<p>17:33 <i>Whoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it, but whoever shall lose it shall preserve it</i>- The Lord Jesus speaks of how a person can lose their place in the Kingdom as a person losing or forfeiting their own self; He was thereby teaching that a place in the Kingdom was possessing one&rsquo;s own real self (Lk. 9:25 RV). To lose life is paralleled with the Lord to unashamedly witnessing to Him in an unbelieving world; and He calls us each one to lose our lives in this way (Mk. 8:35).</p><p>The Lord had earlier taught in Mt. 10:28 that in the condemnation of the last day, it is God who will destroy s.w. &ldquo;lose&rdquo; life &ldquo;soul&rdquo;, s.w.. But here the Lord says that a man will lose / destroy his own life if his life consists in what he owns (12:15) and seeks to save it. The point is that ultimately the condemned will have condemned themselves; the process of losing / destroying life is initiated and performed by people in this life, and the final condemnation is simply giving them what they themselves wished for. And the Lord goes further to say that whoever &lsquo;finds his life&rsquo; will lose or destroy it (Mt. 10:39). To find life for ourselves, to think that by obtaining &lsquo;finding&rsquo; the world, the ideal life for ourselves, is to actually lose or destroy life. The Lord had earlier taught that He had not come to destroy s.w. &lsquo;lose&rsquo; men&rsquo;s lives, but to save (Lk. 9:56). It is men who destroy / lose their own lives, they condemn themselves, rather than the Lord seeking to condemn them. The Father likewise has no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. Rather does He simply confirm their own self-destruction. John&rsquo;s version of this saying about losing life is found in the context of the Lord speaking to Himself about the need to die on the cross: &ldquo;He that loves his life shall lose it&rdquo; (Jn. 12:25). To avoid the cross is to love life- this fleeting life. Attitudes like &lsquo;Spoil yourself&rsquo;, &lsquo;You deserve it&rsquo; and &lsquo;Have a fun time- you only live life once&rsquo; are all examples of loving life rather than losing it in self-condemnation for the hope of the eternal life. And so Lk. 17:33 repeats the words, in the context of commenting upon Lot&rsquo;s wife- her wistful look back to Sodom was because that was her life, the life she had loved.</p>