalty and obedience, and that course ends in losing eternal life. To lose life for His sake is to surrender heart, will and all God-given powers to Him as Saviour and Ruler, giving in service and obedience even at loss in business, liberty or temporal life itself. He opened that way by coming from heaven in infinite sacrifice to give His life to win the world back, enduring the cross for the joy set before Him. Those who so lose temporal life find a life that measures with the life of God, amply recompensing cross, persecution and even death with immortal reward in the kingdom of glory.
Setting and Call
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples as the terms of coming after Him, joined inseparably to the call to deny self and take up the cross and follow Him, where holding on to life brings its loss and giving up life for His sake brings its recovery.
He gave this teaching as He faced His own coming suffering and death, gathering the disciples to open their minds to His future humiliation and shameful death at the hands of His persecutors. It was special instruction to prepare the first disciples for the trial of faith they must endure in His rejection and crucifixion by the Jews. This came after Peter insisted that the prophecy of the sacrifice of the Son of God could not be fulfilled. Its purpose was to show them the cost of following Him and the responsibility they would carry on after He left.
The disciples must suffer for His name just as He suffers, bearing the cross in following Him and enduring corresponding humiliation, reproach and shame with their Master, or they can never share His glory. His sufferings must be followed by theirs, and His crucifixion teaches that they must be crucified to the world, resigning all hope of its pomp and pleasure and all expectation of temporal aggrandizement under the Messiah. His experience is thus the experience of Christians through all time, for His suffering must be completed in all who believe in Him. The warning therefore belongs to all who would follow Christ, that trying to preserve temporal life by avoiding the cross of reproach brings eternal loss, including loss of the soul, heaven, and the life that measures with the life of God, while losing life for His sake in self-denial and self-sacrifice, following Jesus and bearing the cross, leads to finding eternal life. This call to costly discipleship concerns eternal realities and stands alongside the warning that gaining the whole world cannot compensate for losing the soul and the promise that He will reward each person at His coming.
Saving Life Brings Loss
To save life is to shun the cross and refuse self-denial, seeking to preserve temporal life and avoid its reproach at the cost of loyalty to Christ and following Him, and the result is to lose life. Clinging to life instead of following Christ brings loss, while surrendering life for His sake through denying self, taking up the cross and following Him brings finding, for self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of all journeying heavenward after Him. The promise stands as comfort and strength amid suffering and wakeful nights, calling for keeping close communion with the Saviour so as to endure by faith in the unseen rather than turn from Him.
Striving to preserve present life through self-serving choices to protect self and property rather than live self-sacrificingly leads to losing eternal life, as shown in efforts to save life here at the cost of surrender for His sake. Working to keep present security, comfort and harmful habits instead of denying self, taking up the cross and obeying brings eternal loss, for the choice is between life and death. Evading responsibility and burdens for fear of blame or loss of esteem to preserve what is sought brings loss of what is sought, while bearing hardship for Christ and His cause brings reward.
Saving earthly life by following the majority, turning to the right or left from known duty, refusing to lift the cross, and yielding to surrounding influence causes loss of life, final destruction and failure to see heaven. Preserving life or interests, temporal interests, liberty, convenience and life itself by disobeying God and transgressing even the least commandment leads to loss, while surrendering even life rather than disobey leads to finding. Refusing obedience to avoid its cost loses life, and accepting the call despite the cross is essential to finding it, a choice whose motives will be revealed when deeds are examined in judgment. The opposite course is to stand alone for God's commandments and depend on God without cowardice even when death threatens, as Daniel did when he would not be turned from God but prayed firmly as before with window opened toward Jerusalem after the leading men of the realm conspired against him, willing to lose life and thereby finding it.
Trying to save life by forsaking God and yielding the truth to preserve earthly life, safety or ease loses eternal life, while faithfulness even at such cost leads to life. To save life is to abandon truth and to refuse truth when clearly presented and clearly set before the mind because a cross and sacrifice are involved, which shows failure to value eternal life enough to sacrifice for it. Such protecting of present life by turning away from truth loses eternal life, for salvation requires pressing against darkness, relying on God and overcoming in preparation for eternity. To lose life is to accept truth though a cross is involved, to give heart and all God-given faculties to God and His service because He has right to them and it is for one's own good, to meet crosses, to let nothing stand in the way of duty even at loss in business, and to obey God so His death is not in vain.
