Mark 8:35 For whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. I. If we look at Christ, He is to be loved best of all, and all things must be accounted "dross and dung in comparison of Him" (Philippians 3:7, 8). Again, if we look on His merit and desert, he loved not His life unto death for us, but readily offered it up on our behalf (Luke 12:50). How then should we hold ourselves bound in way of thankfulness, if we had a thousand lives, to give them up for Him? shall the Just for the unjust, and not the unjust for the Just? II. If we look to the truth and gospel, it is far more worthy than all we can give in exchange for it; it cost Christ dear: He thought it worthy of His life, and bought with His precious blood, which was the blood of God (Acts 20:28); and should we think much to buy it with our last blood? III. If we look on ourselves: 1. We are soldiers under Christ's colours. A soldier in the field sells his life for a base pay, and is ready for his king and country to endure blows, gashes, and death itself. How much more ought the Christian soldier for the love of his Captain, and honour of his profession, contemn fears and perils, and think his life well sold in so honourable a quarrel and cause as Christ's is? 2. This is indeed rightly to love ourselves, when we can rightly hate ourselves. We must learn to love ourselves by not loving ourselves. (T. Taylor, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. |
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