Chasing After The Wrong Things?

For 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. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? 

      Luke 9:24-25

In today’s passage, Jesus leaves no room for us to believe that we can live our lives on our own terms, for our own desires, ignoring the very truths of His Word yet find spiritual (eternal) life in the end. It’s not that these words are difficult to understand rather it may be that they are just too much for some who are seeking what the worldly, temporal things have to offer. 

Jesus poses a very important question that each of us would do well to answer. What profit is there for a life full of material wealth, worldly success, pleasure, possessions, and power, if a person is void of spiritual life? In the end, all who reject Christ and the gospel will lose and forfeit their own souls. Going back to the verse previous to Jesus’ rhetorical question is the spiritual principle that anyone desiring to hold on to what they have in this life above and beyond following Christ, will, in fact, lose everything, including their own eternity. We all have to make a choice as to which direction we will go. Yes, salvation is by faith in Christ completely apart from works however, a life that has truly been saved is one that now desires to please God. When salvation comes to our hearts, we are radically transformed and the things which we once held in high esteem are now considered as rubbish. Consider the words of Paul:

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ…

            Philippians 3:7-8

A good litmus test for us to determine for whom or what we are living would be this verse. If we can wholeheartedly agree with Paul, then we can probably say that Christ is of greater value to us than anything else. However, if we find ourselves waffling a bit regarding the priorities we have set in our lives, we might want to explore just who or what may be standing in the way of our surrendering our entire lives to Jesus. Notice that Paul considers what he had before Christ (which was quite the religious reputation) a complete loss “for the sake of Christ.” What does he mean, “for the sake of Christ?” Paul knew that serving Jesus meant abandoning his former life, steeped in religious fervor. He had to give up on the accolades that he would receive from mankind and seek the favor of God alone. 

He then takes the surrendering of his life to Christ up a level. “More than that” he says, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” What did Paul value most? He relationship with Jesus Christ. What should we, as believers, value most? Of course, our relationship with Christ. There is simply nothing in this world that even comes close to what we have in Christ. But Jesus tells us that in order to experience the “surpassing value” of our relationship with Him, we must be ready to abandon our own desires for life and yield full control to Him. Paul suffered the loss of all things and even considered them, when compared to knowing Jesus, mere rubbish. And he did this in order to “gain” Christ.

In our world today, there seems to be a self-made doctrine that we can pursue this world and everything that it has to offer while maintaining a saving relationship with Jesus. The Bible would contradict that notion and Jesus tells us the truth very plainly when He says, “For 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.” Are we chasing after all of the wrong things or are we fully committed to living our lives for the purpose of Christ? Our answer could very well dictate the course of this life as well as our eternal destiny!

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

    Matthew 6:24

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 

        1 John 2:15