Luke 17:33

Luk_17:33

Shall lose it

Life through death

I.

IT IS COMMONLY REQUIRED OF US TO SACRIFICE A LOWER GOOD, IN ORDER TO GAIN A HIGHER. Not always, but almost always. The good things of this world are of several sorts, very unlike one another. Consider the sensualist, the man of pleasure, what is called the man of the world. Now it is idle to say, that the pleasures of sense are not real pleasures. Pleasure is not altogether out of the question amongst higher things, as is proved by such examples as those of Pericles, Caesar, and Bonaparte; but pleasure supreme is simply fatal to a great career. It may give you an Alcibiades, but never a Leonidas. So, too, of money. Here again it is idle to say that money is of no account. All that is higher, and all that is lower, must be cheerfully given up. Money must be the one thing he goes for. This, indeed, is the price of money, as of everything else; and he must pay it. But, at all events, he must give up the lower good. He must not be a man of the world. He must be abstemious in eating; temperate in drinking; temperate in all things. He must rein in his appetite. Good personal habits--habits of self-restraint, must be well established. And so of fame. But neither the scholar, the artist, nor the orator, must be idle, or avaricious. The lore of pleasure and the love of money are both of them fatal to these higher aims. Learning grows puny and trivial, when waited on by sensual delights; while the love of gain eats into it like rust. So, too, of art. Growing either voluptuous, or sordid, it falls like an angel from heaven. And so of eloquence. It flies from lips that are steeped in pleasure; it will not quiver in fingers that clutch at gold. The ambition of scholarship, of art, of eloquence, is a lofty ambition, and it will not tolerate much baseness. The scholars of antiquity were, for the most part, severe and temperate men. The scholars of the Middle Ages were the cloistered and ascetic monks. The votaries of art, too, with rare exceptions, have wasted away in martyrdom to their calling. Thus it is that the Temple of Fame keeps a stern sentinel standing ever at her gateway of Corinthian brass. And every comer is challenged with such questions as these: Canst thou live on bread and water? Art thou willing to be poor? If not, avaunt! And so of all sorts of earthly good. Each sort has its price; and may be taken at that price. But two or more sorts may not ordinarily be taken by one and the same purchaser. The lower must be sacrificed to the higher. The coarser must give place to the finer. Such is the well-established method of our ordinary life. Every step of our earthly progress is a sacrifice. We gain by losing; grow by dwindling; live by dying. Our text, it is plain, is but an extension of this well-established method to the entire range and circle of our interests. What is seen to be true of earthly advantages considered in reference to one another, is here declared to be true of all these advantages together, when considered in relation to the life eternal. This world and the next world are set in opposition to each other. Body and soul are put at variance. And all that a man may win of worldly good, it is taught, he must be ready to sacrifice, if need be, in order to save his soul. You may call the demand a hard one; but all the analogies of our ordinary life endorse and favour it. In many dark corners of the earth are sitting men to-day, who have abandoned almost everything for Christ. And their feeling is that they have barely done their duty: that a necessity is laid upon them; that they must suffer for Christ; and by and by die for Him. And the stern warrant for it all is in our text: He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake, shall find it. God be praised, if we, in our sphere, are spared the fullest execution of this warrant. The spirit of it, however, we may never wish to escape. Our hearts are to hold themselves always reedy for the fiercest discipline. Personal ease and comfort, houses and lands, friends, reputation, and even life itself, are to be reckoned cheap. We are to hold them in low esteem. So relaxed must be our grasp, that the slightest breath of persecution may suffice to sweep them swiftly and clean away.

