Matthew 10:39

Sunday, 15 June 2025

 

He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 10:39

 

“The ‘having found his soul,’ he will lose it, and the ‘having lost his soul’ because of Me, he will find it” (CG).

 

In the previous verse, Jesus noted that he who did not take his cross and follow after Him was not worthy of Him. Now, to build upon that, He says, “The ‘having found his soul,’ he will lose it.”

 

The words at first seem paradoxical. However, Jesus is using the thought of the psuché, the soul, in two ways at the same time. The word itself was introduced in Matthew 2:20. It is derived from psucho, breath. The meaning is based on the context, and it can mean the breath of one’s life, the seat of affection, the self, a human person, or an individual. The word corresponds to the Hebrew word nephesh.

 

In the case of Jesus’ words, He indicates that a person who has found his soul, meaning his earthly self, will wind up losing his soul, meaning his eternal self. Finding one’s earthly self involves looking after oneself, getting the best out of life, advancing in one’s career, or whatever motivates a person to ingratiate his existence apart from God’s guiding hand.

 

The problem with this type of life is two-fold. The first and main consideration is that it leaves God, the Creator, out of the picture. It ignores man’s responsibilities to Him and sets one’s course for self-directed aims. The second problem with this is obvious to all and yet it is ignored most of the time. Man is destined to die.

 

As this is so, all self-directed advances and aims have an end because the self has an end. Jesus says elsewhere –

 

“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26

 

This is Jesus’ intent. The person finds his soul, the epitome of self-satisfaction and aggrandizement, maybe even living to the point of hedonism, but because he has left God out of the equation, he winds up losing his soul. On the other hand, Jesus next says, “and the ‘having lost his soul’ because of Me, he will find it.”

 

The “because of Me” is the key point of His words. Many scholars and philosophers have stated words similar in thought to Jesus’ words –

 

Plato said, “O my friend! I want you to see that the noble and the good may possibly be something different from saving and being saved, and that he who is truly a man ought not to care about living a certain time: he knows, as women say, that we must all die, and therefore he is not fond of life; he leaves all that with God, and considers in what way he can best spend his appointed term” (“Gorgias,” 512). (via Vincent’s Word Studies).

 

Euripides said, “Who knows if life be not death, and death life.” (via Vincent’s Word Studies).

 

The Pulpit Commentary notes, “In Talm. Bab., ‘Tamid,’ 32a, Alexander the Great asks ‘the elders of the south’ ten questions, among them, ‘What shall a man do that he may live?’ They answer, ‘Let him put himself to death.’ ‘What shall a man do that he may die?’ ‘Let him make himself alive.’”

 

Such sayings are found in cultures around the world, and many live lifestyles that bear this concept, such as those living as monks or in asceticism, stoicism, etc. The problem with such lives is that such people are still set to die. Without the “because of Me” of Jesus’ words, their end is the same as the others. The main difference between them and those in the first half of Jesus’ words is that those in the first category probably had a lot more fun in the process.

 

Jesus is telling His disciples that the pursuit of God in Christ is the key to finding one’s soul, meaning his eternal existence in the presence of God.

 

Life application: It