<p>10:39 <em>He that finds his life</em>- The Lord must surely mean us to read in an ellipsis: &lsquo;Thinks he has found the meaning of life without Me&rsquo;. For the Lord has just called the unsaved audience of His preachers &ldquo;the lost&rdquo; (10:6 s.w.).</p>
<p><em>Shall lose it</em>- The Lord has just spoken of how God will &ldquo;destroy&rdquo; (s.w. &ldquo;lose&rdquo;) the &ldquo;soul&rdquo; (s.w. &ldquo;life&rdquo;) of those rejected at the last day (10:28). So here in :39 He is surely thinking of destruction of the &lsquo;soul&rsquo; / &ldquo;life&rdquo; at the last day. Only those responsible to judgment will appear at the day of judgment; so the Lord&rsquo;s teaching here concerns those who have known Him, who are responsible to Him, but who are not totally committed to Him; those who think that despite their knowledge of Him, they can &lsquo;find their lives&rsquo; without Him. See on 16:25&nbsp;<em>lose it</em>.</p>
<p><em>And he that loses his life for my sake-&nbsp;</em>The same Greek word is translated to destroy, to die, to mar, to cause to perish. Once again, this is not what we wish to hear- that we must do real damage to our human life, crucify it, if we are to share in the life of Jesus. 10:28 has just spoken of the destroying / losing of life in condemnation; perhaps the &lsquo;loss / destruction of life&rsquo; is in self-condemnation. This would continue a major theme of the Lord&rsquo;s teaching- that those who condemn themselves in this life shall be saved from condemnation at the last day.</p>
<p><em>Shall find it-&nbsp;</em>As we go up the spiral of spiritual growth, we will find the true life- perceive, see, realize (Mt. 10:39 Gk.) the real, spiritual life, as the wayward son &quot;came to himself&quot;, he found himself, when he repented. The Lord had laboured the point that whoever seeks shall&nbsp;<em>find&nbsp;</em>(Mt. 7:7,8,14), and the context clearly is of spiritual things and salvation. The Lord spoke in Mt. 7 of&nbsp;<em>seeking</em>&nbsp;and finding, here He speaks of&nbsp;<em>losing life</em>&nbsp;in order to find it. The language of seeking and losing suggests a process, rather than some finely spoken, albeit genuinely intended, momentary statement of commitment to the Lord. The more we<em> seek</em>&nbsp;the things of the Kingdom, the more we will naturally lose our fleshly life. The loss of life the Lord has in view is clearly a process of &ldquo;seeking&rdquo; the things of His Kingdom- rather than the death of martyrdom. The taking up of the cross in the previous verse is the epitome of losing life&hellip; but the Lord intended it to be understood as a way of life, a sharing of the same road as Him [&ldquo;following&rdquo; Him], upon which dying is literally a way&nbsp;<em>of</em>&nbsp;life as well as the way&nbsp;<em>to</em>&nbsp;life. What in practice does it mean to &lsquo;lose life&rsquo;? Issues concerning where we live, careers, food, the pleasures of this life, all become eclipsed by the mission before us- of consciously dying,&nbsp;<em>in His service</em>. For the entire context here is about serving the Lord by sharing the Gospel with others, engaging fully with the mission the Lord intends for us. The context of the Lord giving His people work to do would suggest that the life which is &lsquo;found&rsquo; is not only the life eternal at the last day, but is the life in His service. This kind of life will be eternally lived, and it is in that sense that we can understand the Lord&rsquo;s words elsewhere that those who follow Him right now begin living the eternal life, the kind of life in His service which they will eternally live. If we are ever seeking to balance and arrange things so that we can apparently live our fleshly life as well as &lsquo;His&rsquo; life, then we have failed to grasp the entire point of His teaching. Total surrender, absolute and eager, willing submission, is what He is about.</p>