II. The second law referred to, and the counterpart of the one we have now considered, is this: BY FIRST SECURING THE HIGHER GOOD, WE ARE PREPARED PROPERLY TO ENJOY THE LOWER, AND ARE MORE LIKELY TO SECURE IT. The principle is, that no worldly good of any sort can be well secured, or properly enjoyed, if pursued by itself and for its own sake. This may be seen in our most ordinary life. The man, whose aim is pleasure, may indeed, secure it for a while; but only for awhile. It soon palls upon his senses, disgusts and wearies him. It is easy of proof, that more is really enjoyed, more of mere pleasure is there, among business men, in the brief intervals of business, than among those with whom pleasure may be said to be a profession. Pleasure, in a word, is far sweeter as a recreation than a business. And so of gold. The man who strains all his energies of soul and body to the acquisition of it, never properly enjoys it. He enjoys the activity which the chase imposes upon him; but not the gold itself. He best enjoys gold, because he best knows the uses of it, who is occupied by higher thoughts and aims. It is Gods decree, that gold shining useless in a misers coffers, shall never gladden the one who gathered it. And so also of fame. If pursued for its own sake, the chase is often a bootless one. Selfish ambition almost always betrays itself, and then it provokes men to defeat and humble it. General Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President of the United States, spent forty years of his life in comparatively obscure, but very faithful service, at our Western outposts; receiving no applause from the country at large, and asking for none; intent only upon doing promptly and efficiently the duties laid upon him. By and by events, over which he had exercised no control, called him into notice upon a broader theatre. And then it was discovered how faithful and how true a man he was. The Republic, grateful for such a series of self-denying and important services, snatched him from the camp, and bore him, with loud acclaim, to her proudest place of honour. And this was done at the cost of bitterest disappointment to more than one, whose high claims to this distinction were not denied, but who had been known to be aspiring to the exalted seat. And so through our whole earthly life--in all its spheres, and in all its struggles. To lose is to find; to die is to live. It is so in our religion. We begin by abjuring all; we end by enjoying all. Am I charged with preaching that gain is godliness? Not so, my friend. But godliness is gain. It begins by denouncing and denying all; it ends by restoring all. First it desolates; then it rebuilds. Its mien, in approaching us, is stern and terrible. It blights our pleasures; strips us of our possessions; smites our friends; and lays our vaunted honours in the dust. And then, when all is done, when the desolating work is finished, when our very lives are spent and worried out of us, the scene changes as by a miracle, and all is given us anew. God, we find, is not merely in all; but He includes all, is all. And we learn, assuredly, from our own blessed experience, that no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. Nay, it is of the very essence of our religion to forget and deny ourselves. Two remarks seem to grow naturally out of our subject.

1. We may learn the great mistake committed by men of the world in their chase after worldly good. They make it an end.

2. We may learn why it is the happiness of Christians is so imperfect. (R. D.Hitchcock, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 17:33-37. Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it — The sense of this and the following verses is, Yet, as great as the danger will be, do not seek to save your lives by violating your consciences; if you do, you will surely lose them; whereas, if you should lose them for my sake, you shall be repaid with life everlasting. But the most probable way of preserving them now is to be always ready to give them up: a peculiar providence shall then watch over you, and put a difference between you and other men. Two men shall be in one bed, &c. — See on Mat 24:40-41. The minds of your enemies shall be so overruled by God, that, in cases where two persons are equally in their power, one of them shall be carried off, and the other left to make his escape. And they said, Where, Lord, shall all these things happen? And he said, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered — As eagles find out, and gather round a carcass, so, wherever wicked men are, the judgments of God will pursue them; and particularly in whatever part of the land any number of the unbelieving Jews are, there will the Romans, the executioners of the divine vengeance upon this nation, be gathered together to destroy them. The expression is proverbial, and will appear to have been beautifully applied, when it is remembered, that the Romans bore in their standards the figure of an eagle; and that a certain kind of eagle, called περκνοπτερων, [black winged] mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Ani., Luk 9:32, is found to feed on carcasses. — Macknight.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

