Matthew 10:39 He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. I. THE NATURE AND END OF THIS LOVE OF LIFE. This attachment not engendered since the fall — a degraded exhibition of some early beauty. Adam loved life; but the life he loved was a fragment of immortality. He loved it as an unbroken walk with the Eternal; we commonly cling to life as a removal from His presence. Adam loved an immortality begun; we an immortality put off. But a Divine purification of our nature and the old lineaments shall start forth from the canvass. This love of life of Divine implantation; it survives all pleasure in life; and is not accounted for by dread of the future. The Almighty appointed that it should act as a powerful engine in the furtherance of His several dispensations. Take it away, and society is shaken in every part. Evidence that man is far even from original righteousness in the eagerness with which he clings to absence from his Maker. The love of life a perpetual source of honour to God by the opportunity afforded for the display of His grace. II. WHEN THE PRINCIPLE TAKES A RIGHT DIRECTION, AND WHEN A WRONG DIRECTION. We have shown that the principle which in fallen man is the love of life, was in unfallen man the love of immortality; hence as it is our own aim to return to the privileges of the unfallen state, we give the principle its right direction when we draw it off from the mortal, and fasten it upon the immortal. To find by losing is the principle rightly applied; for this is the mortal surrendered to the immortal. To lose by finding is the principle wrongly applied; for this is the immortal basely exchanged for the mortal. We call upon you to love life, but you must understand what life is; not mere existence. (H. Melvill.) Parallel Verses KJV: He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.WEB: He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. |
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