Scripture Reading: Matt. 16:25; Luke 17:33; John 12:25; Heb. 10:39; 1 Pet. 1:9; Rev. 12:11
Ⅰ
"Whoever wants to save his soul-life shall lose it; but whoever loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it"—Matt. 16:25:
A
To lose our soul-life means to lose the enjoyment of the soul, and to save the soul-life means to have the enjoyment of the soul, to preserve the soul in its enjoyment.
B
When the Lord Jesus lived on earth, He lost His soul-life; that is, He gave up all His soulish enjoyment; He lost the enjoyment of His soul in this age so that He might gain His soul in the coming age.
C
To deny ourselves means to reject the soul's desire, preference, and choice— 16:24.
D
We need to make a choice: lose our soul-life today and gain it in the coming age, or save our soul-life today and lose it in the coming age.
E
In order to have the enjoyment—the joy of the Lord—in the coming age, we need to pay the price in this age by losing our soul-life—25:21, 23:
１
If we save our soul-life in this age, we may be assured that we will lose it when the Lord Jesus comes back.
２
For the Lord's sake, for the gospel's sake, and for His testimony's sake, we need to be willing to lose the enjoyment of our soul in this age—Mark 8:35-38; Rev. 1:9.
F
We need to lose our soulish enjoyment for the sake of the church and for the sake of all the saints—Matt. 16:18; 1 John 3:16:
１
Apart from the losing of the soul-life, the church cannot be built up; the losing of the soul-life is the basic factor in our being built up together— Matt. 16:18.
２
We should lay down our human life for the brothers; the divine life (zoe) within us longs to love others and even to die for them—1 John 3:16.
G
"For the Son of Man is to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will repay each man according to his doings"—Matt. 16:27:
１
For indicates that the Lord's rewarding of His followers at His coming back will be according to whether they lose or save their soul-life.
２
For both the losing of the soul-life and the saving of the soul-life we will be rewarded—Rev. 22:12.
Ⅱ
"Whoever seeks to preserve his soul-life will lose it, and whoever loses it will preserve it alive"—Luke 17:33:
A
Preserving our soul-life is related to lingering in the earthly and material things—v. 31.
B
We linger in the earthly things because we care for our soul's enjoyment in this age:
１
Lot's wife became a pillar of salt because she took a lingering look backward at Sodom, indicating that she loved and treasured the evil world that God was going to judge and utterly destroy—v. 32.
２
Lingering in the worldly and earthly things will cause us to lose our soul; that is, our soul will suffer the loss of its enjoyment in the coming kingdom age.
Ⅲ
"He who loves his soul-life loses it; and he who hates his soul-life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life"—John 12:25:
A
The Lord, as a grain of wheat that fell into the ground, lost His soul-life through death that He might release His eternal life in resurrection to the many grains—v. 24.
B
As the many grains, we also must lose our soul-life through death that we may enjoy eternal life in resurrection.
C
To lose our soul-life through death is to follow the Lord Jesus that we may serve Him and walk with Him on this way, the way of losing our soul-life and living in His resurrection—v. 26.
Ⅳ
"We are not of those who shrink back to ruin but of them who have faith to the gaining of the soul"—Heb. 10:39:
A
The gaining, or saving, of our soul depends on how we deal with our soul in following the Lord after we are saved and regenerated.
B
If we lose our soul now for the Lord's sake, we will save it, and it will be saved, or gained, at the Lord's coming back—Luke 9:24; 1 Pet. 1:9.
C
The gaining of the soul will be the reward of the kingdom to the overcoming followers of the Lord—Heb. 10:35; Matt. 16:22-28.
Ⅴ
"Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls"—1 Pet. 1:9:
A
Our soul will be saved from sufferings into the full enjoyment of the Lord at His revelation, His coming back—v. 7; 3:17; 4:1, 12-16, 19.
B
We must deny our soul, our soulish life, with all its pleasures in this age, that we may gain it in the enjoyment of the Lord in the coming age—Matt. 10:37-39.
C
At the Lord's revelation, some believers will enter into the joy of the Lord, and some will suffer in weeping and gnashing of teeth—25:21, 23; 24:45-46.
D
To enter into the Lord's joy is the salvation of our souls—25:21, 23.
Ⅵ
"They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they loved not their soul-life even unto death"—Rev. 12:11:
A
Because of man's fall, Satan joined himself to man's soul-life—man's self— Matt. 16:23-24.
B
To overcome Satan we must not love our soul-life; rather, we must hate it and deny it—Luke 14:26; 9:23.
C
Not loving our soul-life is the basis for overcoming Satan—Rev. 12:11:
１
Satan is afraid of only one kind of people—those who do not love their soul-life.
２
If we would overcome Satan, we must realize that the basis of victory is the renunciation of our self-love.