SANCTIFICATION AND GLORIFICATION

Luk 17:33. “Whosoever may seek to save his soul shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose it, shall find it.” The E. V. here says “life,” where I have translated “soul.” The Greek is not zoe, “life,” but psyche, the regular word always used for soul. If you will analyze the above translation contrastively with the E. V., you will find it much more harmonious with the uniform teaching of God’s Word. Where James speaks of the “double minded,” the Greek says “double souled,” making the application to the unsanctified Christian — the sinner having one bad soul; the wholly sanctified, one good soul and the unsanctified having the depraved soul with which he was born, but now in a subjugated state, an, also tile good soul imparted in regeneration, but involved in an irrepressible conflict with the old enemy which he found dwelling in the heart. Now, if you see: to save the soul with which you are born into the work after doing your best you will wake up in hell. But: you turn over that fallen soul, which is none other than old Adam, to Adam the Second, and let Him slay him with the sword of the Spirit, then you will find your bright, spotless, immortal soul. in coming eternity, triumphant among the angels and all right. Sanctification must qualify you for the bridehood of Christ and a place in the first resurrection. The Greek zoogoneo, translated “find,” has a wonderful signification, too ample and complex to be translated by any one word. We can only reach it by circumlocution. It is from zoon, “a living animal,” and ginomai, “to bring forth,” and is the word used in reference to the parturition of the animal kingdom; i.e., in which a living being is brought forth into life, liberty, and activity infinitely superior to that of the former state. Here it imparts a wonderful signification to the developments which await the living saints at the coming of the Lord, when both soul and body, though formerly alive, will leap into a sphere of life, liberty, glory, and felicity infinitely superior to the former physical life of the body and spiritual life of the soul which we here enjoy in the sanctified state. The illustration enforced by this word is inconceivably vivid and potent, contrasting the life of the glorified soul and body with that of the present state, as the aerial life of an animal is contrasted with its prenatal existence. So this word really means the glorification of the souls and bodies of the saints living on the earth when the Lord comes, as well as the resurrection of the sleeping generations, into an identical transfiguration glory.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 17:33. Ζητήσῃ, shall have sought) [i.e. by delaying to flee to the Refuge]. See Luk 17:31-32.—ψυχὴν, life) We must understand this of the whole man, as distinguished from the natural or spiritual life, which are respectively determined and defined by whatever is added in the language of the passages where they are intended to be understood.—ζωογονήσει) [shall preserve alive: a word of the LXX.] See note, Act 7:19.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, shall save it, so Matthew expoundeth it: for the life that is here spoken of, is everlasting salvation.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Whosoever, &c.--(See on Luk 9:23-27).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 33. Whosoever shall seek to save his life] These or similar words were spoken on another occasion. See on Mt 10:39; Mt 16:25-26.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(33) Whosoever shall seek to save his life.—The better MSS. give a word which is rendered elsewhere by “purchase” (Act_20:28; 1Ti_3:13), and perhaps always suggests, as the other word for “save” does not suggest, the idea of some transaction of the kind. So here, the man must purchase, as it were, his lower life at the price of the higher, and he will be a loser by the bargain.

Shall preserve it.—Here, again, the English verb is weak. Better, shall give life to it. The same Greek word occurs in the better MSS. of 1Ti_6:13, and is there rendered by “quicken,” and in its passive form in Act_7:49, where it should be translated preserved alive, and this is clearly the meaning here. The man who is content to risk his natural life shall gain a life of a higher spiritual order.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

33. Whosoever shall seek to save his life] See the same utterance, with slight verbal alterations, in Luk_9:24; Joh_12:25. St Paul’s high confidence as to the issue of his own apparently ruined and defeated life, furnishes us with a beautiful comment, 2Ti_4:6-8. For ‘to save’ (sosai) some MSS. read to ‘make his own,’ ‘to purchase’ (peri- poiesasthai).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I tell you, in that night,.... Of affliction and calamity, that shall be upon the Jewish nation, and which is before called that day, Luk 17:31 and therefore is not to be understood literally of the night:

there shall be two men in one bed; this is said agreeably to the time, the night before mentioned, that being the time to be in bed, at rest and asleep; for they that sleep, sleep in the night; and still suggests the security the people of the Jews would be in, at the time of their destruction. The word "men" is not in the text, it is only, "there shall be two in one bed"; and may as well be understood of a man and his wife, since it is not so usual for two men to lie in one bed; and this the rather more strongly expresses the distinguishing providence of God in saving one, and suffering the other to be taken and lost: the words may be rendered, "there shall be two upon one couch": that is, sitting together at supper, which was also in the night season: it was the custom of the ancients to sit upon beds, or couches, at meals; and they had a bed, or couch, which held two persons only, and was called Biclinium (h): and so this likewise intimates, that the destruction of the Jews would be at a time when they were thoughtless of it, and were eating and drinking, as in the days of Noah and of Lot, Luk 17:27.

The one shall be taken; by the Roman soldiers:

and the other shall be left; being, by one providence or another preserved; which is mentioned, to show the distinction God will make in his providence, and to encourage believers to trust in it.