Choosing the world's approval and friendship at the cost of following Christ means losing eternal life, while surrendering worldly friendship and living in humble obedience leads to life hereafter, a choice made during probation and shown by conduct, for seeking both God's approval and the world's friendship loses heaven. Trying to preserve standing and good name by conforming to the world and choosing convenience over God's will loses life, while denying self, enduring reproach, and choosing Christ above the world and earthly friends finds life. Seeking worldly advancement, honor, gain, status, wealth and recognition while avoiding the cross and treating faith as a barrier to success by making the cross less prominent is not the way to preserve life, and temporal advantages are not worth risking the soul's highest interests or losing faith in God, truth and duty. Those who cling to worldly advantage ultimately lose what matters most, while those who accept loss for His sake gain life with God, for the cross and disappointed hopes are better than worldly honor at the cost of heaven.
Trying to save and exalt self by defending self against perceived blame or injury, standing in self-defense, holding to self-interest, and indulging a hasty, self-protective spirit leads to losing life, while dying to self brings finding through patience, forbearance, nearness to God, humility, confession of defects and hiding life in Christ in meekness and lowliness. A life spent building up self and protecting one's own interests comes to nothing and ends in loss, as seen in lifelong efforts to build up and preserve self which failed each time. Trying to preserve life by concealing wrongdoing brings its loss and sacrifices eternal interests, while humbling self before God, confessing wrongs and returning to Him is the way to find life and hope. Seeking to save life in this self-vindicating way dishonors God, whereas vindicating His cause instead of self brings victory and His guarding of His work and cause.
Saving life by choosing one's own course and holding to one's own will and way to preserve the life one wants leads to loss of eternal life, while surrendering the will to God and accepting suffering with Him leads to eternal life, for a will ruled by self and following Jesus cannot remain together if there is to be hope. Coming after Him requires denying self, taking up the cross and following Him by accepting Him not only as Saviour but as King and Ruler, and trying to save life leaves defects of character uncontrolled, causing unhappiness, disharmony with Christ and dishonor to Him through unreasonable and unholy passion. Whoever would save life by selfish keeping will lose the soul, whose worth is measured by what was paid for it with blood through laying aside royal robe and kingly crown, leaving heaven, and giving Himself to self-denial, self-sacrifice, consecration and obedience, becoming poor that men might be made rich and be fitted for the mansions prepared for those who love Him. Clinging to old habits and practices of self-indulgence and refusing to carry the burden of souls causes loss of one's own soul and failure to value it, while losing life for His sake in self-denial, sufferings and reproach as one's portion here becomes a pledge of eternal life in the kingdom of glory.
Losing Life Finds Life
To lose life for His sake is to deny self, take up the cross and follow Him, for self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of all journeying heavenward after Christ. There is no neutrality and no divided heart in this following, but walking in His footsteps through evil and good report, in sunshine and storm, making any and every sacrifice for the privilege of advancing the truth. Only those willing to do this are His disciples, showing an obedient heart open to receive truth in order to walk in safe paths. The way of escape was made by Christ coming from heaven to earth in a great infinite sacrifice, that those who lose life for Him may be saved and find life.
Losing life means coming after Him by accepting Him not only as Saviour but as King and Ruler. It means placing every defect of character under His control in submission to Him, rather than leaving defects uncontrolled to cause unhappiness, disharmony with Christ and dishonor to Him by unreasonable and unholy passion. That surrendered life finds true life in harmony with Christ, made holy and pure by His abiding presence speaking peace to the soul. It requires self-denial and self-sacrifice on the narrow road leading to life rather than the broad road to destruction, refusing personal inclinations and natural desire to spare self and put self first, and choosing Jesus instead of the world at any cost. Trying to preserve temporal life by avoiding the cross of reproach brings eternal loss of soul, heaven and the life that measures with God's life, while losing life for Christ's sake and bearing the cross leads to finding eternal life, and gaining the whole world at cost of the soul is no gain because a soul is worth more than the world.
