Losing Your Life

Good morning.

Life... what is life? We’re going to look at two things Jesus said about life. The first is found in similar form six times in the gospels of which I quote Matthew 10:39:  “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” and Matthew 16:25:  “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

The word ‘find’ indicates a search, a yearning and a desire. One desperately looks for something and finds it. The word ‘save’ indicates you have something and make every effort to retain it. Life, as we know it, is that entity that we are all about. Life consists of our identity, status, possessions, accomplishments, entertainment and legacy. Most people spend their lives obtaining these entities which are centred on self. Much effort and expense go into preserving this life. Financial investments are made, status and position are established and maintained in social circles, much effort and work go into accomplishing career and other goals that individuals would be remembered by and all these end up in a legacy by which people could say that this was a good person. On top of it every effort is made to enjoy the pleasures of life. That’s life! We’ve found life and make every effort to save it.

You will lose it, Jesus said. How will that happen? “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw - each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward (1 Corinthians 3:12-4).” 

If we build life based on ourselves and for ourselves it may be worth something for us here on earth, but in afterlife it’s like straw and when the fire test comes, we’ll lose it. If we, however, consciously lose our lives for ourselves and live it for Jesus, it will survive the test of fire and we will have a great treasure in the heaven.

How do we lose our life for Jesus’ sake? Jesus had the option to look after Himself and become a powerful and rich earthly king (Matthew 4:1-10), but chose to humble Himself and be obedient to God by giving His life for the sake of others. We have the same choice. We can gather for ourselves the life mentioned above, an earthly treasure, or we can deny ourselves and live for others and the Kingdom. The latter means we become of no reputation, giving that energy, time and effort we would have put into selfish living, to the work of the Lord. The end would be a treasure in heaven.

The second thing Jesus said about life is that He came that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). When we lose our life to Him, He takes it and makes it full of the excitement of experiencing God’s power, love and care here on earth and after death we have abundant heavenly treasures.

What do you choose?

Lord, it’s so difficult to break out of my materialistic lifestyle in order to lose my life to you. Please help me to do it?

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