Luke 9:24

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:18-27 It is an unspeakable comfort that our Lord Jesus is God's Anointed; this signifies that he was both appointed to be the Messiah, and qualified for it. Jesus discourses concerning his own sufferings and death. And so far must his disciples be from thinking how to prevent his sufferings, that they must prepare for their own. We often meet with crosses in the way of duty; and though we must not pull them upon our own heads, yet, when they are laid for us, we must take them up, and carry them after Christ. It is well or ill with us, according as it is well or ill with our souls. The body cannot be happy, if the soul be miserable in the other world; but the soul may be happy, though the body is greatly afflicted and oppressed in this world. We must never be ashamed of Christ and his gospel.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Christ of God - The "Anointed" of God. The "Messiah" appointed by God, and who had been long promised by him. See the notes at Matthew 1:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. will save—"Is minded to save," bent on saving. The pith of this maxim depends—as often in such weighty sayings (for example, "Let the dead bury the dead," Mt 8:22)—on the double sense attached to the word "life," a lower and a higher, the natural and the spiritual, temporal and eternal. An entire sacrifice of the lower, or a willingness to make it, is indispensable to the preservation of the higher life; and he who cannot bring himself to surrender the one for the sake of the other shall eventually lose both.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 9:23"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For whosoever will save his life,.... See Gill on Matthew 16:25.

Geneva Study Bible

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. whosoever will save his life shall lose it] The words imply whosoever shall make it his main will to save his life. See by way of comment the fine fragment (probably) of a very early Christian hymn in 2 Timothy 2:11-12, and observe that ψυχὴ means the natural, animal life of which the main interests are in the earth.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. The Greek word here rendered "life" signifies the natural animal life, of which the main interests are centred in the earth. If a man grasp at this shadowy, quickly passing earthly life, he will assuredly lose the substantial enduring heaven-life. If, on the other hand, he consents, "for my sake," to sacrifice this quickly fading life of earth, he shall surely find it again in heaven, no longer quickly fading, but a life fadeless, eternal, a life infinitely higher than the one he has for righteousness' sake consented to lose here. The same beautiful and comforting truth we find in that fragment, as it is supposed, of a very early Christian hymn, woven into the tapestry of St. Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy -

"If we be dead with him,
We shall also live with him:
If we suffer, We shall also reign."

(2 Timothy 2:11, 12.) Luke 9:24

Vincent's Word Studies

Will save (θέλῃ σῶσαι)

The same construction as will come after (Luke 9:23). Rev., would save.

Life (ψυχὴν)

See on soul, Mark 12:30.