Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.It's very easy to misread that text. We want to take the content of the first phrase -- "wishes to save his life" -- and feed it into the second -- "loses his life." It's not there. The first is about a "wish" -- your will -- and the second is about an actuality. So intent are we on making that substitution that the KJV actually does. But the "will" in the first phrase doesn't exist in the second.
Jesus warned that dying to self was not an option; it was a mandate. Jesus warned that those who were unwilling to give up self had no place following Him (Luke 9:23-25; Matt 10:37-39). So the question here is 1) intent and 2) action. Jesus said that if your intent was to save your life, you would lose it. He didn't say, then, that if your intent was to lose it, you'd save it. He said that if you actually carry out losing your own life -- death to self -- you will save your life. How do we do that? It's actually simple in its application (although, obviously, difficult to carry out). It is simply "It's not about me." This life is not about me. This marriage, this job, this family, this house, this church, this hobby ... all of this is not about me. It's about Him. Death to self.
John the Baptist famously said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). John understood that "He who comes from heaven is above all" (John 3:31) and, therefore owned all. So John set about ... decreasing self. Are you working for yourself -- your well-being, good standing, prosperity, comfort, fame, power, "stuff" -- or are you losing your life? Are you dying to self? The old hymn said, "I surrender all." Do we do that? Do we lose our lives for Him? The alternative isn't pretty.
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