To lose life is to give the heart and all the faculties the Creator has given to God and to His service, because He has right to them and it is for one's own good. It is to accept truth when clearly set before the mind even though a cross and sacrifice are involved, to meet crosses, to let nothing stand in the way of duty even if it brings loss in business, and to obey God so that Christ's death will not be in vain on one's behalf. The life thus yielded to God in surrender of self and one's own will, accepting the sacrifice of service to Christ rather than preserving self-interest, is not lost, for God fills the surrendered person with His Holy Spirit and His fullness, while hesitation to yield to the call to follow leaves one failing to take the life offered in Christ.
Losing life means giving it in service rather than living for oneself. It is to give out in word and action what is received from God to supply the necessities of other souls, and to find life is to gain increased power to take in. The Christian lifework is this constant interchange of taking in and giving out, receiving and restoring, expressing known truth without any word of unbelief even under hardest trial. This giving links workers together with God, brings heaven nearer to earth, and alone keeps up capacity to receive fresh daily supplies of the holy oil. Such self-denial and sacrifice in following duty and seeking God's glory are precious to God, faithfully recorded, and will bring their reward.
Losing life for Christ's sake in order to find it is the terms of salvation for securing eternal life in the kingdom of heaven, requiring so thorough a surrender as to be wholly on the Lord's side. It means not letting love of property turn one away from Christ, but using means now to work, to give, and to support missionaries in foreign fields, schools, sanitariums and help for colored people in need, calling every soul, believer and unbeliever, to believe and do works of righteousness and keep the commandments in truth. It means refusing to devote time, means, energies, speech and influence to service of self, but using them as the Lord's goods to be traded and multiplied in the Master's service during this period of stewardship, increasing capabilities and returning more than was entrusted. Accepting even martyrdom for Christ's sake is the fullest expression of this self-denial and receives the promise of eternal life.
Following Christ may require giving up earthly treasures and bearing the cross despite its reproach and stigma, yet the cross is also the hope of life and exaltation. Those willing to follow through self-denial, sacrifice, suffering and reproach for His name gain spiritual riches and greater joy and immortal reward in the kingdom of glory. Those who lose temporal life for Christ's sake gain a life that lasts through eternal ages and measures with the life of God, so whatever crosses, losses or persecution they endure, even death, is amply recompensed by this eternal life. Keeping eternal life requires working out salvation with fear and trembling, pressing against darkness, taking hold of the mighty arm of God, and using the little time left to prepare for eternity, for shunning truth to save life loses eternal life since each has a soul to save or to lose, while those who overcome instead of saving their lives win the crown, see the King in His beauty, and have not lived in vain.
Christ's Sacrifice and Worth
The way of escape was made by Christ coming from heaven to earth in a great infinite sacrifice to save sinners. He gave His life to win the world back to loyalty to God, and endured the cross for the joy of the result set before Him, so that those who lose their life for His sake may be saved and find life. Trying to save life by shunning the cross causes loss of life, for self-denial and the cross lie directly in the pathway of everyone journeying heavenward in following Him.
Before taking human form He knew every pain and insult ahead of Him, yet chose to do God's will and give Himself to save the lost. He trod the hard, self-denying, humble path through temptation in the wilderness and suffering in Gethsemane and on Calvary to show the way and to bring the divine help without which sinners perish. Winning eternal life costs everything and requires refusing personal inclinations and choosing Jesus instead of the world, with overcoming calling for hardship, trial, conflict, self-denial, privation, weariness, toil, anxiety and any sacrifice without complaint or shrinking back. Since youth willingly suffer hardship without complaint to serve themselves and gain temporary objects in this life, they should willingly endure hardship to serve Christ and gain eternal life.
Every person has a soul to save or a soul to lose, and its worth is measured by what Christ paid for it with His own blood. Men and women are not their own but are bought with a price beyond computation, and are therefore under obligation to do what pleases God and to place a right estimate on their own souls and the souls of others. He showed the value of the soul by laying aside His royal robe and kingly crown, leaving heaven, and giving Himself to a life of self-denial, self-sacrifice, consecration and obedience to God's law, becoming poor so that through His poverty men might be made rich. Whoever will save his life by selfish keeping will lose his soul, and whoever will lose his life for His sake by denying self, taking up the cross and following His example of self-denial and self-sacrifice will find his soul and be fitted for the mansions prepared for those who love Him.