(h) Vid. Alstorph. de Lectis Veter. c. 15. p. 90, 91.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

Ver. 33. {See Trapp on "Mat 16:25"} {See Trapp on "Mat 10:39"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See the notes at Mat 10:39.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

That is, whosoever, in disobedience to my command, shall use arts to preserve his life, shall lose it; and whosoever, at my command, shall be ready to lose it, shall preserve it, or if he loseth his breath, he shall preserve his soul. See Poole on "Mat 10:39", See Poole on "Mat 16:25", See Poole on "Mar 8:35".

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

33. Seek to save his life—By avoiding flight with Christians and taking share with the Jews.

Shall lose it—He will perish with the Jews.

Lose his life—By committing himself to the safe keeping of Christ alone.

Shall preserve it—From the destruction that awaits the Jewish capital.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. Very deep must have been the impression which this saying made upon the early Church. So literally did many interpret it, that the wiser and more thoughtful men in the congregations during the days of persecution had often to prevent persons of both sexes recklessly throwing away their lives in the conflict with the Roman authorities. Very many in the first three centuries positively courted martyrdom.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The sense of this and the following verses is, Yet as great as the danger will be, do not seek to save your life by violating your conscience: if you do, you will surely lose it: whereas if you should lose it for my sake, you shall be paid with life everlasting. But the most probable way of preserving it now, is to be always ready to give it up: a peculiar Providence shall then watch over you, and put a difference between you and other men.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

In this hour, when judgment is come upon Jerusalem, Christ declares, that whosoever shall take any unchristian course to preserve his life, by denying him and his holy religion, he shall lose eternal life; but he that for Christ’s sake shall lose his natural life, instead of a mortal, shall enjoy an immortal life in bliss and glory.

Here we learn,

1. That the love of temporal life is a great temptation to men, to deny Christ and his holy religion, in a day of trial.

2. That the surest way to attain eternal life, is cheerfully to lay down our temporal life, when the glory of Christ, and the honor of religion, requires it of us. Christ farther adds, that in this terrible night of Jerusalem’s calamity, when destruction comes upon her, the providence of God will remarkabley distinguish between one person and another: true believers, and constant professors, shall be delivered, and none else; such shall escape the danger, others shall fall by it.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

33. Whosoever shall seek to save his life. See notes on Matt. 10:39.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

33. ὃς ἐὰν ζητήσῃ κ.τ.λ. See the same utterance, with slight verbal alterations, in Luk 9:24; Joh 12:25. St Paul’s high confidence as to the issue of his own apparently ruined and defeated life, furnishes us with a beautiful comment, 2Ti 4:6-8. For “to save” (σῶσαι) some MSS. read to ‘make his own,’ ‘to purchase’ (περιποιήσασθαι).

ζωογονήσει αὐτήν. ‘Shall bring it to new birth.’ In the N.T. this verb only occurs here and at Act 7:19; 1Ti 6:13(?).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

33.] See on Mat 10:39, and ch. 9:24. In connexion here, it leads the way to vv. 34, 35.

ζητήσῃ should be rendered as a futurus exactus, as an aorist conjoined with a future always must be:—shall have sought, i.e. ‘during his preceding life,’—shall lose it then.

“ζωογονήσει, vivipariet (Act 7:19): an expressive word, derived from animal parturition, bringing forth to air and life what was before concealed in the womb. That day shall come as the pains of labour (ὠδῖνες) on a woman in travail (Mat 24:8): but to the saints of God it shall be the birth of the soul and body to life and glory everlasting. See St. Ignatius ad Rom. c. 6.” Wordsw.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

33. περιποιήσασθαι. “To preserve for himself”: elsewhere “to gain for oneself” (Act 20:28; 1Ti 3:13). The reading σῶσαι (A R) comes from 9:24.

ζωογονήσει. “Shall preserve alive”: Act 7:19; 1Ti 6:13; Exo 1:17; Jdg 8:19; 1Sa 2:6, 1Sa 2:27:9, 1Sa 2:11; 1Sa_1 Kings 21:31. The rendering “shall bring to a new birth” has been rightly abandoned by Godet. In bibl. Grk. it is not used of “bringing forth alive,” “viviparous.” From 9:24; Mat 10:39, Mat 10:16:25; Mar 8:35; Joh 12:25 it appears that this solemn warning was often uttered: for most of these passages refer to different occasions. It is the one important saying which is in all four.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shall preserve [ζωογονησει] . Only here and Act 7:19. Originally to engender; thence to produce alive or endue with life, and so to preserve alive. Wyc., shall quicken it.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.