His sufferings and crucifixion teach that His followers must be crucified to the world, resigning all hope in its pomp and pleasures and all expectation of temporal aggrandizement. They must suffer for His name just as He suffers, bearing the cross in following Him and enduring corresponding humiliation, reproach and shame with their Master. Otherwise they cannot share His glory, for they must lose their worldly life to share it.
Faithful Obedience in Practice
The test over earthly life comes to all who obey the truth, for seeking to save earthly life by yielding and abandoning the truth loses it, while willingness to lose earthly life for the sake of truth and for Christ finds eternal life. Heaven is interested in the welfare of those under that test, and Christ and angels look on with intense interest to see whether men appreciate the great sacrifice made in their behalf. Believers should therefore constantly live as in the presence of holy angels.
Losing life to find it is illustrated by refusing to preserve earthly life by following the majority, turning to the right or left from known duty, refusing to lift the cross, or yielding to surrounding influence, since seeking to save life in that way brings loss, final destruction, and failure to see heaven. It means instead standing alone for God's commandments and depending on God without cowardice even when death threatens. Daniel showed this when he would not be turned from God but prayed firmly as before with his window opened toward Jerusalem after the leading men of the realm conspired against him, accepting the risk of death rather than forsaking faithfulness.
Such faithfulness values the cross above electoral crown and ermine, honor, goods, subjects, states, lands, rule, and life itself. It resolves to do what is right and to confess the Lord and hold true doctrine even at the cost of leaving goods and life behind and renouncing lands and rule. It denies self, endures reproach for Christ, refuses to preserve standing and good name by conformity to the world and by choosing personal convenience over God's will, and chooses Him above the world and earthly friends. Their names are acknowledged by Jesus and counted worthy of everlasting life.
The verse is comfort and strength amid suffering and wakeful nights, teaching that trying to preserve life at the cost of loyalty to and following Christ loses it, while surrendering life for His sake finds it. Keeping close communion with the Saviour makes it possible to endure by faith in the unseen rather than turning from Him. Losing life for Him therefore means accepting the cost of discipleship and calls for self-denial and faithful discipleship.
Dying to self for Christ's sake instead of defending self brings life, while trying to preserve life by defending self against perceived blame or injury, standing in self-defense, holding to self-interest, and indulging a hasty, self-protective spirit leads to loss and dishonors God. The way to find life and hope is to get near to God, humble self, confess defects and wrongs rather than conceal them, hide life in Christ, and cultivate patience and forbearance, which makes the heart meek and lowly. Then God gives victory and guards His work and cause when His people vindicate His cause instead of themselves. Failure to overcome such passions and refusal of this course sacrifices eternal interests and puts everlasting life at risk.
Losing life includes surrendering one's own will to God rather than pursuing unconsecrated desire, being willing to leave or sacrifice even dear family ties, since loving others more than Jesus makes a person unworthy of Him. It includes struggling to overcome appetite even if the struggle were to cost life, for such a death would be for a good cause and the victor would receive the first resurrection and the overcomer's reward, won by integrity, determined effort, and moral power through Christ's name in victories money cannot buy. Those who do not overcome as Christ overcame cannot sit with Him on His throne, and those who knowingly destroy mental, moral, and physical health through indulgence sacrifice God-given powers and lose heaven. Holding on to life through selfishness and self-indulgence is opposed to His self-sacrificing spirit, so following Him may require sacrificing even life itself and being willing to lose life if God so orders rather than shrink from duty.
Losing life for His sake means living wholly distinct from the world in self-sacrificing love, heartily and not by halves, rather than living for earthly things, luxury, self-indulgence, selfish aims, pleasures, personal advancement, and worldly honor. Those who cling to such things lose the life they seek to preserve, while those who surrender them for Christ find life. Christians show His self-sacrificing spirit in every branch of work without seeking their own advancement or showing respect of persons, refusing by practice to support oppression or injustice toward the least person. They give up all selfish delights, unholy passions, and love of human applause, are willing to remain humble and unknown, cannot live in luxury while others suffer around them, and by a well-ordered life and godly conduct condemn the folly, impenitence, idolatry, and wicked practices of a world that acts selfishly without regard for His principles, being ready to sacrifice even life itself for Christ.